"Why did the butterfly go to the counter? He wanted some butter." -Brian

Well it's been a while since the last update but needless to say we've been busy. We've spent the last couple days at Tiger Leaping Gorge. It was the 3 of the top 5 days we've had in China thus far. I'll recount the trip to the best of my ability. We left Lijiang around 10 am on sunday and took a mini bus 2 hrs through the mountains. The bus seated 6 plus the driver so we were crammed in with our luggage but the trip was fun. We wound through the mountains dodging the cars in the opposite lane while we played The Bends (Radiohead) through the speakers (nathan purchased a copy here for something like 15 yuans). We arrived at one end of the gorge and at lunch and left a lot of our things (for a small fee) at Jane's Guest House. To be quite honest, Jane's true gender was in great debate over the course of Sunday. Most of us agreed that she was in fact a he, dressing and acting like a woman. So we headed out from Jane's and headed up the trail. The trip was a lot more than we expected in many ways. 1) It was far more beautiful than we expected. 2) It was far more difficult than we expected. I will touch on the latter first. The first day involved us climbing something like 1000 m (this is me guessing at this point). To make the trip more difficult at the top of the mountain we climbed we came to realize that we were something like 12,000 feet above sea level (different maps were saying different things, different websites have said different things so we're just putting it together as best as we can). It was difficult to catch your breath at points. The beginning of the trail was highlighted by heavy rain and lightning (thunder which fantastically echoed through the gorge) and a section called "The 28 Bends." When we reached the top we looked across the river to the other side and gazed at humongous snow capped mountains. It wasn't like anything we have on the east coast and I don't know if there's anything (that I've seen) on the west coast that stand as tall. We descended down the other side and spent the night at a place called Tea-Horse Trade Guest House. Layne got sick on Sunday night (he suspects something Jane(Jon) cooked at lunch). The next day Graham, Brian, Nathan and I decided to hike down to the road and then we made our way down to the river that carved the gorge. To the river we're guessing we climbed 800 m. This is another example of where words can't do the image justice. The gorge is monstrous in size. You would look down at the water and believe yourself to be almost there and then be astounded at how much further you had left to descend. In all it took us about 4 or so hours on Monday. Tuesday (today) Layne was feeling better but not up for finishing the hike so he and Katie descended down to the road to catch a cab where they would meet us back at Jane's (Jon's). The rest of us hiked on to the end of the gorge which ended up taking between 3.5 and 4 hrs. It was another amazing day of hiking. We passed through huge waterfalls, breezed by goats feeding on the side of cliffs, all the while with the gorge to our right. We caught a mini bus from Tina's back to Jane's (Jon's) where we met up with Katie and Layne. The ride back to Lijiang was fun as Jane (Jon) offered us 2 buses for the price of one because she had too many drivers at her house and they needed to go back. So we split up (Brian and Nathan with me) and we headed back Lijiang. It was a great trip. We got the same driver with whom we had driven up. I rode shotgun and we played Beatles and then a little Dylan (which he seemed to enjoy). We picked up a woman with fruit along the way and we suspect it to have been his wife. She gave us plums, which we peeled before we ate. We're back in Lijiang now at a Youth Hostel. We have our overnight bus tickets from here to Kunming for Thursday night. We arrive in Kunming Friday at 4:30 am so as you're gettin off work think of us as we're getting up the next day after an 8 hour drive. Saturday morning we're flying from Kunming to Shanghai. Then back to the U.S.A. And oh yes, Layne is doing better now and is pretty much back at 100% as it appears to have been a combination of quick altitude change and perhaps something Jane (Jon) cooked him.