Three ridges, writers weren’t riding descent to the Yuan Jiang (Red River). each requiring a bicycles. When I set Eventually I dropped below the clouds and climb of about out on New Year’s got my first views of the valley, which were Cycling to Shangri La 1,200 feet, lay Day to explore more relatively desolate compared with the lush between me and of Banna, I pretty tropical hills of the day before. A long, Menglun, my much had the road to tough climb that afternoon took me up to A Ride Through China’s Yunnan Province destination for the myself, and the bus sta- one of the most unusual places in China. next day. Although tion hotel in Menghai In the center of a mountain-top basin sat it was a tough where I checked in was the tin-mining city of Gejiu, whose high- ride, the scenery nearly empty because rise office and apartment buildings huddled by Bill Weir along the way took no buses were running. tightly together beside a deep blue lake. I in forests of the The next leg of my wandered through this “mini-Manhattan”

RUSSIA Xishuangbanna journey would leave to the 17th-century temple buildings of s I entered the two- I got a large room with air- National Nature the tourists and guide- Baohua Si, then took a cable car to the top mile-long no man’s KAZAKHSTAN conditioning, hot shower, and Reserve, panoramic books behind for a of a high ridge for the views. land between Laos a water cooler. My new friend views, and idyllic week. I hoped to follow On the way to Jianshui, I met a free-spir- A MONGOLIA and China, I knew that big also knew which bank would river scenes. On a series of small roads ited cyclist who identified himself as “John changes lay ahead. China change my traveler’s checks and the way there, I was north and east, roughly from California.” He had bought a bicycle in would not be just another the location of an Internet café. surprised to meet paralleling the border Saigon and ridden up into China with only country, but another world. KOREA When I got hungry, I set out a trio of American of China with Laos and vague plans about where to go. I was aston- Its 1.3 billion people belong to to find a place to eat. Some of cyclists headed the Vietnam. On a foggy ished that he traveled without a guidebook a civilization whose dynastic the fancier hotels had attractive other way. They had flown into Jinghong, morning I headed southeast along a river or map, but he was having a great time. rule goes back 6,000 years. CHINA restaurants, but these served the regional capital, and were headed south valley to Mengxing, then turned north up At Swallows Cave, one of the biggest They are proud of their cul- NEPAL only groups. So I wandered into to Laos and Thailand. a dusty, bumpy road. I followed the twists in China and a major tourist attraction, I ture, and perhaps because of BHUTAN a hole-in-the-wall eatery which On the way to Jinghong, I passed many and turns higher and higher among jungle- not only got a good look at the cave but that, they tend to be more INDIA had a dozen or so trays set out Dai villages of wooden houses on stilts covered limestone hills, occasionally taking enjoyed the full Chinese experience. The Y U N A N introspective than citizens of BANGLADESH PROVINCE with cooked food, long since with an overhanging roof to provide shade. in fine views of the valleys below. Chinese aren’t satisfied unless their caves other countries. This would cooled. I picked out several The Dai, the largest ethnic group in Banna, At one dramatic vista, I stood atop a have entertainment, colored lights, temples, MYANMAR not be an ordinary bicycle ride. LAOS dishes, served with a steam- speak a dialect that’s very similar to that of ridge more than 3,200 feet above the Lixian a snack bar, a gift shop, and a smoking I rolled up to the Chinese VIETNAM ing heap of rice and hot tea. the people in Laos and northern Thailand. Jiang, called the Black River in Vietnam. room. Just inside the spectacular entrance, immigration post, where Everyone eats with chopsticks, Also, like their neighbors, they follow the An even tougher 27-mile through which a woman officer efficiently of course, but my attempts at same Theravadan Buddhist religion. climb up the ridge to the the Lu River checked my visa and pass- China. In fact, the name of the region is a picking up peanuts had limited A speedy descent took me to a graceful town of Yuanyang took emerges, our port, then stamped me in. I cycled past Chinese approximation of the Thai words success, and a sympathetic man gave me a suspension bridge over the Mekong River nearly all day. Tropical tour group the brightly colored storefronts of Mohan for “Twelve Rice-Growing Districts.” The spoon. The bill for din- and into bustling Jinghong. Gleaming glass vegetation gradually gave watched a man — quite