"Gaoliang" Gaoliang by mke1963

77km from Luoping, the big Nanpan river is crossed. This big, brown river looks sinister as the steep craggy banks of mud and shale show that the water level can rise and fall at least 20 metres - perhaps it is dammed lower down. There are no boats here and the silty, sluggish water looks hostile somehow. The road continues south into wilder uplands, with few villages. Gaoliang sits a few kilometres up the valley from the river. It is curious that a significant village is located here, with so few houses down at the river.
Gaoliang is spread out over a number of kilometres, and is just soaked in white-grey dust from the road construction.

South of Gaoliang, the scenery becomes alpine again, and we are up on the ridge tops, snaking our way through every point of the compass every few minutes.
There has been substantial deforestation in this area, but also an attempt to reforest the middle slopes. However, the original forests are being replaced with plantation conifers.
The valleys are very deep and the road manages to hug the tops of them for much of the way south of Gaoliang. This seems definitely Miao/Hmong country.

North of Gaoliang is Wuluohe, and south is Qiubei and Puzhehei.