We started our route across China in the district Xishungbanna, in Yunnan province. On the map you find the region in the lowest left corner and once we would like to reach the left corner furthest on top…
The traffic functions similar all over Asia, that was nothing new for us in China. New was the highway we automatically were lead onto right from the beginning. There were signs prohibiting cycling but so far all the policemen waved at us smiling. It wasn’t pleasant to cycle with the many heavy trucks transporting goods from Lao to the north though. Especially in the many dusty and dark tunnels. The smaller road though in those first three days were themselves in horrible condition. Either covered in dirt from a lack of maintenance or muddy due to road work.
That were the two unattractive alternatives in southern Xishungbanna. The district is presently in focus of Chinese road-building, as it is a high priority to increase the capacity for goods transport and trading to Myanmar and through Lao to Thailand and Malaysia. The highway we followed the first 3 days has one lane each direction so far. However it is beeing reconstructed over its whole length of several 100km. It seems to become a 4 lane motorway with separated directions. Over the whole stretch through this hilly landscape we have seen new tunnels and pillar after pillar in construction to soon carry the new big road. The project seems to be carried through without much fussing around. Over the whole length the land is dug open at once and everything in the way, even hills, just get put aside. Old roads are not «renovated». It is much easier to build a new, wider more direct road. The old ones are just used for the road work traffic and are also dug open where they touch the path of the new road. Therefore they are frequently interrupted by dirt sections. Due to rain the local soil with high clay contend becomes very muddy. Unfortunately that means slippery, sticky mass almost knee deep, almost blocking the wheels.
Well, that way we cycled through the hilly country covered in tropical forests to reach the busy town Mengla. From there we carried on to the peaceful little town Menglun, before we arrived in the district capital Jinghong. It lays in a wide valley 600m above sea level and is surrounded by green hills of about 2000m. And here we also met the Mekong again! In Jinghong they either expect a population boom or dislocations of some other places, as we saw several all new suburbs with a «forest» of skyscrapers newly erected. Just before getting to town our way lead into a car washing installation which we could luckily bypass. However we were very happy to wash off some of the sticky mud with a hose.
The next two days became more mountainous as we followed the road 214 in very good condition and with little traffic. It was very windy leading us through interesting valleys with lively rivers, through kautschuk forests, banana-/pineapple plantations and once again rice terraces. After the narrower passes (up to 1500m) the valley opened up leaving wast areas for agriculture. We stopped in Mengzhe and in Lancang on now almost 1000m above sea level. With the higher altitude the climate has become more comfortable for us. We enjoy this and are looking forward to the even higher mountains in the next few months.
