丽江观音峡

This guide to Guanyin Gorge outside Lijiang traces a narrow river pass that traders once drove mule trains of tea and salt through, on the ancient tea horse road into Tibet. It follows the Naxi chieftain Mu Wangye, said to have built a courtyard right at the chokepoint to guard and tax everyone who passed, and considers how the same tight walls that made the gorge easy to defend now shape the rides threading through it. You'll pass the old Tea Horse Street, rebuilt with the metalwork and carpentry of that trade, before reaching the water below.