Western Sichuan: From Chengdu to Gongga Shan

[milton]

A while ago I made a 10-day trip from Shanghai to Chengdu 成都. There were some "epic moments" in that trip, as reported in my RR at: http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...-Yangtze-River

I left my bike in Chengdu at the end. On 9/30th I flew back to Chengdu and picked up where I left off. I did another 5-day trip from Chengdu to the foot of Gongga Shan 贡嘎山, passing thru Xinduqiao 新都桥. After the second trip I shipped the bike back to Shanghai and got busy. But western Sichuan is so beautiful and impressive that I feel compelled to finish this RR. Writing it also gives me the much needed distraction from all the mechanical problems of my Jialing, of which the stalling is worse than ever right now. (Our 998S just announced that he had cracked the "code". I will get my bike back soon and hopefully do more trips.)

Western Sichuan impression:


Gongga Shan in Tibetan means "the highest snow mountain", known for its year around snow-capped peak at 7556m and unwillingness of showing its great beauty to visitors. It is not uncommon for people visiting Gongga Shan numerous times without the luck of viewing the peak, which doesn't seem to stop people from trying though. Not knowing many people in Chengdu, I made a few friends through the motorfans.com.cn forum and organized the trip with 2 other Chendgu locals. Sichuan province has very diverse climate created by its many mountain ranges of high altitude. Heading west along G318, one would ascend from about 500m in Chengdu to over 4000m or 5000m all the way to Lhasa 拉萨, Tibet. Typically when going over a mountain of significant height, the climate would change abruptly with dramatic transition of landscapes before and after the peak. According to the diagram below, which starts at Chengdu going along guodao G318, there are many high elevation mountains to climb over in order to reach Lhasa:



Xinduqiao 新都桥 is only the humble beginning of this road to Lhasa but its height is respectful and the terrain is similar to Tibet only a bit greener and less baren. From Chengdu to Xinduqiao, there are 2 dividing mountain ridges: Erlang Shan 二郎山 and Zhedo Shan 折多山. In less than 500 km one can observe some sharp changes of climate and experience the great beauty of the landscape on the other side of the Zheduo Shan closer to Tibet. It is a highly cost effective way to get a taste of high altitude sickness without actually leaving Sichuan, which is what we did.


Picking up my bike in Chengdu on the 30th of September, I headed out for Ya'an 雅安 immediately. My bike was in reasonable running condition but the rear brake pads were completely worn out to my dismay. So I did my trip in next 5 days without a rear brake. At Ya'an I was joined by 2 other fellow riders. They are Chengdu residents and know their province intimately from their past rides through western Sichuan. I will name them R1 and R2 here due to their lack of identity in this forum. R1 rides a China-made "scooter", a knockoff of water cooled Honda PS250. He goes everywhere with it. Very low in its center of mass, it's stable and not afraid of rough roads, muds, potholes, with only occasional bottoming out as long as you don't go too fast on rough roads. It is an amazing machine.



Once passed Ya'an 雅安, during national holidays, G318 is full of traffic and unavoidably traffic jams. G318 had pretty much turned into a parking lot, with automobiles lining the road bumper to bumper for miles on end. It wasn't a pretty sight. This was when our motorcycles showed their superiority as touring vehicles. We zig-zagged around and through the gridlocks quite efficiently and left those poor stationary cars in the dust. The following is a less crowded section of G318:




The first high mountain Erlang Shan wasn't much of a challenge any more, helped by a long tunnel going underneath it. This is a photo op not easily resisted:



The scenery was only ok after the tunnel: