18th May 2014         15-26’C         280km Hanyuan – Ya’an – Emei After the lead car made an ’emergency’ stop to buy cherries, which left me exposed in the middle of the road, I overtook the guide car and rode ahead on my own for the rest of the day, letting them catchup to me in Emei in the late afternoon.  By that time I’d been sitting outside a tea-house for more than an hour, drinking tea and trying to talk to the…

17th May 2014      32’C       400km Miyi – Hanyuan Today’s ride from Miyi to Hanyuan was the usual mix of both excellent and poor Chinese roads.  I’ve come to the conclusion that when the Chinese build a road they do it absolutely perfectly, but when they don’t, it is the compete opposite.  Fortunately most of today was spent on perfectly built roads.  Unfortunately, driving skill of most drivers is atrocious.  I was overtaken, and forced off the road by a cop in a police…

16th May 2014    238km    40’C Yongsheng – Panzhihua – Miyi (Sichuan Province) What a difference a day and a few hundred kilometres makes.  I left Yongsheng at 9am and it was 21’C, by 1130, the temperature was pushing 40’C. Today I began to see a completely different side of China, that of the industrial giant. The road connecting Yunnan to Sichuan is a classic government stuff-up.  I had wrongly assumed these sorts of things did not occur in China. The inter-provincial road was the worst road I’ve ridden…

15th May 2014       285km      4’C-34’C Shangri-La – Yongsheng It was a crisp 4’C on leaving Shangri-La this morning. I put on an extra layer along with winter gloves, and was thankful for the luxury of heated handgrips.  The only thing I wished I had was warmer socks, as my toes were cold until after lunchtime. Riding along the plateau through the villages with Tibetan houses made for a brilliant morning.  I very much like the solid style of the homes, the simple design…

14th May 2014         0km       2′-11’C I woke up in Shangri-la to a very cold morning, the coldest I’ve experienced so far on this journey. Today was a rest day, so after breakfast we went to explore a Tibetan village a few kilometres away.  After walking through the monastery, we were invited into a local home, which was a special experience.  The house was 20 years old and built from local timber.  The animals residing on the ground floor and the upper…

Tiger Leaping Gorge – Baishuitai – Shangri La 13th May 2014      174km        11′-30’C The day started, as has been a recurring theme, with my kicking the bike off the stand, to find that the rear tyre was flat, again.  This despite repairing it the night before.  As a process of elimination, the only component that I had not changed was the valve, so I quickly swapped the valve for a new one, inflated the tyre as was on the way again. Fifteen minutes later,…

Lijiang – Tiger Leaping Gorge 12th May 2014       16-31’C        100km Another quick, hot noodle breakfast with chilli pork and it was time to leave the hotel.  Riding up the driveway, I had that sinking feeling that I might have a flat tyre as the bike wobbled more than it should.   200M later at the first traffic light, I looked down and found the rear looking softer than usual.  I rode on for a kilometer before it was too flat to ride. …

Jingdong – Dali (Yunnan) 10th May 2014             215km          19-26’C Today’s ride from Jingdong to Dali took us through rural villages and up mountains, climbing to 2500M at the highest point.  It started out as a dreary rainy day, but by 11am the sky had cleared to blue and it was perfect for riding at around 21’C. I stopped to remove my raingear, and amused a few ladies by the side of the road, who were trying to sell…

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11th May 2014      220km       12-26’C After a breakfast of soup and dumplings, the day started with a ride through hundreds of rice paddies, filled with people working, planting, ploughing. A short stop by Erhai Lake, the second largest freshwater lake in Yunnan and 7th largest in China and a rest in a small village where the local women were dressed in traditional clothing, not for show, but their regular attire, while out working, shopping, washing. The road climbed to 2600M and afforded magnificent…