a contrast to the weather-beaten smooth highway sloped downhill past vil- ner came to less than a and steel buildings contrasted with the way to low-growing alpine free-climb to shacks of the Lao border town of Boten — lages and farms, the February sun shone dollar. makeshift stalls of sidewalk vendors. I got a shrubs near the summit. the top of the and headed down a verdant valley. Trees brightly, and I enjoyed near perfect tem- The tropical forests hotel room just around the corner from the Thousands of rice terraces 160-foot-high lined the highway, rice fields and vegetable peratures — cycling conditions don’t get of Xishuangbanna jade market, a narrow lane where Chinese sparkled in the sun below; walls. He was gardens filled the valley floor, and rubber much better than this. — “Banna” for short tourists shop for jade jewelry, wooden ele- farmers had filled them demonstrating and tea plantations covered the hillsides. 36 miles later, I reached the small city — contain an astonish- phants, tea, and Thailand T-shirts. Burmese with water but had not the technique Only five percent of Yunnan Province is of Mengla and realized I had a problem. ing number of plant Muslims ran the jade shops and had a café yet begun planting. At the of collecting flat, so farmers here use every bit of land Nearly all the signs had the pictograph-like species, now protected where I could get tasty curry and palantars top, I looked ahead to the swallow nests, they can for cultivation. Chinese characters, and I knew maybe in large forest reserves. (folded pancakes — great for breakfast). north and saw only a sea done at the end I had just entered the half a dozen — basically, I was illiter- Bupan Aerial Skyway Firecrackers rang out in ever greater of clouds. Cold, tired, and of the nest- Xishuangbanna region of south- ate. Using my guidebook, I managed Park lies just 11 miles numbers as Chinese New Year approached. hungry that night, I was ing season in ernmost Yunnan, which lies in to find a hotel but was shocked to find that to the north of Mengla, At midnight on New Year’s Eve, a great grateful when a group of August. The the tropics and culturally the price had doubled. At that point, and I decided to pedal over for a look. Short roar of what sounded like a million fire- men on holiday invited me nests, com- has far more in com- a friendly English-speaking pedicab trails led beneath soaring Chinese parasho- crackers went off and the sky filled with to join them for dinner. posed of swal- mon with Southeast driver appeared and took me around rea trees to a quiet pool and a creek with colorful explosions. I didn’t get much sleep They offered the strang- low saliva and Asia than with the block to a cheaper hotel, which little travertine terraces. The real excite- that night. est-looking foods I’d ever grass, go into I never could ment took place 130 feet above ground on a Guidebooks will tell you that Chinese seen, but even the pink soup and ton- have found on series of narrow walkways suspended from New Year is a terrible time to travel because jelly-like substance tasted pretty good. ics. Tasty? I wondered. my own. For the parashorea trees. It was scary, but I had everything shuts down and hotels are full to Frigid fog still enveloped Yuanyang the Riding past a series of large lakes on about $8.50, great views of the forest. the bursting point. Well, those guidebook next morning, so I bundled up for the long my way north a few days later, I arrived at

18 a d v e n t u r e c y c l i s t m o n t h ? 200 x adventurecycling . o r g Kunming, Yunnan’s nivore. for the two-day ride to another famous capital. On my first Clouds rolled in the next old city, Lijiang. Here the Naxi people had Nuts & Bolts: Yunnan Accommodations are generally ally having the best weather. visit to the city day and temperatures dropped ruled until Kublai Khan’s Yuan Empire welcoming, not too difficult to Yunnan’s far south is lovely in 1982, it was a precipitously, culminating in (1271-1368) took over. Old town Lijiang’s What to bring Because the You’ll also need a map with find, and cheap — I paid from in winter, but it starts getting sleepy provincial a snowstorm — very rare for cobblestone streets, rushing canals, palace, Chinese way of doing things Chinese characters so that you $1.20 to $12 a night. There is very hot in April. Summer sees town. Now shiny this city of perpetual spring. and the friendly Naxi enchanted me. I felt is so different from ours, a can decipher road signs. Buy plenty of tasty food at low the heaviest rains throughout skyscrapers rise When the sun peeked out from another presence too — Jade Dragon Snow guidebook is very handy. Shop one in China or purchase one prices and you can get free the province. downtown and the clouds three Mountain