The remote village of Yubeng sits in a dramatic location on the side of a valley with a jaw dropping view of the Meilo Snow Mountain Range which forms a natural border with Tibet. One of those peaks is the mighty Kawa Karpo which is 6740m and the highest in Yunnan. Sadly you can now access the village by a 4×4 but on the plus side tour groups can’t do the route so it still has an element of remoteness by Chinese standards. To do it justice however the best way to access Yubeng is by hiking so that was our plan.

Stage one was travelling from Shangri-La to the strange little town of Feilaisi. Our bus terminated about 15km away so we asked our driver where the shared taxis were to Feilaisi. It was all very confusing as no one spoke English but eventually he ushered us to follow a man to a taxi. We asked how much it would cost and he repeatedly waved his hands and said something in Chinese back to us. We had no idea how much they were asking for but luckily one couple spoke English so we ran over and asked them to translate. “Free” they said “you don’t need to pay”. It was bizarre so I asked why and they just repeated that it was free. We were still a little sceptical that once we arrived the driver would ask for an extortionate amount but he didn’t ask for anything. We figured that the only possible reason for this must be because they know we’ll need a shared taxi the following morning to head to the hiking trail so they’ll make money from that but we could be in any drivers car, there was no deal to meet this particular driver anywhere. Very strange but hey, we made it to the cold and drizzly village and walked up the road to a rather nice hotel with underfloor heating.

Dinner in the village was a bit of a shit show with two rather repulsive bowls of noodle soup. The noodles were different to normal and resembled linguini but the soup had a horrible flavour so we were both struggling to eat it and weirdly the noodles just never went down, no matter how much we ate it appeared that the bowl was magically reproducing more noodles.

We didn’t time this trip well with the weather and had four days of rain forecasted which was basically the entirety of our stay as we wanted to hike to Yubeng on day one, then spend two to three days doing day hikes and another day hiking out of the area back to the main road.

Feilaisi offers some great views of the mountains so we walked up a road leading to a viewpoint while it was drizzling with rain to see nothing but clouds. On the plus side the forest was absolutely covered in prayer flags, almost too many according to Craig but I loved it.

The following morning we woke early for breakfast which was included in our room rate. Many of the locals in this area are Tibetans so we were served a Tibetan breakfast consisting of yak butter tea, congee (like a watery rice pudding) bread and boiled eggs. The tea tasted more like stock water than tea, I think it’s the sort of drink you grow to love but I have too sweet a tooth for it. Then it was time to search for a shared taxi to Xidang where the hike starts. Sadly we couldn’t find anyone to share it with so after waiting 30 minutes the driver said he would take us for 100 yuan instead of 150 for the private car. It was a fair price for the hour long journey as we descended the valley, navigating rock slides and sheer-drops along the way.

DAY ONE – Xidang to Upper Yubeng | 9.3km 1000m elevation gain

Xidang sat at 2700m elevation so it was all uphill from then on. There were a few people at the start point but they were all piling into 4x4s while we were the only ones opting to actually hike to Yubeng. To be fair it was pissing with rain all day so not exactly nice conditions for a hike. It was tough too, we had to climb up to the 3702m pass before dropping down into the valley to our final stop. It was relentlessly uphill and towards the pass we began traversing snow, nothing too thick or crazy but enough to make it slippery and sloshy. Eventually we reached the pass which was marked with prayer flags draped across the trees. Weirdly the path continued to go up and there turned out to be a second pass. As the trail started to descend we got our first glimpse of the mountains. It was still drizzly, almost snowing in fact but for a brief moment the clouds lifted enough for us to get a joyful look at the mountains.

Then we plodded downhill towards the village and after almost 6 hours of hiking we arrived at the remote village of Yubeng. It was built on the hillside above the valley so it offered a 180° view of snow capped mountains (when the weather allowed). We were staying in whats known as Upper Yubeng but at the bottom of the valley was Lower Yubeng. Many people who come here like to split their time between the two villages or at least spend their last night in Lower Yubeng however we were happy walking a little further so we could spend longer staying in the upper village where the views were without a doubt much better.

