Lugu Lake is located in northwest part of Yunnan province, it covers 58 square kms, the water is very clear. The unique matriarchal Mosuo people live by the lake, which earned this area another name: the Mysterious Queendom.
The Stone town is located about 110 km north of Lijiang in Yunnan province. It comprises of more than one hundred families on the top of a gigantic rock. This town was built in the late 13th century (Yuan Dynasty). In the Naxi tongue, it is called "La Bai Lu Pan Wu". La Bai was the first local Naxi leader, who lives here. Lu Pan Wu means white stone village. This town has such a long history due to it's unique geographic location. Below this stone town and towards the eastern side, lies the Golden Sand River. The other three sides are steep cliffs. The top of the cliff becomes a guarding post for the town.In this town, you may feel amazed at the sight of many household equipments which are made of stone. In most of the houses, their household items e.g. table, bed, water tank, fire stove are all carved out of big stones. You may wonder where do they do their farming of crops. They do their planting just below this uniquely perched village.
Tiger Leaping Gorge, tucked between the Yulong Snow Mountain and the Haba Mountains, offers one of the most attractive trekking in Southwest China. A thunderous roar of the gushing river welcomes you as you approach the 16-kilometer gorge, which runs along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
During this trekking route, you will not only visit impressive natural sites mentioned above but will reach the rarely visited villages which still maintain a slash and burn farming lifestyle. The richer villagers live in wooden huts with tiled roof, while the poorer ones in bamboo huts with thatched roofs. This trip also offers you a unique opportunity into the tropical part of Yunnan, highlighting the delights of country life of the ethnic minorities.
(B=breakfast, L=lunch, D=dinner)
DAY 1 ARRIVE AT CHENGDU (D)
Your guide will meet the group at the airport and, after collecting the luggage, will transfer the group by private vehicle to a hotel.
Upon arrival at the hotel and after darkness has fallen, you will be free to wander around the local market and through the street bars area known as Jinli, purchase local delicacies for yourselves and enjoy the pace of life with local people.
Stay in Chengdu Hotel.
DAY 2 CHENGDU – LIJIANG (by air, BLD)
In the morning, you will go to the Chengdu Research Centre of Panda Breeding to have a real chance to interact with the world-famous panda. Today, we will enjoy a local Hot Pot for lunch, and visit Wenshu Temple in the afternoon, where you can spend some time relaxing in its tea house to enjoy a cup of tea and to absorb the special atmosphere of Chengdu. In the evening, transfer to the airport at Lijiang, Yunnan province. The driver will meet you at Lijiang airport and transfer you to your hotel.
Stay in a 4 star courtyard guesthouse in the old town.
DAY 3 LIJIANG HIGHLIGHT (BLD)
After breakfast, private guide and driver pick up from the hotel, drive to the Yak Meadow of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. Take chairlift (roundtrip) ride up with superb views over the mountains and valleys, enjoy the mountain show of Lijiang Impression.
On the way back to Lijiang, visit Naxi village Baisha, housing 558 mural paintings on 12 walls that date back to the Ming Dynasty from 1385. Buddhism, Taoism and Lamaism manifest in integration in styles of the Han Chinese, the Tibetan, the Bai and the Naxi people on the murals, a proof of exchange on politics, economy, culture and religion between the mainland and the frontiers of China.
If the time permitted, we will also visit the Pond of the black dragons. The entire park is green with grass and shaded by swaying willow trees.
The evening we will walk around the beautiful old town of Lijiang on our own. Lijiang is located at an altitude of almost 8,000 feet and a UN World Heritage Site. The old part of the town has wonderful old cobbled streets, meandering streams and views that will take us back to hundred of year ago.
Stay in a 4 star courtyard guesthouse in the old town.
DAY 4 LIJIANG – WENHAI – LIJIANG (4-5hrs hiking with 2hrs bus driving, BLD)
Today is left free for you to wonder around Lijiang Old Town on your own to feel the time, the ethnic culture and shopping for some souvenir for your family and friends.
