Cycling to Shangri La

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.

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