tiger leaping gorge hike

Hi ,

I'll be trekking the gorge next month. We actually planned to hike all the way till halfway lodge from Qiaotou, stay the night and then hike to Daju to take the bus back to Lijiang. We have some questions, hope you can help us.

1) Is the trek to halfway lodge really that physically straining?

2) We were wondering. like is it possible to finish our hike from Halfway to Daju in a day. (check out early morning).

Thanks so much for your help and advice.