around for one with good from www.bikechina.com. boiled water at almost any You can bicycle into or shoppers head to days later, I hit the (18,360 feet) coverage of Yunnan that has A passport and a Chinese restaurant or hotel. Bottled out of Yunnan from Laos vast emporiums and road — the Burma rose in icy descriptions of out-of-the- visa are required for entry; water is sold in shops. Bicycle or Vietnam. International Wal-Mart super Road, that is — and splendor to way places such as Jianshui; usually you get a 30-day stay, shops in Kunming have parts flights connect Kunming with centers. I strolled headed northwest the north, Lonely Planet’s China’s but 60- or 90-day visas may for Western cycles, and you Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, across the beauti- over the hills to the announcing that Southwest is a fine choice. be available on request. It’s could buy a decent bicycle South Korea, and Japan. If you fully landscaped old city and traveler’s I had reached You’ll also need a Mandarin a good idea not to mention there, but panniers and other prefer to travel with an infor- campus of Kunming hangout of Dali. I the eastern Chinese phrase book to com- bicycles when you apply, and touring accessories may not mative guide, consider going University, admired joined the hordes of Himalayas. I municate. The Nelles Southern definitely don’t mention Tibet. be available. on a cycling tour with Bike the tulip-lined paths Chinese tourists in pedaled over to China map (1:1,500,000 scale) During my two months When to go Yunnan’s climates China Adventures, at www. of nearby Green Lake Park, then walked the walled old town to admire the foot of the provides a good overview of in Yunnan, I camped only range from tropical to arctic, bikechina.com. east a few blocks to the main Buddhist the traditional architecture and mountain and the topography and roads. twice, so a tent isn’t essential. with spring and autumn gener- temple in town, Yuantong Si. A path in peruse the many shops and stopped in the the temple complex led through a series of restaurants. A chairlift swept me village of Baisha. Mountain and discovered that they could as China’s most vital river, but nobody has fields. I decided to investigate and rode over gateways, across a stone bridge to a shrine high up the Cang Shan range for Here Dr. Ho cure even some difficult-to-treat diseases. figured out why it follows the course that to the great river’s First Bend. Here, near hall on a little island, then over another a view of Dali, pagodas, and the called out and Rather than cash in on his success, Dr. Ho it does. The Yangzi, Mekong, and Salween the village of Shigu, I watched the broad stone bridge to the main hall, filled with six deep blue Erhai Hu (lake). invited me into and his family give out the herbal medicines all flow south out of Tibet into Yunnan, river make the sharp turn at the base of a giant statues. After taking it all in, I visited Back on the bicycle, I pedaled down his clinic for a chat and a sample of one of for free, then rely on donations to keep the but the Yangzi swings around nearly 180 very modest hill. The reason for this sharp a nearby upscale vegetarian restaurant; the narrow village lanes to the shore of Erhai his famous tonics. The doctor had gathered business going. degrees back to the north before eventually turn baffled me, too. Had the river contin- crispy duck could have fooled many a car- Hu, then turned north over a high ridge herbs from the slopes of Jade Dragon Snow Everyone knows that the Yangzi ranks finding its way to eastern China’s vast rice ued on its southward course, the history of

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20 a d v e n t u r e c y c l i s t m a y 2008 adventurecycling . o r g a d v e n t u r e c y c l i s t m a y 2008 adventurecycling . o r g 21 China would have been very different. Sunshine filtered through a light snow- I followed the Yangzi from First Bend fall as I slowly rolled up and down the first into the depths of Tiger Leaping Gorge two passes the next day. At the third pass — one of the world’s deepest and most — the actual divide between the Mekong awesome gorges — where the river had and Yangzi drainages — I came upon a Push yourself. cut a slot between two icy peaks, Jade group of Chinese tourists enjoying a snow- Dragon Snow Mountain on the south and ball fight. They seemed surprised to see me Haba Snow Mountain to the north. From traveling alone as the Chinese prefer travel- I fell in love with the way the FPs handled the gorge, I pedaled around Haba Snow ing with friends. I rolled into Deqin, the —such a smooth stiff wheel that it felt like Mountain to Baishuitai, where a boardwalk sort of town where you’re likely to meet a “someone was pushing me the whole ride. led