As most of us, I will have some days off in September/October during "Golden Week" for a trip - 19 days from start to finish. Not just any trip, possibly the last China-based holiday, since we will follow a new opportunity in another country end of the year. A bit surprising, I just bought the Suzuki this summer, but couldn't say no.

Anyway, we (JD + girlfriend) want to ride through Yunnan, inspired by some RR and pictures in this forum and the fact that we haven't been there yet.
The plan is to ship the bike from Tianjin to Kunming (preferebly via Deppon, since almost same price and shorter leadtime than train + box), follow by plane, get the bike and start, ride around, end somewhere and ship the bike and us back.
Must-see is Dali, Lijiang, Deqen. Rest is open to suggestions!

This is the route I have in mind.
route.jpg

I calculate that receiving and shipping the bike back will eat one day each (if things go well ), and maybe we will stay at a nice place for an additonal day to look at things... then there might not be much cushion for technical problems, really bad weather or the like for 2500km...


What do you think? What should I add on the route, what can I leave out?

We will ride two-up on the GW250. I will take some basic tools, a tire repair kit. And a couple of locks .
If anyone in the Tianjin/Beijing area has panniers for the GW250 he would rent out for this period it would be much appreciated! Otherwise we would have to fit our stuff on the bikes' rack I added, or find another solution.

Anything else I need to consider, but possibly didn't? Road condition? Weather condition? A tent? A bunch of tourists looking at the same things at the same time?

I'm thankful for any input!