OPTIONAL TOUR: In the morning, we drive 25 kilometers to Wenhai village, a beautiful and quiet Naxi minority's village. Visit around the village to experience the quiet life. Trek around 4-5 hours to Lashi Lake. This lake is situated 8 km west of Lijiang City with an area of about 9 square kilometers. The hike today will prepare you for the adventure ahead and take you out into the nature unbelievably quiet compare to the crowds of Lijiang. In the Naxi language, Lashi means "New Basin". This beautiful lake is not only a scenic spot but also a provincial nature reserve because of the rich biodiversity of life forms found here. Rich in cultural and biological diversity, the Lashi Lake watershed is home to two minority ethnic groups, the Naxi and the Yi, and provides another critical habitat for the endangered black-necked crane, the only alpine crane in the world. An optional cycling tour around part of the lake could be arranged. Drive back to LiJiang for the dinner.
Stay in a 4 star courtyard guesthouse in the old town.
DAY 5 LIJIANG – LUGU LAKE BY BUS (driving 7-8hrs, 280km, BLD)
Altitude: 2690m
After breakfast, you will leave Lijiang and drive to Lugu Lake. It is a long drive for about 7-8 hrs. To avoid long time on the van, you will have some stop on the way. There is a part of the road have a very beautiful view of the Yulong Snow mountain from the other side where the normal tourists will never see at all. Also, you could stop from time to time to have a short visit of some small villages. Upon arrival, visit a typical Mosuo family and have dinner with them.
P.S: Today, we will totally drive about 280km on twisty mountain roads, and some section (around 20km) of today's road is quite bumpy.
Stay in a nice guesthouse with private washroom.
DAY 6 LUGU LAKE – YONGNING – ZHUANGZI (6-7hrs hiking with 45-minute bus driving, BLD)
Altitude: 3620m; Up 900m, Down 670m
This morning we will drive by car from Lugu lake to Yongning（altitude: 2800m.）. Meet up with our Cook, stablemen and horses who will escort us till Baoshan Stone Town. It is a 7-hs walk through the Yi, Pumi and Naxi villages in the forest. One can feel the spiritual atmosphere in those villages. You will climb over the mountain pass (about 3620 m) and then arrive to the Yi nationality's area. Standing on the top of mountain, you will have the great view of Yongning basin and Golden Sand River Valley. Yi is the largest population of the minority nationalities in Yunnan. Picnic Lunch on the way.
Stay in guest house in Zhuangzi with public shower and toilet.
DAY 7 ZHUANGZI – LABO –FENGLIAN (6-7 hrs hiking with 25 minutes driving, BLD)
Altitude: 3050m; Up200m, Down1350m
Today you trek for approximately 7 hrs to Labo via Gewa(2650m) and passing through beautiful Pumi and Moso villages named Diluo and Bajiahe. Sometimes you have to stop for a short time while local farmers drive their cattle across the road. In the forest full of pine and oak trees, sometimes you will heard the sounds of horse bell and horseman's before they come into your sight. At the end of the hike, we will drive about 25 minutes from Labo to Fenglian village.
P.S.: As a bridge has been constructed over the River at this section, the ferry across the River stop to work at the end of 2013).
Stay in the Naxi village guest house with public toilet.
DAY 8 FENGLIAN – LIUQING (6-7 hours hiking time, BLD)
Up750m/Down150m/the highest point during the day is 2420m
Today it is an 18 km (7 hours trek) and begin to discover the Naxi's country. They build houses with wood. Stay in Naxi village guest house at the bank of Yangtze River. It is a wonderful walk through the pine tree forest; a long but pleasant trip and you will see all kinds of wild flowers as gentian and azalea etc. Today's hike is not very difficult most of the time the Jinsha River is on our leftside.
Stay in the local village guest house with public toilet.
DAY 9 LIUQING – BAOSHAN (STONE VILLAGE) (6-7 hrs hiking time, BLD)
Altitude: 2490m, Up620m, Down800m
Today you across another mountain pass-Taizhi Pass with an altitude of 2490m. A strenuous day! With beautiful forests, village, valley view along the way.
The last part of the hiking is not easy, you will descend the steep and narrow trail from 2490m to 1788m. But you will find it is rewarding with a fantastic view of Baoshan Stone Town setting on a huge stone along the bank of the Yangtse River!
Stay in the local guest house with public toilet and shower.