Anyway, we walked through big puddles and past free roaming horses, yaks and cows until we arrived at our guesthouse. It was the cheapest room we could find as it’s all more expensive here but we paid around £23 for a very basic room with ultra thin mattresses and a shared bathroom which was outside. On the plus side there was a communal lounge area with big windows offering an unobstructed view of the landscape. Check in was a shambles though and the hosts really needed to do a course in hospitality because the welcome was shocking. We were soaking wet, exhausted and cold so in an ideal world the hosts would welcome us in, tell us to grab a seat and maybe even offer us a cup of tea. These hosts decided to shove their iPhone in our face while blasting out music for some stupid tiktok style video. It was so inappropriate and I was not in the mood after that hike. They continued to annoy us the entire stay actually, the lounge was clearly their living space too which is fine but they had no consideration for their paying guests who just wanted to sit in silence and enjoy the view, instead they had absurdly loud FaceTime chats with their family and scrolled through videos constantly, no headphones were ever used. It was a shame because we would have liked to extend our stay beyond the 3 nights but they put us off. The view was phenomenal though and we had a roaring fire to sit by and a gorgeous and super friendly Labrador who adored strokes. They also had 4 cats but as usual they were arseholes and couldn’t decide if they liked being stroked or wanted to scratch or bite everyone.

After letting our legs have a rest we headed out to search for dinner and we found a cute Tibetan owned eatery with a huge pigs head hanging from the wall. They made a good fried rice which has proved challenging to find of late so we ended up eating there everyday. It was only on the final day that I noticed him cutting up a processed plastic style sausage into our meal and I looked at Craig in panic, he smirked and said “you know those bits you thought were carrot…they weren’t”. As we stepped out from the eatery the clouds had started to clear a little and we got some glimpses or the peaks and some epic low lying clouds twisting and dancing through the forested slopes.

DAY TWO – Upper Yubeng to Ice Lake | 11.2km, 700m elevation gain

Today is our first day hike so we set off for Ice Lake in rather drizzly conditions with more low lying clouds. The trail started off nice and quiet accept for a guy who clearly wanted to tag along with some hikers and chose us. I really wasn’t in the mood to have a tag along that didn’t even say hello to us but suddenly appeared literally walking on our heels and would stare up at the trees when we looked behind. It was driving me mad actually, I don’t think you should embark on a hike if you’re not comfortable reading a map or navigating so in that case you need to arrange a guide or a group of people and ask if you can join them. For all we knew he could of arrived from a low elevation city, not be acclimatised and have altitude problems on the hike and then he’d be our problem. I was very grateful when we passed a few small groups of people who he could attach himself to and we were on our way up a steep slope. Gradually the noise of people faded until all we could hear were our footsteps crunching in the fresh snow.

Yesterday when we hiked to Yubeng the snow level started at around 3600m however today we hit the snow at 3300m. We were quite surprised to see it so early on in the hike and of course the higher we hiked the more snow there was. Soon we just had two people ahead of us, we could tell because they were the only footprints in the fresh snow. It felt wonderful walking through the snowy forest, the pine trees were all layered with white powder and occasionally big dollops would plummet from the trees. We eventually reached a sacred site which also offered one of the best views of the hike. The area was covered in prayer flags and offered fabulous views of Kawa Karpo.

Ahead of us was an area that looked truly wild, a basin filled with snow-covered pine trees and encircled by dramatic peaks. To reach the lake we had to descend down into the basin and then work our way back up to the lake. We realised that the conditions were still very wintery and there was no chance the lake would of melted, it would still be frozen and covered in snow so by this point we didn’t know if it was worth going the whole way, but we opted to continue down to the ‘pasture’ and then decide. It was a tricky route downhill with stairs covered in ice so we opted to follow some prints through the forest until we reached a sort of crazy slalom track which steeply wound its way down a hill and made us wonder if we’d manage to get back up.

We descended into a winter wonderland, walking through one foot deep footsteps in a snow covered river. We then crossed a bridge absolutely caked in snow and nothing to hold onto so we had to walk very carefully. Soon enough the forest opened up to reveal the pasture which was now a snow blanketed field with some rustic wooden structures. Much to our surprise a Tibetan man wearing a long waistcoat made from a Yak was manning the hut and selling pot noodles or hot tea. He’d sold so many noodles that he opted to stack all the empty pots and make a fence-line with them. I reckon if you called the Guinness world records he’d probably have the longest fence made of pot noodle containers in the world.

We stopped here to eat our lunch and made the executive decision to finish the hike. It was only 1.6km short of the lake but we still had 200 meters elevation gain, add in the challenge of walking through the snow and you’re looking at a minimum of one hour to reach the lake. It didn’t seem worth the effort as we had hoped for nice blue water, not a frozen lake so we made our way back. It was a lovely hike though, minus the uphill parts which I never enjoy but a very unexpected sight to be walking through such a wintery landscape.

