The Tigers and Dragons of China: Another of Mother Nature's Hidden Secrets

                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!
 
File:Yunnan Terraces.jpg

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