Pics from our first weeks in China

Here’s a few pics we resized in our first couple of weeks on the road, but never managed to post in China – or rather, were blocked by the Great Firewall… Loads more to sift through when we get home!

The road to Dechen is said to offer some of the best views on the Yunnan-Tibet highway…

Dropping down towards Zhongdian - I mean Shangri La, as it has been officially renamed, a marketing gimmick for the hordes of Chinese tourists… There’s an ‘eco-village’ nearby – cue convoys of tour buses.

Every day in China was a banquet. The parents of this little fellow ran one of our favourite finds.

Peckish? Dumplings don’t get better than these. Steaming hot. Just 3 Yuan a plate – that’s 20p.

Or maybe blackened chicken legs are more your thing, fresh from a market in Kunming.

What the?!! We didn’t even want to ask what this was, shiny and hanging in the sun outside a Tibetan restaurant in Zhongdian.

Not wishing to dwell too much on food… but the night markets were the gastronomic business too. Skewers of wild mushroom and yak meat cooked over a charcoal fire.  

This here pooch, its fur matted and dreaded, would have loved to have taken our legs clean off. Luckily he was chained up, as most of the Tibetan Mastifs are. Which drives them aperplectic when cyclists pass.

The kids, on the other hand, were far more friendly. Trailers are always a good icebreaker. Children love to chase after them, and if you’re lucky, give you a helping push. The mischievous ones try and hop on.

Although it should have been dry, we had heavy rain in the first week north of Lijiang - this was what we got when the skies cleared…

And this…

Being November, the leaves were starting to turn, as summer gave way to autumn. A good time to visit.

The local machines. Mad Max tractor/trailers, acting as both people carriers and goods carriers. The dog on this one eyed us up enviously – a thick rope stopped it from bounding over.

And our machines…. We were both running Extrawheel trailers from Poland. Mine used a 700c wheel, as I was riding a 29er, and Cara’s a more readily available 26in hoop. Both wheels used the same rims as our bikes, so they could be swapped out in case of a failure. Lucky, that.

Cass, the Inbred 29er and the Extrawheel in action. Aside from allowing us to carry a spare wheel and tyre, we chose them to open up singletrack opportunities too.