Back in the autumn of 2002, Liang, an expert on the team preparing the area's application for inclusion on the list, received two experts from UNESCO who were sent to investigate the region.
2002年秋，三江并流申遗专家组成员梁永宁接待了两位前来考察的联合国教科文组织专家。
Two decades ago, the area was one of the most impoverished in China. It was blocked by unscalable mountains and rushing rivers. Roads were carved into escarpments and some bridges were merely cables which people used to get across roaring torrents together with their animals. "We thought it would take one month to complete the expedition because we needed to cross the three rivers, as well as the divides and watersheds in between, to see all of them. At that time there was no highway connecting the rivers," he says.
二十年前，这个区域曾是中国最贫困的地区之一。高耸的大山和汹涌的河水将它与世隔绝。人们在悬崖峭壁上凿开道路。桥梁有时仅是一条钢索，人们和动物一起滑索过河，身下河水激流咆哮。“我们当时想，这次考察得一个月才能完成，要跨越三条大河以及它们之间的分水岭，才能看全整个区域。那个时候三江之间也没通高速，”他说。
However , no matter how big the sites are, UNESCO allows, at most, two-week investigations. With the help of local people, they planned an east-west route that started from the Jinsha River and ended west of the Gaoligong Mountains located on the west bank of the Nujiang River. "We tried everything. If there was a highway, we took off-road vehicles. If there was no highway, we rode horses, and if even horses couldn't go on, we went on foot," he says.
然而，无论遗产地面积多大，联合国教科文组织允许的考察时间最多为两周。在当地人的帮助下，他们规划了一条东西向的路线，从金沙江出发，最终抵达怒江西岸的高黎贡山西部。“我们尽可能利用一切方式。有公路时使用越野车，没有公路时骑马，而连马都无法通行时，我们就徒步前进，”梁教授说。
It was a hard expedition. In the area, a world of sierras, stand 118 glaciated peaks of more than 5,000 meters above sea level. The highest is Kawagebo Peak (6,740 meters) in Dechen county of Dechen Tibet autonomous prefecture, in the Lancang River Grand Canyon. This protected area is inhabited by the endangered Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys.
考察艰苦异常。三江并流境内，巨齿状的山脉连绵不绝，共有118座海拔超5000米的雪山。最高峰卡瓦格博峰，高达6740米，位于德钦藏族自治州的德钦县内，地处澜沧江大峡谷。澜沧江大峡谷是濒危物种滇金丝猴的栖息地。
Liang remembers how the weather kept changing when they climbed over the Biluo Snow Mountains located in the Lancang-Nujiang divide. Biluo's snowcapped range extends 142 km with 15 glaciated peaks measuring over 4,000 meters above sea level. The 4,500-meter-high Laowo Mountain stands out as the most beautiful. Elevation drops 3,200 meters before reaching the Lancang River. "At some points, we very cautiously rode horses along narrow roads on the cliffs. Actually, when we prepared for the expedition, several people were injured while trying the dangerous roads," he says.
梁永宁记得，当他们翻越澜沧江与怒江之间的碧罗雪山时，天气变化无常。碧罗雪山的雪峰绵延142公里，海拔超过4000米的冰川峰多达15座。其中最壮美的一座是老窝雪山，高4500米。碧罗雪山与澜沧江之间的高度落差达3200米。 “在一些段落，我们骑着马，就在悬崖边走，很小心。实际上，我们准备考察路线的时候，这条路太险，有好几个人都受了伤，”他说。
The expedition lasted 12 days. When the experts departed, one of them, Canadian Jim Thorsell, gifted Liang a book. It was a copy of an excerpt from The Mystery Rivers of Tibet by British botanist and explorer Francis Kingdon-Ward, who traveled across the three parallel rivers and the watersheds in 1913 to collect plant species for British horticulture businesses and scientific research.
专家组共考察了12日。在回程之际，加拿大专家吉姆·桑瑟尔送给梁教授一本书做礼物。书是英国植物学家、探险家弗朗西斯·金敦--沃德所作《神秘的滇藏河流》的一部分。1913年，沃德穿越并流的三江及其分水岭，为英国的园艺市场和科研采集植物。
Liang found their route overlapped in many respects with the one Ward traveled nearly 90 years prior. "Thorsell read the book and told me the natural conditions of the area had not changed much over the years," Liang says. Ward devoted the whole fifth chapter to the sacred mountain of Kawagebo. It was also a waypoint on the UNESCO expedition.
梁教授发现他们的考察路线在很多地方都与90年前沃德的路线重合。“桑瑟尔读了这本书，告诉我这么多年过去了，这里的自然环境没有太多变化，”梁教授说。《神秘的滇藏河流》第五章全部用来讲述神山卡瓦博格峰。这也是此次联合国教科文组织的一个考察点。
