An Indian Explorer in North West Yunnan
Exploration of the Jidege Shan
Author's Note: this particular article outlines my exploration of a small mountain range on the second bend of the Jinsha River. Exploring this mountain range was only a small part of the trip. I was especially thrilled to meet the diverse ethnicity of this region and was deeply fascinated by its history that indicates Yunnan's deep rooted connection with ancient India. Given an opportunity I want to write about those experiences in detail. Somewhere, someday.
Introduction
I went to China to do nothing heroic or extremely dangerous. I believe living in a city like Calcutta has been serving that purpose for me already. After some study of the mountain ranges of North West Yunnan and consequent interactions with explorers and climbers who have been working in this region I understood that in spite of the recent Chinese mass tourism to North West Yunnan; many of its secrets are still hidden.
Thankfully, the inherent character of mass tourism, irrespective of countries or even continents; is that it is always centered around a few points on the map. With my own experience of working across the Indian Himalaya it will be safe to comment that this theory applies on trekking and mountaineering as well. Over the last few months with the help of a few friends within India and across the globe I came in touch with a few old hands in Yunnan exploration such as Tamotsu Nakamura, John Town, and Mike Dobie. Nakamura San suggested me the circumnavigation of the Meili Snow Mountains. John Town pointed towards the mountains at the head of Nu Jiang (Salween) and Du Long (Irrawady) rivers on the borders of Yunnan and Tibet. And Mike Dobie suggested me to check out the smaller peaks that are north and east of the Yulong and Haba Snow Mountain massifs. In his email he wrote, “there is a standalone 4500m peak that would actually have quite an adventure to get to” and then after sharing Google Earth co-ordinates he continued, “as far as I know it hasn’t been climbed.” Haba and Yulong Snow Mountains are very close to the extremely touristy city of Li Jiang and after going through many blogs by travellers passing through, one would expect nothing but thousands of Chinese tourists within a 50 mile radius. But thankfully again proving the mass tourism theory right, all of them tend to gather around the old town of Li Jiang and a fraction of that crowd visits the famous ‘Hu Tiao Xia’ or the Tiger Leaping Gorge nearby.
While circumnavigating the Meili Xue Shan or exploring the mountain ranges of Du Long region seemed extremely interesting I had to be realistic while planning. To try and reach any place off the tourist map in this region meant having a private transport and a local guide along with horses or mules to carry essential items for days. I had about US$ 600 as the expedition fund and 2 weeks at my disposal. The area suggested by Mike Dobie seemed to be within 2 days of walk from its east or even south and thus a financially feasible adventure.
By plugging in the coordinates given to me by Mike Dobie, in Google Maps I noticed a small mountain range ( not just a ‘standalone’ peak) stretching more or less north to south . The peak suggested by Mike stood at the very north of this mountain range . I also noted that the Jidege Range is actually part of the watershed ridge located in the middle of the loop created by the second bend of the Jinsha River. While the first great bend of the Jinsha is a popular tourist destination from Li Jiang these days, the second bend somehow remains unnoticed. Further magnification of the Google map image revealed a tiny village located on the western aspects of the southern end of this mountain range. It was marked ‘Jidege’ . I realized that this village can serve as my strategic base.
Approach
The flight from Kolkata to Kunming was short and uneventful. The new airport (Changshui) is at a considerable distance from the main city and took me about an hour to get to my dormitory bed even in the early hours of the day. Later that day, I went to the railway station and bought myself a sleeper ticket in an overnight train to Li Jiang the next day. The railway station was big and impressive. It seemed efficient and clean considering the huge number of passengers it handles every day.At night I was treated to a lovely meal by my friends Eric and Malavika.
The train took me to Li Jiang . Untill the communist takeover in the 1940s the dominant people of the Li Jiang valley were the Naxi ( also spelled Nakhi), one of the 56 'nationalities' officially recongnized by the PRof C. They were an entirely independent people until the thirteenth century. The old town of Li Jiang is a reconstruction after a 1996 earthquake. In 1999, Li Jiang old town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. The mass domestic tourism soon followed. But this ancient Naxi kingdom was essentially brought to knowledge of the West by American botanist Joseph Rock and Russian Peter Goullart only as recent as early twentieth century.
