25th June - Tibetan Village to Jiuzhaigou

A 50km downhill ride from 3400m! Awesome :-)

I knew that I would have a tough day today and so I was up at 7 and got my things together. I had breakfast of porridge and coffee using hot water provided by the family and then got on the road for about 8.15. It was up hill all the way for several hours, in fact by 11:00 I had gained 1200m an only biked 35km. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the ride was fantastic. The road had very little traffic and was good condition and hugged the cliffs on one side and the river on the other with mountains towering on either side. The scenery was amazing. The further I traveled north the more the houses of the villages became old and wooden. Many of the villages are traditional Tibetan villages and have existed there for hundreds of years. They are making the most of the tour buses passing through and there are several places to stop off and buy Tibetan handy crafts and stop for lunch.


I was hungry at 12 ish and I stopped in one such place. I think that they are used to coach loads of people and they were rather surprise when I turned up. I was low on blood sugar as it had been quite a climb and I was glad of the feast that they provided for £3. A huge bowl of rice, cabbage and veg and nuts with boneless chicken. It was one of the best meals that I have had in China so far.


There are loads of hydro-power stations along the river.


As I carried on climbing after lunch the weather turned and it became gray and very windy but it was a tail wind and so I did not mind. About 2 I saw a coach with loads of tourists stopped off at some stalls of Tibetan handy crafts and decided to stop and ask about buses. I had found out that the pas goes up to 3400m and I was currently at 2300 having already climbed about 1300m. I knew that I could do the pass but I would not be able to make Jiuzhaigou town today if I were to continue on my bike.


Fortunately some of the tourist buying goods could speak English and helped with the translation so that I could find out about buses. Apparently all of the public buses had stopped hours ago (normal in China for the buses to only go in the mornings) and it was only tour buses at this time of day. They would not take me. A local guy offer to take me in his van up to the top of the pass for £10. I could see from google maps that this pass was very steep and I decided that it was worth it for me to get to Jiuzhaigou today. It only took about 30 mins to do the 15km get to the top in a van. It was the right decision though as it would have taken me hours and hours.


The top!


The view from the top was great but not as good as it could have been if the weather had been better. However, the ride down was the BEST downer ever! I think that only a cyclist can really appreciate the greatness of the ride from 3400m down to about 1500m over 50km. It was not to steep and so for most of the way I did not have to brake nor pedal - perfect! The views were just awesome and there was very little traffic. I was on a high for the whole time it took to get to the bottom. I am glad that I had at least done some of the climb today as the downer is all the more rewarding if you have actually done the climb to get there in the first place.


Towards the bottom of the downer there was a little Tibetan village which was very much on the tourist trail and several coaches had stopped there. The Tibetan houses are painted in bright colours and look great but I doubt that they are very traditional.


The lovely, good quality road had huge holes in the middle at regular intervals. I actually saw some local people tearing up the road. It did not appear to be for any usual purpose. Maybe they were just trying to stop the traffic going so fast on the road and so damaging it?


There was a climb to get to Jiuzhaigou town of about 15km and my legs were tired and so it took a while but I arrived into town about 6. I popped into the bus station as I entered town to try and find out about buses to Jiuzhaigou Park tomorrow morning. The taxi drivers waiting there were very helpful and one of them phoned his friend who speaks English so that he could help with the translation (Chinese people have often helped in this way). I found out where to catch the bus tomorrow and a taxi driver for no cost took me into town (for free) to a place that I could stay for £5 per night (as most of the places wanted £10).

I was extremely happy to find that the place he had taken me to had a bath and a western toilet! What luxury. It was the first Western style toilet in weeks. It was 8 ish by the time that I had faffed about and got the room etc. I had a chilled evening eating instant noodles in my room and soaking in the bath and watching a movie on my laptop.

I was a really good day and a perfect way to finish the day. The countryside here is amazing and the downer was the best I have ever done in my life. :-) Great bike touring day.

24th June - Beichuan to Tibetan Village

Stay with a Tibetan Family.

Slept in until 8.30 to try and catch up on sleep and then had a leisurely breakfast and had coffee WITH milk and sugar as a treat. I managed to buy some last night.

I took a while asking about buses out of town to try and make up some time so that I can have enough time to go and see the Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve and get to Xian. I spoke to the girl in the book shop that approached me last night to ask if I needed any help. Her English was good. She explained that the route that I wanted to take was not possible because of the earthquake damage. There were no buses that went that way and it would be very difficult to get there on bike. She suggested that I go East to the next big town Jiangyou and get a bus north from there. It looked sensible on my map.

