Quote Originally Posted by Pat View Post
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Thanks for the heads up Andre - There's a small village I'm hoping to visit SW of Taiyuan.. although I may see if I can find a route that avoids Taiyuan as much as possible.. sounds horrible! As for the entry into Yunnan, I've been looking through an atlas - is that road you mentioned in Sichuan/Yunnan S217? Looking at ChinaV's kml file - it looks like he and CC took it in '08. I may very well enter Sichuan on S217 from Qinghai - is it a good road to follow all the way through Sichuan?
Hi Pat, the S217 I only know from Litang Southwards into Yunnan. Its a good one, between Yunnan border and Shargrila Gorge its a dirt road, be aware!
The road I mean is more westward, directly at the border to Tibet. Follow G318 - a virtually empty G road in western Sichuan, just before it crosses the JinShaJiang there is a small road going south - it will bring you into Yunnan on a road much less traveled. This road is not on Google maps, but it exists and is simply beautiful, glaciers, waterfalls...
In these areas you will hit nearly 5000m asl!

Summer is raining season, which means mudslides. With the bike you can pass them usually. That is for all the Yunnan and South Sichuan, not sure how much it applies to Qinghai and Northern Sichuan.
I went once from ZhangJe in central Gansu to XiNing - Qinghai. Can recommend that. No pollution and a clear day you see the mighty Qinghai plateau from 50km distance...and then you get there...

Have fun and ring when you in town.