DAY 10 BAOSHAN (STONE VILLAGE) - DAJU (6-7H Hiking time/3.5 hrs by bus, BLD)
Altitude: 2350m, Up600m, Down100m
This morning is left free, you might relax in the lovely wooden guesthouse with beautiful view of the mountain and river, or you might join our guide wondering around the stunning and beautiful town. There are two gates for this village, this is one of main gate of the stone village, which lies on the big rock, there are only 108 families inside of gate. Following the development, there isn't any space for more family, so most of families moved to outside of the gate. At the gate, there are many old people relaxing there, the old women wear black headband and talk in very traditional Naxi language, usually we can't understand their pure Naxi language, but they can understand me! Around the Stone village, there are a lot of terrace fields with good crops, under the fields, it is the Yangt-Ze River which is around Lijiang about 615km.You may feel amazed at the sight of many household equipments which were made of stone. In most of the houses, their household items e.g. table, bed, water tank, fire stove are all carved out of big stones. After lunch, we will say good-bye to the stablemen and their horses who escorted us for 5days. There will be stablemen and their horses for the next 2 days` soft trekking. Drive 115 km about 3.5 hours by minibus from Baoshan to Daju.
P.S: the itinerary today is a bit different from the original one in the purpose to give the group more relaxing time and explore the beautiful stone town itself.
Stay in the local village guest house with public toilet and shower.
DAY 11 DAJU – TIGER LEAPING GORGE (6 hrs hiking time, BLD)
Altitude: 2385m, Up700m, Down300m
Your big luggage will be transferred by the van to the end of the hike point next day. You only take necessity of one-night needs in a small bag for the following two-day's hiking. The rest two-day's hiking have guesthouse or tea house along the way, we may take rest in or have lunch there. The guest house we will stay tonight is simple but comfortable, with toilet and show in the room.
After breakfast, we will walk from our guest house down to the ferry to across the River. The Yangtze River, still in its infancy here, passes through the Gorge with cliffs of almost 4,000 metres on both sides. After hiking up from the River up onto the motor way, we will take a short drive by local van passing Valnut village to a small trail. The narrow trail will take us down to the narrowest part of the Tiger Leaping Gorge, where we will standing at the bottom of cliffs on both side and hearing the roaring of the River sunning in the deep valley . We will pass Tina's guest house and continue hike up to Half Way Guest House for the overnight.
Stay in the local guest house with private toilet.
DAY 12 TIGER LEAPING GORGE – ZHONGIDAN (5hrs Hiking time/2hr by bus, BLD)
Altitude: 2600, Up300m, Down820m
Continuation the trekking to Qiaotou from Half Way about 5 hours along the Tea and Horse House in the Gorge , passing through 28-Zig-zag , cool and interesting . Opposite, Yulong (Jade Dragon) Mountain appearing in your eyes always, looks like a Chinese painting. One can't help sigh how marvelous the nature is. Transfer from Qiaotou of Gorge to Zhongdian about 2 hours.
Stay in a nice boutique hotel in Zhongdian.
DAY 13 ZHONGDIAN - CHENGDU (BLD)
Today we'll spend our day doing sightseeing around the Old Town of Zhongdian-Shangri-la with an altitude of 3400m.This area is rich with Tibetan-style architecture and dates back 1300 years! We'll eat breakfast and visit Songzanlin Monestary, 5km north of the old town center. The Songzanlin Monestary (constructed in 1679) is the largest Tibetan Monestary in Yunnan and is nicknamed the "Lesser Potala" due to its resemblance to the magnificent structure in Lhasa. We'll visit for 2 hours until lunch at a local restaurant.
After lunch we'll drive to a small hill to visit Napa Lake about 6km away. The Napa Lake Nature Reserve is the country's largest grassland and most scene area of the plateau. We'll have time to walk around, enjoy the Tibetan culture and take lots of photographs before get back to Old Town for some souvenir shopping.
Take evening flight to Chengdu.
4 star hotel in Chengdu.
DAY 14 CHENGDU - HOME(B)
After breakfast, transfer to the airport for flight back to France. End of the tour.
Necessities
Enough films and batteries, Sun-cream with the protection index of 40-60, sunglasses with a sun protection factor of 15, the lip creams and balms with SPF rating, towel, toothpaste, electric torch, Snack foods.
