Roads circulation in Sichuan?

[Brice]

1) Is it possible to circulate freely on some roads from Chengdu to QingHai or Gansu?

2) What is the status in west Sichuan along Tibet border?

3) What is the status in south west Sichuan along Yunnan border?

Thanks

[CrazyCarl]

1) Right now, no. To get out of Chengdu towards those areas you'd likely use roads that were severely earth quake damaged and still not cleared. Over 300 new lakes have been formed in the area due to land-slides. If you went up towards Xian, you g\could get into Gansu, but Gansu (TianShui area) is now the proud recipient of a recent string of aftershocks.

2) It's hard to tell without direct experience but the extra presence of the boys in green would make it very difficult to get through.

3) From what I understand, the SW border should be accessible as long as you don't go too far west first. A South African couple just made it through from ZhongDian to Litang but had to pitch tent in a snow storm over night. They were turned around once but went back and had some luck.

I'm guessing the Lugu Hu area should be okay but I've heard some of the connecting roads between there and XiChang are rough. ChinaV and I may be going that route end of June.

You making plans?

CC

[Brice]

Yes I'm making plans for July. 2 options QingHai or Yunnan. But due to flight constraints from a family member I have to deal with a tight schedule. It seems that Qinghai is out of reach for me if I have to make big detour by the eastern provinces.

I think we'll do Guizhou/north Yunan/south Sichuan.

[CrazyCarl]

Sweet, lets keep each other posted. Maybe we can meet up somewhere on the road!

:thumbup:

CC

[Brice]

Sweet, lets keep each other posted. Maybe we can meet up somewhere on the road!

:thumbup:

CC

That will be nice. Have you already been in this area?

[CrazyCarl]

Yes but not by bike. Northern GuiZhou has some fantastic bamboo forest parks near ChiShui. Spent some time in Panzhihua near the border and it's nothing too interesting...mostly industrial pop up towns. Lots of beautiful mountain and river roads though!

I would like to see western and southern Yunnan but you've already done that. Hmmm... maybe we can meet in Kunming or something?

CC