A Dam Shame

More trekking. This time at “Tiger Leaping Gorge”, the world’s deepest river gorge, spanning the mighty Yangtze in the Yunnan Province of South West China. Named after a tiger was seen leaping across the stepping-stones at the turn of the century, these days the gorge is far too wide for any tiger to jump (even if there were any left in this part of the world) as a result of four separate earthquakes, which have driven the gorge apart.

And what a joy it was. We followed the upper path that winds through the forest and around the cliff - only safely accessible when the weather is good due to the high risk of landslides, a problem which isn't helped by the serious deforestation in a country that consumes about 25 million trees every year simply to make chopsticks.



This was the path of the ancient tea traders carrying tea between India and China and the pack mules are still in evidence, although these days they carry not tea but tourists up the notoriously steep ’24 Bends’. The whole walk normally takes about two days (very fit hikers can do it in a day), but we weren’t about to rush. Our legs were still recovering from Emei Shan, for one thing, and to take in the spectacular scenery and make the most of the top quality hostels en route, it’s best to go slow.

Despite the high risk of earthquakes, the Chinese government is planning to dam the gorge in 2008, flooding the entire area and ruining this beautiful place, not to mention the homes and livelihoods of thousands of locals. Officials say it’s the only solution to China’s serious water shortage: providing for over a billion residents is no easy task, as witnessed by dry water taps in many of the toilets, restaurants and hostels we’ve visited over the past few weeks.



As we picked our way down a somewhat slippery path to the rapids on our third and last day, we could hear the boom of the initial blasting (we thought it was thunder for a while) echoing over and over between the enormous cliffs on either side. It was unbelievable to think that Tiger Leaping Gorge might not even exist by the end of next year.