Nujiang and the Mountains

What Southeast Asia knows as the Salween River begins as the Heshui in north-central Tibet, at the foot of Tanggula Mountain near the Qinghai border.Winding south to Naqu, it then turns east to cut through the Tibetan Plateau, bends southeast until just above Yunnan's northwest corner, then plunges directly south through the 316 km-long canyon of Nujiang Prefecture. Continuing south, the Nu river slices through the middle of Baoshan Prefecture and at the border of Lincang makes a sharp turn west and flows into Myanmar, eventually emptying into the sea at Moulmein.

Throughout its journey through Nujiang Prefecture the river keeps a fairly straight course between two high mountain ranges. The hills often rise steeply, boxing the river in between so that its width is generally 100-140 metres. Its flow is somewhat faster than the Lancangjiang's and with its many rapids hardly at all navigable, other than a few short stretches in the north. Its constant turbulence and dangerous current seem to illustrate the literal translation of its name, which in Chinese means "the angry river."

However, this is not necessarily an example of the Chinese propensity to give fanciful names to the phenomena of nature. The name derives from that of the oldest inhabitants of the canyon-the Nu minority na tionality. In their own language they call it numigua. Nu means "swarthy" and migua means "river water."

Innumerable streams tumble into the Nu River throughout the prefecture, the majority from the Gaoligong Mountains to the west. Many drop over steep cliffs just before they flow into the river. The largest waterfall is Yinpi Falls, opposite Zilijia, with a cataract 60 metres wide. But that is atypical for the canyon, for most of the falls are much thinner and higher than Yinpi and one can hardly ride a vehicle for more than ten minutes without spotting one. In addition to the natural falls, others have been created as spillage from irrigation channels cut into the cliffs or hydroelectric projects on the river, making this a canyon of showers.

In forcing its way to the sea the Nu River created a trench between the Biluo Mountains on its east and the Gaoligong Mountains on its west. The watershed of the latter forms the boundary with Myanmar all the way up to Gongshan County. Both ranges have several peaks over 4000 metres high, while the elevation of the river is less than 1000 metres. The mountains block the cold air currents from the northeast and retain the warm air from the Indian Ocean. Consequently, the canyon has several climatic zones and plenty of variety in its flora and fauna. The great diversity of flowering plants and trees inspired botanists like George Forrest and Kingdon Ward to make repeated visits. And in recent years specialists in Chinese herbal medicine have identified over 500 useful plants.

Logging is an important industry in the canyon, for dense forests of larch, pine, Douglas fir, birch and dragon spruce cover vast swaths of the high mountains. Other Nujiang trees with commercial value include tung, varnish, camphor and palm, plus those with edible fruits or flowers, such as peach, pear, walnut and magnolia. In the lower elevation forests banyan, kapok, bamboo and silk-cotton trees are also found. Certain venerable trees, because of their great age, are state-protected, and the range of these, all 200-600 years old, include oak, maple, elm, bald fir, cypress, flowering peach and Chinese hemlock.

The latest count on some animal species is 128 mammals, 284 birds, 25 amphibians, 44 fish and 45 butterflies. No elephant or rhinoceros lives here anymore and perhaps the tiger has died out everywhere but Dulongjiang. But several other large mammals inhabit the montane forests and valley jungles-wild ox, takin, water deer, leopard, black bear and big forehead ox. Big birds include the peacock, stork and three kinds of pheasant-blood, red-bellied and white-bellied. The more colourful smaller mammals are the golden monkey, white eyebrowed gibbon, macaque, red panda, muntjac, otter and flying squirrel.

Historically the canyon has always been viewed as the remotest of the province's frontier zones. Access was only from the south, via the capital Liuku. The party on the Irrawaddi Expedition, and some of the botanists, crossed the Biluoshan, which separates the Nujiang from the Lancangjiang, but on difficult trails. Even today no roads have been cut that follow the explorers' routes. But from Liuku all the way to Gongshan, 243 km north, the road is quite good, well-paved, rarely rises very high above the river, nor loses sight of it.

A road continuing south from Liuku along the river eventually meets the old Baoshan-Tengchong highway. But most traffic enters Liuku from the prefecture's south-eastern corner, 40 km from the capital. Both the road from Lanping and that from Baoshan meet here. Liuku straddles the river at 826 metres altitude, just north of where a stream from the east flows into the river. Just above the confluence sits a small hill, where a large gold-colored Buddha has in recent years been installed on the summit. A modest temple lies a little below and this is the only religious compound in the area.

Liuku has a pleasant location, but it is not particularly attractive. An impressive bridge, 11 m wide and 337 m long, connects the two parts of the city, though the business section is mostly on the eastern side. So is the only city park, Qingshan Gongyuan, in the hills north-east of the city. Pathways climb through the woods to two pavilions, with views upriver that are at least a better sight than the collection of grey concrete boxes that comprises the bulk of the city's buildings.

One block north and four blocks north of the big bridge are suspensio bridges for pedestrians. The nearer bridge leads to the market area and so has a few peddlers at either end selling fruits, herbs, vegetables and crossbows. Those with the colorful shoulder bags with the broad horizontal stripes are Lisu, but that may be the only Lisu costume component they wear. In this county the Lisu arc the same Hua Lisu as in Tengchong and Dehong, but in contrast to their cousins further south they are very assimilated now. But some villages still hold the Sword Ladder Festival.

From Liuku a road climbs into Gaoligongshan 32 km to Lushui and then zigzags through the mountains another 67 km to the border town of Pianma. Lushui is not any more interesting than Liuku, being several blocks of nondescript modern buildings bounded on three sides by the mud-brick houses of Lisu neighbourhoods. Being high up on the slope, though, it does afford a good view of the mountains and Liuku in the distance.

Continuing west on the only paved road in Nujiang in that direction, the road ends at Pianma, high up in the mountains next to the Myanmar boundary. On the other side of the border roads lead to destinations in the highlands of eastern Kachin State. Lisu around Pianma are more traditional than those of Lushui and Liuku and in the markets will be joined by Lisu and Jingpo from both sides. The township is home to the Chashan subgroup of Jingpo, who differ in dress and some cultural aspects from the Jingpo of Dehong, as well as the Lemo branch of the Bai.