chengdu rest day
as i was riding until 23.30 last night i felt like relaxing and taking care of journal, blogs, pictures . while alex went to see the pandas. in the afternoon we washed the bikes and had some good chats with kate&nic (http://pedaleast.wordpress.com) and michael (http://bikevisions.ch.vu)
things we didn´t eat!
chengdu mao xian (bus) chengdu (bike)
170km 638 alti meter
a long day on the road! it started a little difficult, as there was no direct bus to mao xian, so we had to change to a mini-van-taxi in wenchan. we picked up our bikes and alex took the bus back to chengdu while i cycled. at first 42km more of the construction dusty road, then against the wind on paved road. the earthquake 2 years ago must have been disastrous. it seems that the mountain collapsed and covered / washed away the old road / villages . over several km. at some points they left pieces of evidence as memorial / ruins while building a new highway on the other side of the river. a couple of new tunnels lead the road downstream and turns somehow into a freeway with long dark tunnels. after a 3,7km and a couple of 2km long tunnels i got a ride with a police car to the next freeway exit, where i could continue riding.
chengdu rest day
the checking for route alternatives took so much time, that we were to late for the bus back to mao xian, so we had a relaxing evening.
mao xian chengdu
on the 3,5h bus ride we could learn again something about chinese mentality. people seem to be only focused on the 5m ahead of them. they don´t care what is left or right of them, or what might be 20m ahead. so if the traffic slows down or stops because of a construction or something else, they start honking the horn and passing until everything stands still with 4 rows of vehicles blocking every direction.
songpan mao xian
33km on bike / 110km in a pick up
what a day off unexpected changes!? we thought about taking the bus to chengdu, but the only bus there this day didn´t have any seats available (and he wouldn´t have taken the bikes). so we started cycling on the bumpy/dusty road. it started to rain, which had the advantage that it got a little less dusty. the next thing which turned out to have a major impact on the route happened when we were just about to have a snack. a dog bit alex in the hand. not really bad, but enough to need treatment and not being able to continue cycling that day. so we got a pick up / mini van which brought us to mao xian, from which we thought the road will be paved and we can continue as planed.
songpan rest day
time again to renew our visa and update the blog
same country different procedures
instead of 3-5 days the visa extension took only 1h here!?
nianduoba songpan
70km 229 alti meter
what a change from the highland to the alpine like river valley with amazing smells of flowers and pine forests. the icy cold northern wind, which gave us some morning frost is gone and we face the warm breeze from the southern valley. the last stretch to songpan from chuanzhusi is still a rough / dusty construction road. the people in town tell us that it is like this since the earthquake 2 years ago.
zoige nianduoba
90km 611 alti meter
more highland / marshland on which some nomad people live with their yaks.
the chinese viagra
naihai zoige
130km 728 alti meter
more nice grass / highlands and the lahmo monastery in langmusi.
water driven praying drum
daohe river naihai
80km 767 alti meter
some thunder & lightning in the night and a cold day on the road. the people are very friendly and curious up here. the traditional coats they wear are huge with very long sleeves. so they wrap them almost twice around themselves and somehow try to keep the long sleeves from the ground.
some rough parts on concrete road
a dog caught one of the thousands marmots
6 chinese cyclists going the other way
indoor camping, not much shelter from the cold but at least dry
ci ge ga ama daohe river
53km 203 alti meter
again a very nice riding day on this highlands with lots of yaks, marmots, sheep, goats, horses, birds the place was so nice that we camped very early on a nice spot at the river.
xiahe ci ge ga ama
56km 668 alti meter
as the weather is still cold but sunnier then yesterday we take one more look at the labrang monastery and the village before continuing our route south, up to the very quiet grasslands.
15km< xiahe xiahe
16km 151 alti meter
again a cold rainy night in the tent. we ride into the village and check out the chinese, the muslim and the tibetan district with the labrang monastry.
horzang xinggo – 15km< xiahe
59km 673 alti meter
it rained hard all night and morning so we started late. the friendliness of the people around here is amazing as we see lots of smiling faces all day (although not all of them like to have pictures taken of them) while we cycle upstreams towards the big mountains.
