From Dali, the next few days of riding will be characterised by high altitudes, mountain scenery, and small towns until we reach Chengdu at the end of this month.

Today’s route in blue

At some point last night the heavens opened and there was a veritable deluge. It rained all night, and continued on into the morning, through breakfast, and had no sign of stopping - so today was going to be a wet ride.

But before our ride - at breakfast - I was disappointed to find that the barista of the well equipped cafe wasn’t around (and wasn’t going to be around, until…maybe noon?). I’d already packed my bags at this point so I tried my luck in convincing the kitchen aunties to let me brew my own using their gear and beans. My skills of persuasion have obviously improved from when we were disallowed on the highway, because they were fine with it, so I brewed myself a smaller cup and was careful to choose a coffee that wasn’t likely to be some exotic thing the barista had other plans for, and to leave no trace with a thorough clean of everything - I don’t think I’d be too happy if someone took my best beans and brewed it themselves with my kit!

The weather is really turning colder at this point; with wet summer gloves, I could feel the chill. Quite a change from the mid-to-high 30’s in Malaysia and Thailand, although I guess that was closer to the equator, and now we’ve crossed the Tropic of Cancer (as of two days ago). The rain continued for about 2 hours, so we went the highway route at slow speeds (a shame! I think the mountain roads would have been fun in the dry).

At around noon, we reached our destination of Hu Tiao Xia (Tiger Leaping Gorge), and checked in to the hotel. We are the only guests here in what is a tiny village, so there is somewhat of an eerie feel to the place.

So delicious! And so much food

Lunch was had (sour-vegetable fish soup and some side dishes; with the fish farmed on premise!), and then we went to the main attraction, Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Admittedly, I had not done much research into this destination and it was only at the ticket office where I was reading up on the background of this location, when I realised that it was quite a cool natural attraction dressed up as a tourist trail site. Essentially, the story goes that at some point a hunter was chasing a tiger, who escaped by leaping across the narrow point of this (admittedly impressive) gorge.

Narrow point of the gorge

The story was first recorded in the early 20th century, but had been part of the folklore since well before then. Then, this was recorded as an AAAAA (highest tier) domestic tourist site, and facilities like a large observation platform, escalators, etc, were constructed - and the spot turned into a spot on the tourist trail.

Ongoing construction at the observation platform - no harness!

The result of this is that now there is a large stream of buses which ferry hundreds of tourists in and out of an otherwise sparsely populated location, and the ratio of how interesting the place is to how many other people are around, has taken a dive.

Some customised buddhist charms purchased at a store on the observation platform

Recommendation for others who travel here: probably worth spending a few days here to do the hike itself, and mentally prepare yourself for the crowds at the observation deck. Either that, or travel on to Shangri-La and don’t spend the night here.

Aiming to get an early night tonight, so I’ll conclude with some thoughts from a conversation I had with a hairdresser last night while I was getting my cut. She was around the same age (Ox zodiac), and had grown up in North Eastern China, spent 7 years in Guangdong, before moving to Dali to set up her hairdressing studio.

One thing I’ve been quite curious about is how second generation Asian immigrants are perceived by those who had never migrated. The source of my curiosity is, having been born and raised with some mix of Chinese, western, and immigrant values (probably skewed mostly Chinese/immigrant), it has been a bit difficult to place myself in a bucket for which “tribe” i belong to. For some points of my life, I thought that this should be the “Australian” bucket - although I since realised that while Australia is multicultural, if you don’t look like / speak like / think like / act like the group you would like to belong to, you don’t ever feel like “one of them”. I don’t want to co-opt someone else’s interests/values/ideology/etc just to belong! Then I thought I could be in the Chinese bucket - though there is a gulf of differences here too (and I had some suspicions that I also wouldn’t be viewed as “one of them”). This was the point I was trying to test with my conversion with the hairdresser. “How do you view Chinese diaspora from other parts of the world? Are they Chinese in your eyes, or are they foreigners?” “Oh they’re definitely foreigners. You may look Chinese or can speak Chinese, but you haven’t gone through the same upbringing, the education system, or experienced life in China.” This response surprised me - I hadn’t expected such bluntness - although I think it is quite a reasonable representation of the first impression or inclination that many Chinese would have (especially the younger generations). The conversation continued, and she conceded that having a Chinese upbringing and more values alignment would bring one closer - though this is not a novel observation (clearly, if you adopt the norms and customs of the group you seek to belong to, it will be easier to be accepted and viewed as one of the tribe). Where does this leave my thoughts on this topic? I think it reinforces my current position. Being a second generation immigrant of a minority ethnic background presents an unavoidable fact that you will neither be viewed as “one of” either camp. Better to build your own identity, to choose your friends based on common interests, ideologies, and traits, rather than co-opting the tendencies of a collective.

Tomorrow; Shangri-La!

Some stats:

• 214 KMs travelled
• 10.3L fuel added
• 1 unique interaction
• 20g coffee consumed

Route to date