I arrived in Kunming at 2:15 in the morning on the 9th of February and shuffled like a zombie to a taxi at the arrival gate. I told the taxi driver to take me to the hostel, which my friend Rob was staying, called Cloudland Youth Hostel. I met my new friend and travel buddy Rob in Beijing in our intensive language program at Beijing Educational Institute four weeks ago and we became fast friends. He goes to Washington and Lee University, but is actually from Leeds, England. We talked about hiking and seeing rural China during our time in Beijing, but did not know how to go about planning such a trip. With the help of another friend who had been to southern China before, we started making plans for the trip a week before classes ended.
My original plan was to visit Xi’an and Chengdu, but I quickly changed them when I saw how beautiful the Yunan province looked. Neither of us had hiked before, but we did not think it would be too difficult. Hiking was not my main concern. I was worried about the travel and lodging arrangements along the way. Plans can only go so far in China and at some point “winging it” is the best option. Especially during the Spring Festival when traffic is unpredictable. One day there will be no one on the road and the next you are in bumper to bumper traffic. The same goes for buying bus and train tickets. There is no way of knowing if a car will be empty or you will have to wake up at 3 am to go buy a ticket from the station. We both had ideas of places we wanted to visit in the Yunan province, but decided “winging it” would be our best option. We would just let the vacation take us along - “sui bian” Chinese for “Go with the flow.”
I arrived at the hostel at 3 am and went to my room. Eight other people, including Rob, were already fast asleep and I crawled into my bunk bed. In 4 hours I would be waking up for the first leg of our journey: climbing the famous Dragon Gate and getting on a night bus to Li Jiang.
The day started early at 7 am and we grabbed a quick breakfast of rice porridge before we took a bus to Dragon Gate. Dragon Gate is outside the city of Kunming and overlooks the city from 2,000 meters up. The mountain is a climber’s paradise because it has limestone rocks arranged in pillar formations that make scaling fun. Being the twenty-two year olds that we are, Rob and I decided that we would make it to the top. The journey started with a two hour hike. We refused to take the normal paths and found goat paths getting us lost and stumbling on to an Air Force base. Luckily the security was relaxed and I actually made friends with some of the guards who spotted us and told us to leave (see picture). They were impressed that I knew all of their ranks in Chinese and could talk about the military. When they asked how I knew that I told them, “Everyone in America studies the Chinese military! We all know this.” They looked shocked and terrified until I told them I was joking, and that I had an interest in foreign militaries so I had studied it before. They looked relieved when they found out I was joking and we said good-bye as they pointed us in the right direction.
We continued on to the Dragon Gate until the path ended and the climbing began. Before we started the climb, we grabbed a delicious snack at a local stand. The stand sold ice cold pineapple halves and sugar cane that was cooled by a stream running through the mountain. We thought these treats would be refreshing at the top so we bought a few pineapples and sugar canes for the climb. We did not have any gear, but for this type of climbing it was not needed. In fact, the weather was so nice that we did it in shorts and tennis shoes. After about two and a half hours of climbing we reached the top and took shots from the highest peaks (see picture). From the summit we enjoyed our sugar canes and refueled for the hike back down (see picture). The thing about sugar cane is that you have to eat it like corn on the cob, but spit out the wood. You do not actually eat it but instead suck the sugar from the center after you peel back the bark. It is delicious and good energy. Climbing back down we went to the actual Dragon’s Gate, which is a part of the mountain that is eroded by the weather. The erosion formed what appears to be a giant cave that allows you to gaze out at Kunming (see picture). We also sat on the edge of the gate and leaned over the water (see picture). The day ended with a slow hike down the mountain.
After the hike Rob and I grabbed a quick dinner and caught our bus at 8 pm. The trip to Lijiang is 11 hours so we booked a sleeper bus. The best thing about this type of travel is that you can pass out and wake up in a different city without wasting any time. Night travel in China is definitely the way to go! The arrangements are not too bad either (see picture), although the beds are a little short (even for me). The next morning we would wake up in Lijiang heading further towards the Tibetan border and Tiger Leaping Gorge. The plan for tomorrow would be to explore the ancient city of Lijiang and get to Jane’s Guesthouse at the entrance of the gorge.
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Jordan J. Foley
傅力波
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