I apologize for being away so long as I dealt with personal issues. On the
bright side, while I was away, another lovely Christmas season came and went.
Whether you celebrate it or not, I hope you had a very good month of December.
Under my particular Christmas tree I found many very nice things, and in
particular there was one very interesting looking package. It contained a most
extraordinary gift. It was an encyclopedia of all the countries of the world.
There are maps, colored photos, and facts about populations, languages, sites
to see and everything else under the sun that you could possibly want to know
about this big old world of ours. There are lists of man-made and natural
wonders, and Mother Nature’s best divided by categories: Rivers, lakes,
mountain ranges, valleys, and so on. Clearly I have much to explore.
But I was amazed. You know, I’ve been to school
and studied geography. I’ve read many books, seen plenty of documentaries and,
generally, been around for a little while. I thought I pretty well knew the
basics. Yet I flipped through this book and was inundated left and right with
places and things I had no idea existed before. Even entire countries! Anyone
ever hear of Eritrea? (Probably only me. Apparently it's a country in Africa. So one of my goals for 2015 should be to become geography smarter?)
It was fun to flip through the index and read
some of these new names, but some places required closer examination. After
all, when a place has a curious and tantalizing name like “Leaping Tiger
Gorge”, how can you not turn to the listed page to find out more?
That interesting name, apparently, comes from
an old legend about a tiger who, to escape hunters, leaped over the narrowest
part of the gorge. There’s a rock, there, said to be the one the tiger launched
himself from, that you can visit and pay a fee to stand on. However, even that
part of the gorge is too wide for any modern tiger to leap across.
Nevertheless, it creates quite the imagery.
This gorge is described as one of the most
beautiful hikes in the world. It’s located in Southwestern China and runs right
between the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Don’t the Chinese people have the most
wonderful names for their places?) and the Haba Snow Mountain. It’s one of the
deepest river gorges in the world at 12434 feet (3790 meters), and it’s said to be just beautiful. As it’s
largely unnavigable, it’s also largely unsettled, untouristy (if I may make up
a word) and undisturbed. A winding, sapphire colored river winds, rushes and
smashes between 6,600 foot (2000 meter) cliffs, and lush bamboo greenery is
allowed to grow undisturbed and to its very greenest best. Waterfalls trickle
down rocky faces, and little villages sit in the heart of it all. There are
caves, there, too, and if you’re lucky enough, you may get to see the cave
drawings.
There are two roads. The High Road is shorter, but the Low Road provides a
better view of the gorge and is, at least, partially paved. Although there is
the occasional hiker, now and then, most of the feet that tread these two paths
belong to the Naxi people, a group of Chinese people who live in the little
hamlets there. And they seem to be contented with their quiet lives in the
valley exactly as they are.
Let’s hope they’re allowed to continue with those lives.
Recently, some consternation arose as local officials began plans to
construct a hydroelectric dam in the gorge. This would have involved making all
the Naxi move to a colder climate, nearly stopping the river altogether, and
permanently altering the gorge altogether. It still makes me shake my head that
every time we find one of Mother Nature’s artworks, like this gorge, the first
thing we seem to want to do is stomp on it.
Thankfully this project has been abandoned. Let’s hope it stays that way.
It’s amazing to think how many other incredible places there are on this
earth, and how many of them we remain completely unaware of.
I suspect you’ll be hearing a lot more from my fascinating little book!
Happy and safe new year!
Photo By: Peter Morgan from Beijing, China
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