across travertine deposits to pools of couple of yaks at the main crossroads, then –Jason Smith, weekend road racer, Flash-Point rider aquamarine water. Continuing north on took a day off to stuff myself with cakes and the road, I wound ever higher, past herds surf the Internet. of yaks and village fields that had yet to see Clouds and drizzle were my companions When you ride, you push yourself and the limits” of the first greenery of springtime. on the long descent to the Mekong. I pro- your bike. But isn’t it about time your bike pushed When I looked out my guesthouse door ceeded cautiously past sheer cliffs and land- as hard as you did? The all-new FP80 wheels in Jiulong village the next morning, all I slide sites to a bridge over the swift-flowing from Flash-Point provide that push—slicing the air, saw was white. Snow had buried the road river, then turned up a side valley into reducing drag with the same aerodynamic shape and everything else. What to do? I decided Mingyong village. I strolled up the valley found in much more expensive equipment. to cycle and turned my wheels toward through a pretty forest to an observation It’s about time. Zhongdian, a prosperous city set in a broad tower with a view of the rough, tumbling valley at an elevation of 10,500 feet. Patches ice of Mingyong Glacier — an amazing of ice on top of a pass and slushy mud pud- sight so close to the river I associated with dles on the descent slowed me down, but I tropical Southeast Asia. made it and arrived in Shangri La. The next morning the mists had cleared, www.Flash-PointRacing.com Shangri La? How can a mythical place and I gazed at Yunnan’s highest mountain Customer Service: 1-800-230-2387 described in James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost and source of the Mingyong Glacier — the Horizon actually exist? Well, the Chinese majestic Kawa Karpo, 22,113 feet high. compared the descriptions in the book with Riding in shorts for the first time in days, I the terrain of northwestern Yunnan and soaked in the sunshine and views of count- concluded this was it. One possible expla- less snowy peaks as I ascended the long nation is that James Hilton, writing the grade back to Deqin. The sun was out the book in London, had come across National next day too, and I charged all the way up Handle Flats Geographic articles of Joseph Rock’s expedi- and over the triple pass back to Benzilan. A tions in Yunnan and incorporated some of rusty ferry took me across the Yangzi and the geographical features. away from Yunnan. For the next month I One goal remained for me in Yunnan would be in western Sichuan, riding among — I wished to see the Mekong River in the Tibetans across the high mountains and its Himalayan home. Getting there would plateaus. But that’s a story for another time. ■ T-handle provides better leverage take serious huffing and puffing as a triple ■ High volume fills tires quickly ■ Light weight, compact design pass — each over 13,000 feet — lay ■ Integrated dust cap between the Mekong and me. As I started In 1976, Bill Weir got hooked on bicycle touring ■ Aluminum or Carbon fiber climbing past the green fields and orchards while riding on the Bikecentennial Trans-America ■ Twist-lock head of Benzilan toward the triple pass, the Trail. His Yunnan adventure took place in February ■ Presta and Shrader valves day looked sunny and promising. Then and March 2005 as part of a four-month ride that cold rain and swirling mists moved in. began in Bangkok, Thailand, and ended in Chengdu, Pavement became rough cobblestones. By China. You can read about the whole trip at www. late afternoon I knew there was no chance arizonahandbook.com/Thai_China.htm. In 2008, he of getting over the passes before dark, so returned to Yunnan — story and photos at www. I stopped at an abandoned road-workers’ crazyguyonabike.com/doc/AsiaAgain. Regular readers Simply the best hut and pitched my little tent inside. About of Adventure Cyclist should note that Willie Weir The passionate goal of our development team: A touring tire that two feet of snow lay on the ground outside, and Bill Weir are, in fact, two entirely different cyclists can do everything. The result: MARATHON SUPREME. Extremely light (460 g/37-622). Astounding grip on wet roads (new Magic and I was grateful not to have to camp in it. who share the same name and the same love of seeing the Compound). Maximum High Density puncture protection. The best The sky cleared, revealing the pass and the world on two wheels. of the Marathon series. www.schwalbetires.com snowy peaks all around for the first time. G1462_08TPK_MtRckt_ac.indd 1 3/19/08 12:56:59 PM 22 a d v e n t u r e c y c l i s t m a y 2008 adventurecycling . o r g a d v e n t u r e c y c l i s t m a y 2008 adventurecycling . o r g 23