Thanks for the tips guys. I'll be riding a Qingqi 200GY 3rd generation (picked it up last summer).. if all goes according to plan, I'll be leaving in a couple days (Wednesday morning). Don't worry Euphonius, the worldly possessions will be shipped separately - I should be relatively light on the bike - back case plus two side bags. Although I haven't actually packed yet, so we'll see!

Instead of packing, I've been reading through ChinaV and Felix's trip last summer. It's inspirational (and a bit cautionary) to say the least. I'm hoping to hit some of those same roads once I make it down south. Felix, I like how your Xi'an route follows the mountains all the way to Xining.. why go around when you can go through! That route may be a bit too far south - but I'm definitely planning check out the area around Xining.

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?