Finding Jidege
I spent three nights in Li Jiang firstly to gather authentic information on my proposed route and then to organize the logistics. During this span of days, my concern was to get an idea as to how to reach Jidege, which, I thought to be far from being a tourist destination. That was a horrible understatement. With the help of the manager (who spoke some English) of the backpacker guest house I was staying, I could make several inquiries over the curious names that I had in my Google Earth print outs. Many of the names of villages or settlements marked on the Google Earth image were either incorrect or unrecognizable . Finally, we could speak to someone in Baoshan who recognized the name Shanggaohan (27°28'17.06"N - 100°17'47.92"E, 10697 ft) and stated that it can be reached by car from the Li Jiang- Lugu lake road. Shanggaohan is a bigger village (as observed in Google Earth) located due south of Jidege and is approximately 130 kilometres drive towards north from Li Jiang. To be able to drive to Shanggaohan in a day meant a big logistic advantage. If we could reach Shanggaohan, we would find a way to reach Jidege, or so we thought.
Reaching Jidege
I managed to hire a local from Li Jiang who agreed to double as my driver and interpreter. The manager of the backpacker hostel I was staying expressed his desire to accompany me. I agreed as I saw no harm in this. On 13 April, 2015 we drove to Shanggaohan village via Ming Yin. The village had an elementary school and upon our arrival we were told to go back immediately. We were warned that we could be attacked at night as some villagers think we could be drug traffickers and strangers are not welcome anyway. We were left with no choice but to backtrack to Ming Yin and spent the night there. Next morning with renewed hope we drove to Shanggaohan again. This time we were lucky to meet a teacher who helped us get in direct contact with a farmer in Jidege village itself. The farmer named Lu agreed to host us in his house and we suddenly felt welcome in this beautiful land. We took our bags and started hiking uphill by an unmetalled road. It took us about 2 hours to walk to Jidege (27°31'18.21"N - 100°17'44.54"E, 11736 ft) from Shanggaohan and Mr.Lu came down to meet us halfway. Jidege is a Yi minority village and very Himalayan in appearance. I was told that I was the first foreigner in their village. A rare reward for a modern day explorer! Thus, for the next two days, Mr. Lu’s abode became my base camp. In the afternoon, I took out my Google maps and had interesting discussions with Mr.Lu and his brother who was also the village headman.
Exploration and Ascents
For the next two days we explored the Jidege Shan. On 15 April, 2015, we hiked up North keeping the main range to our East. After crossing two beautiful meadows we reached a locked u-shaped valley with a series of rocky summits forming its head. We climbed a pass (PASS –I: 27°32'59.08"N - 100°18'19.56"E, 13363 ft) from this valley and a rocky projection (PEAK –I: 27°32'58.70"N - 100°18'14.28"E, 13934 ft) to the immediate south of it. This pass and the adjacent peak is located on a ridge emanating due SW from the main Jidege range and gave me a good opportunity to photograph the mountains of the Jidege Shan. A series of unclimbed peaks were waiting for their first ascents and many of them I am sure will offer excellent rock climbing. I decided to come back the following day to climb at least one peak on the main range further up North and retraced our steps back to Jidege.
Next morning, we crossed Pass-I and reached the small valley to its west. We noticed very old settled moraine like features in this valley. After traversing this valley, we climbed up another pass (PASS II: 27°33'21.81"N - 100°18'33.73"E, 14001 ft). We were now on the main range. This gave us direct access further up north to another col. We were soon on top of this col (PASS-III: 27°33'29.82"N - 100°18'46.93"E, 14290 ft). It was a moderate to steep uphill walk on scree for the last stretch. Reaching Pass-III, we saw the Jidege Shan dropping down north into the deep gorges of the Jinsha. Only one glimpse of the mighty river came into our view to our NE. Rest of the course of the second bend of Jinsha were well hidden from us as the gorge system is simply too deep. The wind was picking up and cirrus clouds quickly gathering to form an ominous grey blanket. I decided to climb the peak on the immediate east of Pass-III. Another half an hour, and we were on top of the rocky summit.
