Both trails converge in the middle of the Gorge at its major village of He Tao Yuan, Walnut Garden, a scatter of low houses of rough stone and weatherworn timbers, above the snarling river. is heart of the Tiger Leaping Gorge.
This is where I, Margo, and my husband, Sean (Xia Shan Quan), live with his three daughters: Daisy, Rosey and Lucy. I once went hiking in the Gorge, stayed at Sean's guesthouse, and stayed and stayed. Sean is a local man of Tibetan origin. He opened his home and his heart to the first rare and intrepid travellers to venture this way in the 1983s.
The original stone house is now the kitchen and bathroom of a simple but comfortable guesthouse among the mountains. It was Sean who first painted trail-markers of yellow arrows. Talking with visitors and studying, when and wherever he could, he taught himself English.
Sean in front of our guesthouse (Photo - Sean's spring)