taking the long way home

beijing – sightseeing

the beijing metro in rush hour is a “impressive” experience! we went to the forbidden city to see the palace museum, the gallery of treasures and the gallery of timepieces…

beijing – sightseeing

40km 109 alti meter

nice ride around town to see the tianánmen square and some hutong called districts. nice little shops, filled with “antik” instruments in one district and all kind of food / non food stores in another one. all what a tourist could want in narrow alleys.

beijing – rest day

we arrived in beijing in the morning and tried to ride to david. (a very nice and well travelled “warmshower-host”) there is a lot to see and do in bejing, so we spent the rest of the day planing the next couple days of sightseeing.

chengdu – beijing

32 hours on the train….

red … travelled on bike

black …. travelled by public transportation (ferry, train, bus)

chengdu – rest day

resting and getting ready for the train ride to beijing. i hope that we get there comfortably, as it took me about 3hours to get the tickets!? at first i had tickets really fast, as i wrote exactly what i wanted and drew pictures, but somehow i ended up with tickets to the right destination but not the beds that i wanted (its a over 30h train ride). back at the ticket office they try to tell me, that if i would like to change the tickets i have to go to the main office at the train station. i tried to explain to them that it was not me who made a mistake and therefore i shouldn´t be the one who has to spend extra time and money into  solving the problem. trying to explain the problem included of course at least 10 people and i ended up going with the lady from the ticket office downtown to the train station and back!? (she had to close her office for that)

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