So off I headed towards Jiangyou - 50km ish. It was a good ride as the road was flat with a good surface but went through the valley with mountains either side. The scenary is nice and it is good to be out of a major city but all of the houses are pretty much new (less than 20 years old). I have not yet seen any of the quaint villages that I was travelling though 4 days ago. In fact leaving Chengdu yesterday I only really saw new developments.

It is a shame that the weather is blue skies and very sunny and the scenery is not as good where as when I was traveling through some amazing scenery it was all muggy and the light rubbish for taking photos :-(

Then I got to Jiangyou I found someone that spoke English at the bus stop and managed to get my bike on a bus North to Pingwu in 30 minutes from arriving. Enough time to take my bike to pieces and put it on the bus and go for some lunch. However, when I spent some more time looking at routes and directions on my phone while having lunch I realised that the detour because of the earthquake damage is a significant change of the route. It will mean that I will have to go west for about 160km to get to Songpan. I am not sure whether I will have time to do this as well as see Jiuzhaigou.

It was actually really hot today without any cloud cover and I was quite happy to get out of the sun for a few hours and take a bus ride. It gave me a bit of down time to catch up on the blog. However, the bus ride really was very beautiful and passed through some awesome mountains and I would have preferred to be doing this section by bike and have caught a bus out of Chengdu instead of biking the built up, highway section yesterday.


I do love the mountains....They call for me to climb them... The area is a tourist area where many Chinese people go on holiday. All of the mountains are covered in natural forests - no quaint little villages though. I am much happier to be traveling this way rather than on busy highways in flat areas to Xian.


I arrived at Ping Wu about 6 and I found out using google maps on my phone that it is about 150km to Jiuzhaigou from Ping Wu. That is normally OK in a day but not if it is really mountainous and judging from the squiggliness of the road I guessed that it would be very hilly. Therefore, I wanted to use the 2 hours of day light I still had today to get as far North as possible so that I would have less to do tomorrow to get to Jiuzhaigou. A lad that speaks English came over to me while I was rebuilding my bike (I had to take it to pieces to get it on the bus) and asked if I needed any help. He told me that I would find somewhere to sleep in the villages to the North and so off I went.

I had also found out on the bus journey to Ping Wu that I could catch a bus from the town to Jiuzhaigou at 9.30 tomorrow morning. As I need a whole day to see the Nature Reserve, getting to Jiuzhaigou mid afternoon tomorrow by bus would not give me any extra time at the Park or get me to Xian any sooner than biking. So the decision was very easy. I get to bike through amazing scenery tomorrow and take it all in rather than sitting in a metal cage! :-)

I biked for about 25km. It was great to be on my bike again on such a fantastic road on a sunny evening. There was a steady incline all the way but the condition of the road was great and there was very little traffic. I had a great hour and a half. I also started to see again the older style of Chinese houses that I had seen in the rural areas of the South.

I stopped off about 7.30 to ask in a Tibetian village (it said so on the entrance sign) for accommodation only to be told that there was no accommodation in the village or on the road to the north (google translator and hand gestures are awesome). They signaled to me that I should turn round and go to Ping Wu (were I had just left). I really did not want to do this as I would not get there before dark and it would mean I have to do the 25km I have just done again tomorrow morning and meant it was less likely that I would be able to make Jiuzhaigou tomorrow night.


I was very fortunate that a family that owns the village shop/restaurant said that I could stay with them. They do not speak a word of English but as per usual it is amazing how much can be communicated by other means. They were in the middle of their meal when I turned up and they invited me to join their feast.

After eating with them the lady of the house took me to use the shower in the hut outside. It was interesting to see really top quality plumbing in these surroundings. I think that the homes in the area must get government grants for solar powered hot water. Most of the homes seem to have brand new installations on the sides of their properties. I do not think that they had done the plumbing quite right though as they had really hot water in the taps to the shower room but no hot water leading to the shower. They had a digital thermometer attached to the pipes which read 69F (no idea what that is in grown up numbers) and indicated that I should not use the shower but instead use a bucket of hot water. I was just happy to get a wash of any kind and very happy to be staying with a friendly family.


After my very hot bucket shower I changed and went to sit with the family. They seem to run a casual restaurant/shop/gambling room for the village. Several people had come round to play a game with blocks - I have no idea what it is called. The family provided the facilities and the automatic table (shuffles the blocks and delivers them ready for the next game in neat lines) and people bought fags, snacks and drinks. The husband (a small, cute, tubby man) was also playing. It all got very heated and engaged. They played the game very quickly and were throwing the blocks down with considerable force. It was very interesting to watch. The aim of the game seem to be to pick up blocks as quickly as possible in order to make sets. A player can discard blocks that are of no use to him/her in the middle of the table so that other people can use those blocks. The game finishes when the first person has matched all their blocks and puts them down on the table. However, although this is the general idea is is more complicated than this.


