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  1. #1 yunnan to qinghai 
    C-Moto Not-so-Noob
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    hello,
    so we are in dali now. 5000 chinese km on the speedometer!
    Now moving up north.

    the road we took:



    the gmaps tag doesnt seem to be working.
    short gmap url: dali to shangri-la


    update 10/06/2013
    The part through the tiger leaping gorge and further all the way to shangri-la was beautiful. Almost no traffic, up and down mountains and great scenery.

    We will probably skip Deqin because i dont think there is a road from deqin into sichuan without entering tibet.
    Adjusting to the heights now and looking for a nice road to take..tips are more then welcome!

    Some ongoing questions:
    what great not too be missed scenic roads am i missing?
    I read there are some serious road works in Sichuan...what to avoid?

    tx..pics will follow..
    grt
    bazz
    Last edited by bazz; 06-14-2013 at 03:05 PM.
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  2. #2 Re: yunnan to qinghai 
    C-Moto Not-so-Noob
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    Some pics I took on the road from tiger leaping gorge to Shang-ri-la. This is not the main road. It's the road that first crosses the tiger leaping gorge and then continous through beautifull mountains and small villages. About 200km I think.

    Starting from a room with a beautifull view







    Shang-ri-la is just a couple kilometers further now.


    Now we're riding to Xiangcheng
    So far as I know there are two other routes:
    The main road to Xiangcheng
    or the route to benzilan, derong and then Xiangcheng.
    Anyone has done both and knows which is most scenic?
    chrs
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  3. #3 Re: yunnan to qinghai 
    Duct tape savant felix's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bazz View Post
    Some pics I took on the road from tiger leaping gorge to Shang-ri-la. This is not the main road. It's the road that first crosses the tiger leaping gorge and then continous through beautifull mountains and small villages. About 200km I think.
    Yup this road here: http://goo.gl/maps/BB8Nf

    One of the best rides in china i reckon!


    Sorry can't hep with your other question. Maybe motokai might chime in here, i believe he had some interesting adventures up near xiangcheng recently...
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  4. #4 Re: yunnan to qinghai 
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    great road idd!
    your link isnt working.
    But the link in my first post shows the route.


    Decided to take the normal route to xiangshen. Hope there is not too much ongoing contruction. I'll give an update later.

    Meanwhile I keep changing my road plan.
    current route goes from deqen to litang to Kangding to Tagong to Garze to Yushu to Qumarleb and after that i dont know yet...east direction.
    routemap: http://goo.gl/maps/HoZdK
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  5. #5 Re: yunnan to qinghai 
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    we rode to Lithang and the road is really nice. I tought there was going to be a lot of traffic but no..very quiet and very very scenic. First 100 km to Xiangcheng is good road followed by a 70km unpaved stretch which is very 'bumpy'. We lost 1 luggage rack and 3 direction pointers here!
    The road from xiangcheng to Lithang is also nice but there is more construction going on. Especially close to Lithang it is pretty bad.
    After this we took the g318 to Kangding. At the moment I would not advise this ... most of the time there are construction works and the road is very very dusty. Took no pics of this last part. Afraid my camera would not survive this.


    Some pics:

















    current route goes from deqen to litang to Kangding to Tagong to Garze to Yushu to Qumarleb and after that i dont know yet...east direction.
    routemap: http://goo.gl/maps/HoZdK
    tips and advice are welcome!
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  6. #6 Re: yunnan to qinghai 
    Senior C-Moto Guru euphonius's Avatar
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    Spectacular! Thanks so much for posting. Did you ride all those roads we can see in the pix? Especially that switchback ascent of a broad rock face to a whitewashed village in the 9th image. Wow.

    cheers!
    jkp
    Shanghai
    2010 JH600 "Merkin Muffley" (in Shanghai)
    2000 KLR650 "Feezer Ablanalp" (in California)
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  7. #7 Re: yunnan to qinghai 
    C-Moto Guru MotoKai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bazz View Post
    We will probably skip Deqin because i dont think there is a road from deqin into sichuan without entering tibet.
    Adjusting to the heights now and looking for a nice road to take..tips are more then welcome!

