We started in Yuhu Village, at the base of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and climbed through forest up to Wenhai — a highland basin at about 3,000 meters. Cows grazing in the meadow, cold morning air, first signs of autumn. From there we pushed on to Lugu Lake. The color kept shifting as clouds went over — deep blue, then a paler turquoise. Mosuo villages are spread along the shore, wooden boats pulled up on the banks. The Mosuo are matrilineal, which is where the old "Kingdom of Women" tag comes from. After the lake we picked up the Tea Horse Road through Yongning. Zhuangzi Village sits under huge old-growth trees, with magpie nests way up in the canopies. Waxiangluo, not far off, is strung along a ridge above terraced fields. Then the trail climbs to Taizi Pass, and the drop from the top is something else — the Jinsha River is just a thin green line at the bottom of the gorge, a long way down. This is more or less the route Kublai Khan's army took to get to Dali in the 13th century. Passes above 3,500 meters, then a long descent through heavy woodland to Baoshan Stone City — a village literally built on top of one gigantic boulder, with the Yangtze churning past below. We did the whole thing as a mixed international group, crossing through Mosuo, Pumi, and Naxi areas along the way. Snow mountains, lake country, then gorges and cliff-top settlements. It's one of those parts of Yunnan where the landscape and the legends are hard to pull apart — and honestly, after a few days out there, you stop trying.