I left them about 10 and went to bed as I have a very long day tomorrow. The family indicated that it is very steep to Juizhagou from here.

23rd June - Chengdu to Beichuan

Another insane day (155km)!

I need to stop this now and get more sleep.... I am knackered.

I was up at 5.15 to pack up and bike to the bus station 10km on the other side of town to buy a ticket and catch the bus to Denba to meet Jenna at 6.30. I was there with 15 mins to buy the ticket and find the bus and fortunately there was someone that speaks English at the counter.
Unfortunately the bus to Danba was fully booked and the girl said that I could get another train to another town and then change buses. It would take a lot longer though. It turned out that the Danba bus took this route anyway as the direct road to Danba was damaged in a earthquake 3 years ago and is still not fixed. This was the route that me and Jenna were planning on taking to get back to Chengdu. If this road is closed and we would have to go the long way round it would take several extra days. Days I do not have as I have to be in Xian by the 30th and it is over 700km away from Chengdu another 400km at least on top of this from Denba.

I have not been able to contact Jenna by calling, texts or email over the last 2 days (I found out later she was delayed by a mud slide and had no signal) and so after an hour of deliberation at the station I decided that rather than heading West to meet Jenna I would head toward Xian and also try to fit in Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve on the way. The nature reserve is North of Chengdu and I should really head straight Northeast to Xian but the direct route is not through a very pretty area and so I would prefer to go the pretty route and take some buses to make up time.

I tried to get a bus out of Chengdu as it is never particularly fun cycling through industrial, built up areas on busy roads and I would prefer to have more time biking in lovely areas instead and do the rubbish bits by bus. However, I there were no buses going that direction from the bus station where I was and after failing to find a bus that would take me on the way out of the city I just gave up and put my headphones on and biked.

It was a hot sunny morning and it was good to be up at that time of day. It was 8ish by the time I got back on the road and it was rather more busy than when I was cycling through the streets at 6. There are loads of cycle lanes which the bicycles, motorbikes, bike-trailer things and anything else not a car or bus all share.

Most of the morning was a bit dull. It was very similar to cycling out of Guangzhou. No old architecture anywhere and loads of development. Good quality roads with cycle lanes.


This was not the only time that I have seen this in China. In fact I have seen it many times.... Woman hold on to husband standing in bike trailer while he cycles along.....

I had done 100km by 1pm and stopped for lunch. I asked for fish, veg and rice and got the hugest portion ever - it was ridiculous. Other people on the table next to me were laughing as I just look astonished! They only charged me £3 though so it was OK. The fish was in a really hot chilly sauce and full of bones and not the easiest thing to eat.

There was of course the ever present tea rooms - mainly filled with men.



And of course the card games in the afternoon in the villages.


It took me 30 minutes to make my way through this market as it was heaving.


After lunch google maps took me on country roads. Most of the time they were really nice good condition roads. However when I had done 130km I was uncertain whether to stop in a a town at a hotel. It was only 4ish and I thought my legs could take some more and so I decided to push on another 25km. It was a bad decision as the road turned from the flat plains to go over a pass on a dirt road track! My legs hurt for the first time in ages. It was a hard 2 hours....


I was very glad to arrive at the town of Beichuan by 6.30 with enough time to find a cheap place to stay and do some shopping for supplies. It is a nice little town.

Even showering and washing my clothes seemed like big things this evening. I have not been getting enough sleep and ended up doing 155km today. I just ate a tin of fish and water melon in bed for diner and relaxed.

22nd June - Chengdu

The train ticket cost £13 and was actually very good value for money. Chinese people are very clean and organised. The condition of the toilets was much better than UK train toilets (even though they were swat toilets). There are 6 bunks per cabin but there was actually plenty of room. The size of the space etc was the same as Indian trains but the experience was much more pleasant. On Indian trains there are always random extras that don't have a ticket that just sleep on the floor or hang around and so it can be claustrophobic. Chinese trains are much better.


I woke up many times through the night when people where moving about in the train and we stopped at stations and so did not get a very good nights sleep. I got up about 8.30 and changed and then went to find some hot water for my coffee and oats. They have an awesome system where every 2 carriages they have a big boiler for customers to get hot water any time they like. Hot water is often easy to get in China because the Chinese version of a snack or sandwich is a pot noodle and so many places provide hot water for this purpose - and for tea of course.