From top of the rock peak (PEAK-II: 27°33'23.23"N -100°18'50.13"E, 14500 ft) our vision opened up 360 degrees. To our south we saw the Yulong Xue Shan and Haba Xue Shan. The missing horizon between Yulong and Haba indicated the obvious depths of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. To our West we saw the mountain ranges of Deqen and Shangri-La near the border of Tibet. To our North and East we saw mountains of Sichuan. We could see roads on the northern slopes of Jidege Shan, winding down to the river, probably to one of the Hydro-Electric stations nearby.
After climbing Peak –II, noticing that we still had a good amount of daylight in hand I decided to go down to another pass like feature located due north of Pass-III. There were patches of snow on scree which we had to descend to reach this Pass. Once there, I could see a faint trail winding down towards the motorable road further down the valley. I decided to stop moving further at this fourth pass (PASS-IV: 27°33'36.19"N - 100°18'57.42"E, 14164 ft) as it was evident that we had reached the northern ends of the Jidege Shan.
A sense of satisfaction engulfed me. I did not reach the exact coordinate point as suggested by Mike Dobie, but I was very close. I tried and in the process I have explored a completely unknown mountain range and made a first ascent of one of its many peaks. I was standing on the mountain range that I once longed to see and explore. The quest that began in a computer screen a few months back was now suddenly over. It was time to head back.
“...at each step I experienced that subtle thrill which anyone of imagination must feel when treading hitherto unexplored country. Each corner held some thrilling secret to be revealed for the trouble of looking.” –Eric Shipton, Nanda Devi, p.131
Note:
• All coordinates are based on Google Map and hence may not be accurate
• We found a forest trail used by locals from Jidege to Pass-III. This trail is used for hunting and collection of Yarshagumba (Caterpillar Fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis, Chinese name: Dōng chóng xià cǎo, meaning ‘winter worm, summer grass’) and other herbs used in Chinese Traditional Medicine. We came across one such group in the pine forests above Jidege
Author's Note: this particular article outlines my exploration of a small mountain range on the second bend of the Jinsha River. Exploring this mountain range was only a small part of the trip. I was especially thrilled to meet the diverse ethnicity of this region and was deeply fascinated by its history that indicates Yunnan's deep rooted connection with ancient India. Given an opportunity I want to write about those experiences in detail. Somewhere, someday.
Introduction
I went to China to do nothing heroic or extremely dangerous. I believe living in a city like Calcutta has been serving that purpose for me already. After some study of the mountain ranges of North West Yunnan and consequent interactions with explorers and climbers who have been working in this region I understood that in spite of the recent Chinese mass tourism to North West Yunnan; many of its secrets are still hidden.
 |
| An old Naxi lady walks the empty streets of Li Jiang Old town |
Thankfully, the inherent character of mass tourism, irrespective of countries or even continents; is that it is always centered around a few points on the map. With my own experience of working across the Indian Himalaya it will be safe to comment that this theory applies on trekking and mountaineering as well. Over the last few months with the help of a few friends within India and across the globe I came in touch with a few old hands in Yunnan exploration such as Tamotsu Nakamura, John Town, and Mike Dobie. Nakamura San suggested me the circumnavigation of the Meili Snow Mountains. John Town pointed towards the mountains at the head of Nu Jiang (Salween) and Du Long (Irrawady) rivers on the borders of Yunnan and Tibet. And Mike Dobie suggested me to check out the smaller peaks that are north and east of the Yulong and Haba Snow Mountain massifs. In his email he wrote, “there is a standalone 4500m peak that would actually have quite an adventure to get to” and then after sharing Google Earth co-ordinates he continued, “as far as I know it hasn’t been climbed.” Haba and Yulong Snow Mountains are very close to the extremely touristy city of Li Jiang and after going through many blogs by travellers passing through, one would expect nothing but thousands of Chinese tourists within a 50 mile radius. But thankfully again proving the mass tourism theory right, all of them tend to gather around the old town of Li Jiang and a fraction of that crowd visits the famous ‘Hu Tiao Xia’ or the Tiger Leaping Gorge nearby.
 |
| Yulong Xue Shan as seen from somewhere between Li Jiang and Ming Yin |
While circumnavigating the Meili Xue Shan or exploring the mountain ranges of Du Long region seemed extremely interesting I had to be realistic while planning. To try and reach any place off the tourist map in this region meant having a private transport and a local guide along with horses or mules to carry essential items for days. I had about US$ 600 as the expedition fund and 2 weeks at my disposal. The area suggested by Mike Dobie seemed to be within 2 days of walk from its east or even south and thus a financially feasible adventure.
