Tiger Leaping Gorge, 虎跳峡

Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡, Hǔtiào Xiá) is a canyon on the Golden Sands River (金沙江, Jīnshā Jiāng) which is itself a primary tributary to the Yangtze river (长江, Cháng Jiāng, literally "long river"), the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world. According to Wikipedia, the gorge is approximately 3790 meters ( 12,434 feet) deep at its deepest point. The name comes from a legend that a tiger once leaped the gorge at its narrowest point (a 25 meter gap).

In contrast to Lijiang itself--which is swarming with Chinese tourists--Tiger Leaping Gorge is populated mostly by native Naxi people and western tourists. The Chinese aren't really into hiking.

Although there are paths down near the river itself, we stayed up on the high trail. It's hard to capture the scale and impressiveness of the gorge in pictures, but here are some attempts.

An early view from the road that begins the ascent.

Looking back on the road we climbed. We started just below that green-roofed building. You can also see a bit of the river.

Much of the land on the west side of the gorge is farmed. Corn is a major crop.

The eastern side, however, is rather sheer and seems primarily forested.

An extremely chalky waterfall.

Although it blends in with the clouds, there's a bit of snow left on those mountains in the distance, beyond the gorge.

There are lots of waterfalls along the path.

Many of them you have to walk across at the base, trying not to get your shoes wet!

Terraced corn fields.

An attempt to capture the scale of the gorge.

Just sitting and watching the water crash through the gorge is rather fascinating!