Into Tiger Leaping Gorge - a beautiful tragedy in the making

Alright, hopefully this is the beginning of a much needed and lengthy blog update. This is the first part of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Tiger Leaping Gorge is the largest gorge in the world, and it runs along the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. It is enormous and beautiful, and we had 3 perfect weather days to enjoy it. It was the best our guide had ever seen for such a thing. It got its name from a tiger, pinned by farmers who were hunting it, managed to leap across a series of rocks to escape. This section comes on the third day of trekking.

As for my referring to this gorge as a tragedy - China intends to dam up the gorge. Blasting has commenced and construction may begin as soon as 2008. A number of groups have tried to slow the process, but the Chinese hardly seem to realize it is occurring. At least 2 entire towns will be washed away. That is the homes of 100 to 500 thousand people (and that is probably conservative). So if you are looking for a holiday, now could be the time to do this. And for that matter, the Intrepid Active Asia tour is outstanding start to finish. It is like travelling in New Zealand or hiking in Glacier. At least with this weather, it is postcard shot beauty everywhere you look. There will be several posts on this place.