DAY THREE – Upper Yubeng to Sacred Waterfall | 12.8km, 600m elevation gain

We started the hike by descending down into Lower Yubeng and we were happy we made the decision to stay in the Upper village as you lose the wide view of the mountains. It was still a cute village though with a lovely temple and a pasture where yaks grazed. The hike was a lot more developed than yesterdays mud track, today we had a paved route the whole way, well, until we reached the snow line. Clouds were wrapped around some of the hills and the sun even made a couple of very brief appearances.

The hike was lovely and peaceful actually compared to Ice Lake. We seemed to time it well and mostly had the whole trail to ourselves which was delightful. There were a few people towards the end that we met coming down, all opting to slide down the snowy track on their bums which in turn flattened all the snow into a slippery sheet of ice, making it treacherous for everyone else using the path.

The route basically led us through a valley to a sort of amphitheatre of mountains encircling us. There were steep peaks with glaciers clinging onto the tops and big avalanche tracks leading down the valley, there’d be no where to hide in this area if a big one came down though. The waterfall was nonexistent on our visit, although I think it’s only a trickle in the season and Tibetans like to walk a few laps around it.

We stopped for lunch at the end of the hike, flattening down the deep snow so we had a place to sit and listening as the rumble of small avalanches happened around us. From this point we were just a couple of kilometres from the border with Tibet, and maybe the closest we’ll ever get to it. On the way back we detoured to the Tibetan meditation cave where there was a red monastery built inside a cave. It was such a fabulous location with the big mountain backdrop. The inside of the monastery was extremely dark, maybe because it was built in a cave or maybe from the amount of candles being burnt inside. We sat and enjoyed the view for a while before continuing our route back to Yubeng, passing a large group of yaks and cows on the way.

There were two other hikes we were interested in doing; one led off from the Ice Lake trail and literally headed to Tibet and across the border, we would obviously stop before the border but when we passed the trail head for this hike it had no entry signs. The other route was up to Sacred Lake, however it’s known as being pretty brutal, climbing 1500m but once again the lake would be frozen and I don’t think my legs had it in them to climb that much.

DAY FOUR – Upper Yubeng to Ninong | 13km 800 elevation loss

For our final morning we were treated to sunshine and the most incredible peachy clouds as the sun rose. It was an amazing sunrise with clouds swooping through the valley and slowly turning peach and pink. As the clouds began to burn off we got our first proper look at the dramatic peaks in all their glory. They literally looked like the spiky mountain featured in paramount pictures. What a wonderful final treat before we left.

Today we wanted to hike a different route out to Ninong. We could see on our map that there were two routes, one on either side of the river. Originally we opted for the left side of the river but when we doubled checked at the final hotel they said we had to go the other way so we reluctantly turned around and took the right path which led down via Lower Yubeng. This route offered a good track but we were low down and lost all those fabulous mountain views which was a shame and annoyingly we spotted people walking the other route so it was definitely possible. We had asked some other people and got mixed reviews about some land slips and didn’t want to find that we couldn’t cross the river at some point so the right route was safer but the left looked much more scenic.

Either way the hike to Ninong led through a deep gorge reminiscent of Tiger Leeping Gorge actually. At the end the blue river from the gorge hit the muddy, brown Mekong River and it’s the first time we’ve seen this river since we were in South East Asia 15 years ago.

From Ninong some men were waiting outside a hotel, ready to offer a ride to either Deqin or Shangri-La. We seemed to be the first people to arrive which meant we needed to wait for others to share the vehicle with. Eventually we spotted two guys walking along the gorge and we managed to share with them to Deqin followed by another shared car that took us to Shangri-La. As we were leaving Deqin the driver headed up a narrow road to collect the final passenger but as we pulled over Craig went to open the door to let the passenger in and suddenly we heard a loud bang and a car had driven down the lane and our door hit their mirror. Ooooh shit. We were expecting a big palaver, inspecting the mirror, the door, exchanging details and demands of money from us. But nothing happened, the guy pushed his mirror back into place and we drove on. Poor Craig was so worried the whole journey back that he’d be asked for money but again nothing happened and we were free to leave and feeling very grateful that they were a chilled bunch.