There had been 6 people in the carriage but 4 had left through the night and so there was only me and another lad (who spoke some English).


It took me 1 hour 30 minutes to find my way out of the station. Chengdu East railway station is huge but obviously not big enough to have lifts! They clearly do not have people in wheel chairs in China. The whole place is brand spanking new with ticket offices everywhere and escalators everywhere but the ticket offices were all closed and most of the escalators were turned off. It meant that I had to wonder round for ages before I found a security man to help me with my bike up 4 flights of stairs, another one to help me down 4 flights of stairs and then a final one to help me up the last 4 flights to get out of the building.

I then wanted to see if I could get a train out of Chengdu later in the evening towards where Jenna is. In order just to get to the ticket office you need to go through security and they would not allow my bike through so I left that with the security guys and managed to get a ticket from the North Railway station (across town) at 7.45 to go to Dujiangyan. Perfect I thought. I could explore Chengdu on the way across town for the next 3 or so hours and then get out of the city without having to bike in the boring suburbs and industrial parts.....


I passed a McDonalds on the way into town and for the sake of just eating something that was not rice and vegetables bought myself a burger and a hot chocolate (sorry Mum, sorry environment for supporting such a company) and thoroughly enjoyed it. I then headed into the city itself only to find a Starbucks on the way. I could not help myself but get a latte and a New York Style Vanilla cheesecake to go (even though I was running out of time to visit all the sights and also to catch my train). Jacob Clarke would be proud of me with a Starbucks in my bottle cage (if only it was in my hand instead, I was wearing designer clothing and not traveling the world I would no longer be a constant disappointment). It was lovely to have a treat and something that is not Chinese.


Chengdu is not very impressive. It is just a big city without many distinguishing features. It felt older and not as clean and wealthy as Guangzhou. It was not the best day to see the city as it had been raining all morning and was rather gray and murky. `


They have bike lanes everywhere. There are loads of electric bikes that are a cross between a normal bicycle and a motor bike. This is a photo of a popular design with a tiny second seat behind the main driver. Most of the electric bikes have pedals like a bicycle. Motorbikes, electric bikes, bicycles and pedestrians all use the same lanes where as the cars, buses and lorries use main road lanes. I used my guide book and map to bike round the major sites.


There are several large parks. As there are so many bicycles they are very strict on where bicycles are allowed and where they are not. In order to get into the parks I had to leave my bike and bags with security as I was not allow to walk my bike through.


Mao was ever present.


I wish I had stayed here - Soaring Genital Hotel.....


Under a fly over is the best place to gamble at card and other games...... Apparently gambling is illegal in China but money exchanges hands at the these games everywhere.



There is a small predestrianised area in the middle of Chengdu which did not sercome to the modernisation exercise in the last few decades and has old buildings with traditional architecture that have all been renovated and now form a series of quaint little streets with lots of expensive restaurants, boutiques, coffee and tea shops and tourist outlets.

The renovation as probably left very little of original material and so although old in style it all felt very new. The rest of Chengdu is lacking in interesting architecture. The old area is very popular with and the place was heaving. Obviously the place to be in Chengdu.


In the old region I saw several people having acupuncture in the middle of the street. Sticking needles in your ear can not be good surely?!


These have to be other tourists! Cute :-)



I arrived at the railway station 30 minute before the departure time only to be refused entry at the gate. They gestured no bicycle and pointed to me to go somewhere else. I followed the direction that they pointed but I could not see where to go. Having walked back and forth several times and finding the security guys at the gates thoroughly un-helpful 2 girls that speak English came up to me and asked if I needed any help. They were so lovely. They took me to a baggage handling place that said that it would not be possible to get my bike on that train and suggested I get a bus instead or go through the other way. We then went back to the security gates and explained that I could make my bike much smaller and get on to the train. They said OK but by this time it was too late to get on the train that I was booked on. It was the last train of the day. The girls kindly helped me find out about alternative buses tomorrow to get to Danba to meet Jenna. It took about 1 hour to do all of this and eventually I had the information that I needed to get a bus from a bus station on the other-side of town at 6.30 tomorrow morning. I was very grateful to the girls for their help.


Time was getting on and I biked a few km to find a cheap hostel to stay at about 8.30-9. I felt really tired and grotty by the time I arrived at the hostel. I was still covered in oil from the rush to the train the night before (I had tried to wipe it off with tissues but it really needed soap and water). It was a great to have a lovely hot shower and get clean. I tried to get an early night but I kept on waking up through the night as I knew I had to be up early for the bus.