    Some ongoing questions:
    what great not too be missed scenic roads am i missing?
    I read there are some serious road works in Sichuan...what to avoid?
    Hey, sorry I'm late to jump in here but looks like you figured it out perfectly.
    Also looks like June is a good time for the roads north of Deqen to Litang (via Xiangcheng).
    My crossing earlier this year was full of snow and icy roads, particularly over each of the peak passes around 5000m and the higher plateau just north of Xiangcheng. Glad you found safe roads!

    Great ride RR so far. Great pics. Keep it coming!


    Thanks - ride safe.
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  8. #8 Re: yunnan to qinghai 
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    Bazz just made it through. Tiger Leaping gorge is closed after an enormous landslide.
    I went in August this route and landslides are regular. Depending on how servers, the round is closed for hours, days or weeks...welcome to yunnan's raining season
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  9. #9 Re: yunnan to qinghai 
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    Quote Originally Posted by euphonius View Post
    Spectacular! Thanks so much for posting. Did you ride all those roads we can see in the pix? Especially that switchback ascent of a broad rock face to a whitewashed village in the 9th image. Wow.

    cheers!
    Tx!
    Well, unfortunately that is the only road on the pics that we didn't rode. I couldn't find it once we were descended in the valley. But it looks great eh:)

    From Litang we rode to Kangding and Tagong.
    The first part was very dusty due to road construction. No fun driving in clouds of dust. No pics of the first part..already killed one camera with dust.
    Some non dusty pics:

    The monastery overlooking Lithang


    Good roads after the dusty part.


    For kilometers lang all rocks int the river are carved and painted..somebody has a lot of time.




    Taking a shortcut




    Having fun around Tagong..and yes got pretty wet


    next time we go direction ganzi, dege, yushu
    grts
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  10. #10 Re: yunnan to qinghai 
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    Well here we are again.
    This will be my final photo report of our ride through China(which I think is one of the most beautiful countries to ride a bike I you do some efforts to get of those busy roads).
    The first picture are taken between luhuo, sertar, ganzi, baiyu, dege and on to the border with qinghai. We got away just on time. Last days it was heavy raining and it seems like it didnt stop to rain. The road from baiyu to dege is currently only open from 18.00. During daytime they are busy blowing up rocks.

    We really like the colorful houses here. big difference with the rest of China


    More than 10000 monks gathered at one place at Larung Gar close to Sertar


    Beautifull driving to ganzi and baiyu







    start of the rains in Sichuan


    What 3 weeks Sichuan roads do to a litlle motorcycle


    These pics are all taken on the road between yushu, qumulai, Budongquan, golmud and Dunhuang. A truly beautifull road all the way. I'm very happy we decided to take this route.








    Frome here we got in some kind of huge 'mad max' scenery. I found it amazing.







    And to end some less good news. On the road to Dunhuang we had two flat tyres. bad start of the day but that was just the beginning. On a piece of very good and very straight road in the desert I managed to lose control of the bike and crash my self into the side. I tumbled over and made a pretty hard crash. Still dont know what happened and what made me crash.
    I was hurt bad and couldnt really move a lot.
    Some guy in a pick up stopped and load us and our bikes on his pickup.
    It took him 6 hours to get to the hospital in Dunhuang. A long time of suffering for me.... Conclusion in hospital: shoulder broken on 3 places and spleen damaged badly.
    Meanwhile spleen is removed and i'm recovering quickly. tommorow fixing the soulder and I'm almost new again.
    Motorbiking will not be possible the first months so we decided to visit a last couple things in China and take a brake for a month or so on the philipines on some tropical beach. not so bad if I think about it
    After that back to bangkok we're our 'mothership' (a ktm950) is waiting for us to go back on the road.
    So in the end...very happy to have seen China and even more happy I'm not damaged more.
    Cheers and keep on riding China!
    bazz
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