The Long Goodbye: From Kunming to Urumqi

[Pat]

After almost five years in China, I’m preparing to move back to the U.S. But before heading back, I’ve got a month to spend saying goodbyes, and what better way to say goodbye than on the back of a motorcycle?

Between moving out of my apartment, heading back to the U.S. to wrap things up for work, getting the bike and gear prepped, and visiting friends, I haven’t had much time to put together a route. But I had a productive session with the atlas on my flight down to Kunming, so now I’ve got a GW250, GPS, a starting point, a destination and some ideas for the places in between – so that should be enough!

My main goals are to get back up on the plateau and to hit Tian Shan before finishing in Urumqi. It might look something like this:

[Since google has been harmonized, I had to use bing maps - which seems to have roads that my atlas doesn't have, and doesn't have roads that the atlas does! Not sure what that means - but these maps are just generalizations]

Yunnan: I’ve done Dali, Lijiang, and Shangrila – so I’m thinking I’m going to hit Shaxi and Luguhu this time.

YN Map.jpg

Sichuan: Last time I did the S217: Shiqu – Mannigange – Ganze – Litang – Xiangcheng. This time I’m thinking about entering around Luguhu and riding past Yading and then over to the road Andre555 recommended that borders Tibet up to Batang and then routing up north somehow to Qinghai.

SC Map.jpg

Qinghai: Last time I did a Xining-Golmud-Budongquan-Yushu loop. This time I’m thinking about going back to Yushu to see what it looks like three years later, and then heading NE over to Maduo and cutting down to Dulan.

QH GS Map.jpg

Dulan to Urumqi: This I’m not sure how to tackle yet. I’ve looked at a southern route: Golmud – Ruoqiang/Charklik and then the G218 up north across the Taklamakan to Korla – and then a loop Kuqa-Kuytun-Urumqi. I’ve also looked a northern route through Dunhuang-Hami-Turpan and then Kuqa-Kuytun-Urumqi. The northern route looks interesting – but Turpan is over 100F/40C already! So I’m a bit wary about the heat in mid-July.

XJ Map.jpg

If anyone has any advice or recommendations, I’d love to hear them!

At the moment, my bike should be on a train somewhere between Tianjin and Kunming. Once it arrives (tomorrow, with any luck), I should be on the road within a day or two. I’m hoping to keep this thread updated from the road – assuming I can find internet once I leave Yunnan!

[Lao Jia Hou]

Looks great Pat. Sorry I can't join you, but I'm spending less and less time in China these days. BTW, good choice with a GW.

[ChinaV]

It's hard to believe 4 years have passed since Felix and I went through Luguhu. I'm sure a lot has changed since then, but the road going north was pretty epic, one of the greatest rides I ever got to do in China.



You can look at the route we did from this link Zoom in on those ziggy lines, pretty crazy mountain roads. A lot of it was dirt back then, no idea if it's been covered in concrete by now. I don't think the roads on google maps are correct, back in 2010 all the paper and online maps were very wrong about S216. I would love to know what has happened in that area over the last 4 years.



Good luck on your return to the U.S., it's really not too bad living here.

Cheers
ChinaV

[Pat]

Day 0

Shorter on time than I was initially planning, I decided to ship the bike down to Kunming and start the trip from there. The shippers picked up the bike on Wednesday and I flew down a few days later, expecting the bike to be there on Monday. And then when Monday rolled around, they told me the bike was still in Chengdu! After a couple more days of anxiously waiting, I finally got the call from the shippers that my bike had arrived. I jumped on a scooter taxi and rode out to a trucking center:



And found my bike safely tucked away on truck:



It was just a little too big and a little too heavy to simply push off the truck:



So the forklift went to work and I held my breath:



Safely out of the truck, they went to work on the crate:



And found a cocoon inside:



They kept working, and a crowd gathered:



And as the wrapping was peeled off, I was thrilled to see that the bike had arrived unscathed. I hopped on and was again pleasantly surprised to find that they hadn’t drained the gas out – I still had almost a full tank!