By plugging in the coordinates given to me by Mike Dobie, in Google Maps I noticed a small mountain range ( not just a ‘standalone’ peak) stretching more or less north to south . The peak suggested by Mike stood at the very north of this mountain range . I also noted that the Jidege Range is actually part of the watershed ridge located in the middle of the loop created by the second bend of the Jinsha River. While the first great bend of the Jinsha is a popular tourist destination from Li Jiang these days, the second bend somehow remains unnoticed. Further magnification of the Google map image revealed a tiny village located on the western aspects of the southern end of this mountain range. It was marked ‘Jidege’ . I realized that this village can serve as my strategic base.
 |
| The first great bend of Jinsha at Shigu |
Approach
The flight from Kolkata to Kunming was short and uneventful. The new airport (Changshui) is at a considerable distance from the main city and took me about an hour to get to my dormitory bed even in the early hours of the day. Later that day, I went to the railway station and bought myself a sleeper ticket in an overnight train to Li Jiang the next day. The railway station was big and impressive. It seemed efficient and clean considering the huge number of passengers it handles every day.At night I was treated to a lovely meal by my friends Eric and Malavika.
The train took me to Li Jiang . Untill the communist takeover in the 1940s the dominant people of the Li Jiang valley were the Naxi ( also spelled Nakhi), one of the 56 'nationalities' officially recongnized by the PRof C. They were an entirely independent people until the thirteenth century. The old town of Li Jiang is a reconstruction after a 1996 earthquake. In 1999, Li Jiang old town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. The mass domestic tourism soon followed. But this ancient Naxi kingdom was essentially brought to knowledge of the West by American botanist Joseph Rock and Russian Peter Goullart only as recent as early twentieth century.
 |
| Li Jiang old town |
Finding Jidege
I spent three nights in Li Jiang firstly to gather authentic information on my proposed route and then to organize the logistics. During this span of days, my concern was to get an idea as to how to reach Jidege, which, I thought to be far from being a tourist destination. That was a horrible understatement. With the help of the manager (who spoke some English) of the backpacker guest house I was staying, I could make several inquiries over the curious names that I had in my Google Earth print outs. Many of the names of villages or settlements marked on the Google Earth image were either incorrect or unrecognizable . Finally, we could speak to someone in Baoshan who recognized the name Shanggaohan (27°28'17.06"N - 100°17'47.92"E, 10697 ft) and stated that it can be reached by car from the Li Jiang- Lugu lake road. Shanggaohan is a bigger village (as observed in Google Earth) located due south of Jidege and is approximately 130 kilometres drive towards north from Li Jiang. To be able to drive to Shanggaohan in a day meant a big logistic advantage. If we could reach Shanggaohan, we would find a way to reach Jidege, or so we thought.
 |
| The hidden valley of Shanggaohan |
Reaching Jidege
I managed to hire a local from Li Jiang who agreed to double as my driver and interpreter. The manager of the backpacker hostel I was staying expressed his desire to accompany me. I agreed as I saw no harm in this. On 13 April, 2015 we drove to Shanggaohan village via Ming Yin. The village had an elementary school and upon our arrival we were told to go back immediately. We were warned that we could be attacked at night as some villagers think we could be drug traffickers and strangers are not welcome anyway. We were left with no choice but to backtrack to Ming Yin and spent the night there. Next morning with renewed hope we drove to Shanggaohan again. This time we were lucky to meet a teacher who helped us get in direct contact with a farmer in Jidege village itself. The farmer named Lu agreed to host us in his house and we suddenly felt welcome in this beautiful land. We took our bags and started hiking uphill by an unmetalled road. It took us about 2 hours to walk to Jidege (27°31'18.21"N - 100°17'44.54"E, 11736 ft) from Shanggaohan and Mr.Lu came down to meet us halfway. Jidege is a Yi minority village and very Himalayan in appearance. I was told that I was the first foreigner in their village. A rare reward for a modern day explorer! Thus, for the next two days, Mr. Lu’s abode became my base camp. In the afternoon, I took out my Google maps and had interesting discussions with Mr.Lu and his brother who was also the village headman.
