We drove to a restaurant that was close to Tiger Leaping Gorge for lunch and there met up with our new guide. Her name was Marching (not pronounced like it is spelled). She was a nice young girl that was eager to please but her English was hard to understand and very limited. Where are my ZUFE English Majors when you need them? First stop was the Tiger Leaping Gorge. After a very curvy and narrow road we got to the spot that overlooked the gorge. The 15 km long gorge, which is believed to be the deepest gorge in the world, is between Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Haba Snow Mountain. Supposedly it got its name because a tiger would leap on the big rock in the middle to get from one mountain to the other over the rapids.
Marching said we could go down the many steps to the bottom and she would wait for us at the top. We figured that was a big hint to stay at the top. She did point out that you could take a chair coming up. We pictured in our minds ‘chair lifts’ like you see at ski resorts. Nope, they were big calved young guys that actually put you in one of the old fashion chairs and CARRIED you up. So we declined that possible humiliation and stayed on top to take our pictures from there.