15km> linxia horzang xinggo
55km 429 alti meter
my speedometer doesn´t work proper anymore, so i couldn´t take a picture of the 30.000 km of this trip. the day started with some maintenances (new brake pads and some wheel tuning) before the downhill to town.
yongjing – 15km< linxia
67,9km 1347 alti meter
nice ride in this amazing landscape with farming terraces and a majority of muslim hui people.
lanzhou yongjing
82,35km 886 alti meter
in the morning the bikes arrived at the train station. we left the not very friendly city following the river and then we headed into the mountains.
jiayuguan lanzhou
before taking the train to the capital of the gansu province, we check out where the great wall takes its way east we arrived late in lanzhou and on top of that were the bikes not on the same train!?
the staff from the train sells all kinds of gadgets and games
which keeps everyone busy for a while
jiayuguan the end of the great wall
on the way to the end of the great wall museum we passed a big muslim mosque and a buddhist temple. interesting to see that the different religions seem not to have any conflicts existing so close together. the fortress and the river mark the end of the great wall. beyond that starts the desert where the caravans of the silk road exchanged goods with the west.
chengdu jiayuguan
to survive 33h on a train we booked the so called soft sleeper (4 beds in one small room) and it turned out to be quiet a smooth and enjoyable ride.
our home for almost 2 days.
big snow capped mountains in the background
sunrise
chengdu rest day
we checked out a couple of the outdoor stores in the area of the hostel and bought train tickets to jiayuguan. chengdu seems to be a big stoppover for tibet tourists. in our hostel stayed a couple chinese chengdu-lhasa-cyclists (we would have liked to take that route, but that seems for individual travelling not chinese people at the moment not possible!?)
meishan chengdu
125,85km 212 alti meter
arriving in the big city after a fast smooth ride, although the road is not in a very good condition at times. nice to meet one of our chinese cycling friends again. he and his friend took us on a shopping tour around town and later to a good dinner place.
baoguo meishan
87,25km 342 alti meter
tourist sights are not always easy to find! it took us about 1h to finally find the cliffs of the thousand buddhas. (which is a nice walk along the river and ends at the paper / printing museum.
emei mountain (golden summit) – baoguo
1,5 hour hike down from 3060m to 2420m
the clouds were as thick as yesterday although we thought it might be clear after the rainstorm all night. back at the village baoguo with tourist restaurants, street lights and decorated side walk trees.
emei mountain (wannian monestry) – emei mountain (golden summit)
8h hike about 2200 alti meter
thousands of steps into the thick rain clouds. we hoped for clear weather and a nice sunrise and camped at the mountain top @ 3060 meters.
analog laptop
leshan baoguo emei mountain (wannian monestry)
40km 212 alti meter biking, 2h hike 550 alti meter
we leave the bikes at the teddy bear hotel in baoguo after a short ride from leshan. it turned out to be a good idea to use the late afternoon to start the hike up the emei mountain, as it was less crowded. after a couple hundred steps we camped and we get to set up my new tent for the first time (so far we used alex´s huge mobile home)
emeishan´s artifical elephant city
sanjiang leshan
33,66km 177 alti meter
after a short ride visiting the giant buddha and the park around it. we meet some other tourists, take lots of pictures and get asked for pictures .
zigong sanjiang
105km 500 alti meter
we left the mixture of hot, humid and polluted air of the city and passed rice fields again. after a climb we saw some family run businesses how made use of every bit of the bamboo trees.
zhaotong zigong
about 400km / 6 hours train ride
it took 2 hours to get tickets for us and the bikes and they checked all our bags twice (i stopped them when they tried it the third time!?) interesting spicy fondue dinner and then a taste of bejing opera in the hotel, as a group of friends of the bejing opera gave us a probe of the traditional singing, dancing and music.
alex and her la marseillaise adaption
10km > xiushui zhaotong
80,79km 950 alti meter
we changed from the guizhou province to the yunnan province which has a large muslim hui community. the train station of zhatong is about 10km out of town (the airport seems nearer)!? so we ended up on the night train to zigong with the help of our new friend. some students around here are very ambitious to improve their english, so they come up to us to offer help (or just to ask for a picture with us).