Cloth that you bring must be warm enough and can be removed easy enough according to the weather, including Jacket, hat, Cotton underwear, Socks, Long-sleeve Shirts, T-shirts and Pants (Shorts are not appropriate at any time while hiking), comfortable shoes, rain gear (long rain coat is better).
Medicine
In addition to the normal medications for traveling, just like the Aspirin and medicine for diarrhea, siriasis，sunstroke and carsickness.
Currency to use
US$ is acceptable only in a very limited range, e.g. tips. However, for convenience, Chinese currency is the best choice. If you want to change US$ to Chinese currency in the tour, you can change it in the Hotel you stay or in the Bank of China. You could draw cash only from Bank of China in the big city, the ATM there doesn't always work properly and the bank is not easy to find. Please bring some cash at hand to use.
Food and drink
a) Eating is an important part of your China experience. Generally breakfasts are included in the itinerary and offered by hotels. China Highlights recommends local Chinese restaurants that are popular with local people for lunch. You can order dishes with the help of your guide. We usually leave dinner for your own choice — Western food can be found in most large cities.
b) We have tried to arrange various food in different cities. But you may still think the food is simple and not as delicious as in the big cities especially while trekking in the mountains and villages. If you have any priority of the food (eg. If you are vegetarian or you are allergic to MSG, peanut oil, fish and peanut, etc) please inform us early, we will try to alternate the food accordingly. At the same time please prepare some of your favorite snacks and substitution food in case of need.
c) Meals in the home stays will be different from the cities but clean, which leave you a good chance to experience the ethnic minority culture. We will pack a breakfast for you of cold cereal, milk, toast, fruit, and jam for the home stay.
d) It is very important to drink a lot of water and eat enough fruit in your tour especially while trekking in the mountains and villages. You are advised not to drink tap water.
Accommodation
Hotels in China are bound by Government laws which mean that air conditioning is switched on nationally in May and the central heating in November (this may vary slightly depending on the region).
In some remote areas, sometimes shower maybe not available in the home stay. A married couple is not allowed to share a room in the Miao's home-stay due to the local customs.
Tipping
It is customary to tip service providers in the travel industry in Asia, depending on the service. Tipping is expected — though not compulsory — and shows an expression of satisfaction with the people who have assisted you on your tour. Recommendations for tipping drivers (3 USD per person per day as a guideline) and local guides (8 USD per person per day as a guideline) would depend on the quality and length of the service.
Vehicles
We use comfortable sedans or vans with air-conditioning. The comfort and safety of our customers is of utmost importance, so we ensure that all of the vehicles we use are well maintained and always very clean. Our drivers take pride in their vehicles.
Tourist insurance
It is a must before going, please provide us the confirmation of insurance company when sign up.
Customs
In some provinces with many minorities (like Guizhou, Guangxi, Tibet, Xinjiang and etc.), the customs and habits of local people are different from place to place. The local guide will inform you what should care. Respect the local customs and religions. The people are very kind and hospitable. You can feel free to talk with them. But there are some rulers you should go by!
a. Do not photo them without getting the permit, please show the respect to them!
b. Don't talk the sensitive topics like the political and the religion matters!
Conditions
When you sign up for the trekking tour, you acknowledge that there are risks involved in trekking in high altitude and confirm that you are fully aware of and accept these risks. It is customer's responsibility to determine whether the tour he/she choose is suited to his/her physical condition. Customers are responsible for the cost of any medicines or medical care they may require during the trip for any reason. Please make sure you have adequate personal medical insurance to meet any medical emergency which might arise. In some cases, if you need medical care during the tour, you may be required to pay for it at the time it is rendered and seek reimbursement from your insurer after you return home. Please check with your medical insurer for details. In the event of a medical emergency, we will make every effort to assist you in obtaining necessary care. Also, please tell us in writing if you suffer from any allergies or other physical conditions which might affect you during the tour (if you hasn't tell us in writing before going, you are supposed to be healthy enough to take the tour). Finally, please check with your doctor to find out what inoculation may be recommended for the areas you will be visiting. It is your responsibility to obtain all necessary inoculations. We reserve the right to decline to accept any person as a member of the tour, or to decline to retain any person, if such person's physical condition, mental well-being or behavior interferes with the operation of the tour. There will be no refund in such cases.
Always take good care of your belongings.