All in all, the bike was well packed and they got it there in perfect shape. My only complaint is that it took two days longer than they said it would (two days I was planning to spend on the road) – and initially told me that there was no need to crate it, as “they ship bikes all the time, and they don’t get damaged without crating them.” However, once the guys showed up to get the bike, the tune changed and that "I should prepare my heart (for damage) if I didn't crate it." I didn't want to prepare my heart for damage, so I went ahead and paid the extra 1000 to crate it up. So, 800 to ship, 1000 to package, they picked the bike up at my apartment, and I rode out to the shipping center when it arrived. And I got a couple bonus days to visit with friends in Kunming and hammer out a route (which is now in the process of being changed!)

[Pat]

Day 1: Kunming to Dali

In general, given how much work it takes to hit the road on the first day of a trip – my philosophy for the first day is: “It doesn’t matter how far you ride, it’s a success as long as you don’t end up sleeping in your own bed at the end of the day!” I did not follow this philosophy this trip – and scheduled a 400 km ride to Dali on the “Old Road.” 400 clicks on beat up mountain roads is a full day, so I wanted to get on the road early – but by the time the bike was packed and I was on the road it was 10:00 a.m.:



I had to ride through the mess that is Kunming traffic, but the promise of mountains loomed:



But first I ran into the classic China Road:



With the classic, ride-around too – lead the way scooter man!



A lot of industry and construction coming out of Kunming:



And then… mountains! It’s hard to complain when you can ride for less than 100 km and be up in the mountains.



And villages:



And then I ran into this guy!



He’s from Shandong province – adjacent to Tianjin in the north – and had been riding his bike for three months! He’s on his way to Lhasa – and may spend a whole year on the way. “Where do you stay?” In a tent! Crazy.

The road continued through the mountains, and finally stopped for lunch:



It was already close to three p.m. and I wasn’t even half way to Dali yet. I started doing the math, and it wasn’t adding up. Oh well! I stopped in Chuxiong to get an oil change, and then continued through a fertile valley:



And the road continued to wrap through the mountains:



And then emptied into a valley with lots of new houses:



And tobacco farming:



The sun started to drop, and I was still a couple hours away from Dali… too close to stop, too far to make it in the daylight. The sun started to drop behind the mountains, behind this tomb-stone making factory:



And then I took my sunglasses off and realized it wasn’t nearly as dark as I thought - so I took a picture of aloe plants. I didn't realize it yet, but my whole face was severely sunburned and I would be in need of aloe the next day!



As the sun dropped, I started climbing yet another mountain! I had thought it was going to flat the rest of the way into Dali. The mountain climbed above the valley:



And I stopped to get a picture of windmills at twilight:



And then it was dark and I was still on the mountain. Fortunately the road was good – so the main obstacle was trucks with their brights on. That, and when I rode through a little village, the road was full of people walking around on the street – not sure if they realized they’re basically invisible until the last second. I wound my way through the mountains, getting abused by the insects that flew out onto the road attracted by my headlight. And finally hit Dali:



I road another 45 minutes up to the Jade Roo right across from the Old City – it’s a great place and allows bikers to keep their bike in the courtyard. 13 hours and 400 km later, sore and sunburned, I took a shower and sat down to a well-earned steak dinner!

[Pat]

Made it into Luguhu yesterday and have spent the day resting and licking my wounds -

Laojiahuo - The GW250 is great. I meant to update your GW250 post - "Is the GW250 the YBR killer?" If my experience in Beijing a few months ago was any indication - the answer to that question is "YES." Qili said they don't stock them because Beijing riders "don't recognize them" and the Datone shop I visited isn't stocking the new 250's - and hinted that they've had some conflicts with Yamaha that they're not moving enough units. The shop I went to had some old 125's and they pushed me towards the GW250. So far the bike has been reliable - but doesn't handle well in the mud - the fender is too close to the front wheel - I had a muddy day yesterday and spent a couple hours prying caked mud out of the fender just to get the front wheel moving! And the allen wrench that came with the bike is too big to remove the fender! Needless to say, I picked up the wrench today :)