 |
| Our route of first ascent on Peak II. Also showing location of Pass II and III |
Exploration and Ascents
For the next two days we explored the Jidege Shan. On 15 April, 2015, we hiked up North keeping the main range to our East. After crossing two beautiful meadows we reached a locked u-shaped valley with a series of rocky summits forming its head. We climbed a pass (PASS –I: 27°32'59.08"N - 100°18'19.56"E, 13363 ft) from this valley and a rocky projection (PEAK –I: 27°32'58.70"N - 100°18'14.28"E, 13934 ft) to the immediate south of it. This pass and the adjacent peak is located on a ridge emanating due SW from the main Jidege range and gave me a good opportunity to photograph the mountains of the Jidege Shan. A series of unclimbed peaks were waiting for their first ascents and many of them I am sure will offer excellent rock climbing. I decided to come back the following day to climb at least one peak on the main range further up North and retraced our steps back to Jidege.
Next morning, we crossed Pass-I and reached the small valley to its west. We noticed very old settled moraine like features in this valley. After traversing this valley, we climbed up another pass (PASS II: 27°33'21.81"N - 100°18'33.73"E, 14001 ft). We were now on the main range. This gave us direct access further up north to another col. We were soon on top of this col (PASS-III: 27°33'29.82"N - 100°18'46.93"E, 14290 ft). It was a moderate to steep uphill walk on scree for the last stretch. Reaching Pass-III, we saw the Jidege Shan dropping down north into the deep gorges of the Jinsha. Only one glimpse of the mighty river came into our view to our NE. Rest of the course of the second bend of Jinsha were well hidden from us as the gorge system is simply too deep. The wind was picking up and cirrus clouds quickly gathering to form an ominous grey blanket. I decided to climb the peak on the immediate east of Pass-III. Another half an hour, and we were on top of the rocky summit.
From top of the rock peak (PEAK-II: 27°33'23.23"N -100°18'50.13"E, 14500 ft) our vision opened up 360 degrees. To our south we saw the Yulong Xue Shan and Haba Xue Shan. The missing horizon between Yulong and Haba indicated the obvious depths of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. To our West we saw the mountain ranges of Deqen and Shangri-La near the border of Tibet. To our North and East we saw mountains of Sichuan. We could see roads on the northern slopes of Jidege Shan, winding down to the river, probably to one of the Hydro-Electric stations nearby.
After climbing Peak –II, noticing that we still had a good amount of daylight in hand I decided to go down to another pass like feature located due north of Pass-III. There were patches of snow on scree which we had to descend to reach this Pass. Once there, I could see a faint trail winding down towards the motorable road further down the valley. I decided to stop moving further at this fourth pass (PASS-IV: 27°33'36.19"N - 100°18'57.42"E, 14164 ft) as it was evident that we had reached the northern ends of the Jidege Shan.
A sense of satisfaction engulfed me. I did not reach the exact coordinate point as suggested by Mike Dobie, but I was very close. I tried and in the process I have explored a completely unknown mountain range and made a first ascent of one of its many peaks. I was standing on the mountain range that I once longed to see and explore. The quest that began in a computer screen a few months back was now suddenly over. It was time to head back.
“...at each step I experienced that subtle thrill which anyone of imagination must feel when treading hitherto unexplored country. Each corner held some thrilling secret to be revealed for the trouble of looking.” –Eric Shipton, Nanda Devi, p.131
Note:
• All coordinates are based on Google Map and hence may not be accurate
• We found a forest trail used by locals from Jidege to Pass-III. This trail is used for hunting and collection of Yarshagumba (Caterpillar Fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis, Chinese name: Dōng chóng xià cǎo, meaning ‘winter worm, summer grass’) and other herbs used in Chinese Traditional Medicine. We came across one such group in the pine forests above Jidege
 |
| At Jidege village, Mr. Lu, interpreter cum driver Li and author |
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