ChinaV - Thanks for the tracks - I still go back and read your old ride reports from time to time. I hate to disappoint, but I think I'm going to reroute.. I bumped into a motorcyclist today and he said the road south of Litang to the fork between Daocheng and Xiangcheng is closed between 8am-5pm (you can enter before or after) - and is basically dirt.. which in the rainy season means mud! Instead, I think I'm going to route through Xichang and cut over to Kangding. Glad to hear living in the U.S. isn't too bad.. frankly, I'm looking forward to using a non-broken internet, soap in the bathrooms, drivers who stay on their side of the road...

[bikerdoc]

Great RR coming...

But any chance you can resize the photos as they are taking a while to load (some are timing out)...

YMMV

[Pat]

But any chance you can resize the photos as they are taking a while to load (some are timing out)...

YMMV

Will do! I spent a good chunk of the afternoon wrestling with flickr and imgur trying to get everything to play nice together. I resized the images in the first post and switched to the "Medium 800x598" setting on Flickr - I'll keep an eye on it in case I need to further downsize..

[bikerdoc]

Nice, photos coming through okay now. Not sure if it's because I'm at home with better Wifi than at the office, with Ch!na Unicom browser login. I like that SHAD box, had the same model on the CB500X I rode in Northern tahiland for 2 months beginning 2014. I liked how it was possible to unlock the box and be able to remove the key and still be able to open/close the box lid as needed. Very handy. The new Benelli BJ600GS-A's are coming fitted with those SHAD boxes on the arse end, aside from panniers/side cases.

Great work though and very interesting sites, and better than that lots of nicer looking weather than we been experiencing here in Zhejiang the past fortnight, rain, rain and more rain.

'scribed...

[Pat]

[I made it into Xiahe today and have been wrestling with flickr again - after accessing it in Yunnan, I haven't been able to reach it again - apparently it's blocked, so I'm switching over to photobucket.com]

Day 2: Dali to Shaxi

Part of the reason I wanted to get to Dali on the first day was to give myself a short day two to Shaxi. Shaxi’s only 125 km from Dali, and since I’d heard good things about it, I wanted to have the better of the day to check the place out. At the same time, I had plenty of time to take an “alternative route” – bing, baidu, and my GPS were unanimous – go north and loop back down around the mountains. Staring at the map, I found a dirt road that crossed directly over the mountain – why go around when you can go over?

The day started on the flat road out of Dali between Erhai and mountains:



Past tobacco growing villages on the banks of Erhai:



A lot of rice in this region too:



Along with the mandatory road construction. Faceoff:



After navigating construction for a while, I turned off onto the “dirt road” that would lead over the mountain to Shaxi, but first, it led into a village:



I made a couple wrong turns:



Before finding the dirt:



The first section was actually paved for a bit, before hitting rocks:



The next section varied between medium rocks (above), small rocks that had been steamrolled, and brand new big rocks ready to be broken down! After bouncing through the rocks, I hit a pretty nice dirt track:



It wound around the mountain and I hit a small forest, with tombs (of the kings, I’m sure) in the trees:



I continued to follow the road:



And she finally revealed her name to me:



The road wound down the other side of the mountain into more tobacco growing regions:



Do these glasses make me look like a nerd?



The road wound through the tobacco growing villages and then suddenly emptied out right into Friday market day in Shaxi!



I pushed my way through the crowded market, found a hotel, and went into the old city. These guys are angry about something:



I found a plate of curry chicken on the main square:



Having missed lunch, I decided to make it up with a second dinner with this guy:



My face was bright, bright red and burning from the sunburn the day before. Feeling sorry for me, the server cut some aloe branches out of their garden, cut it up, and applied it to my sunburn – it felt great!



And the day ended with a rainbow over the city:



Pretty good day!