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Pu'er, YunnanTea center of ChinaPu'er is the tea center of China. No wonder many know of the Pu'er. That said, few people visit the town. It's no wonder as the town it not very special, just another Chinese city. Pu'er is located at an important junction in Yunnan. Going south leads to Simao and Jinghong. There are two roads going north. The first leads directly to Kunming while another road leads to Lancang and Baoshan.
There is a new expressway that connects Kunming with Jing Hong and it comes to Pu'er. It's a good 4 lane road so why would you consider the old road 213? Cycling has a lot to do with getting away from the beaten path. These days the old road is hardly used anymore, even by locals. Every now and then a truck and a few motorbikes pass when I was in the neighborhood of villages.
I left Tongguan at an altitude of 1525 meter expecting to go down a bit
before going straight up. Right after leaving Tongguan I was left alone in
a descending that took a nice 21 km. I was down to a level of 845 meter at
a split of two rivers. According to my Chinese map (the Nelles didn't give
me this info) I had to follow the river now for some kilometers. I cycled
mostly on a flat road while on the other side of the river the expressway
was laid out. After about 7 km the road turned south as did the river and the expressway. Together we went further south. I started to climb slowly now. It wasn't hard and there was hardly any traffic apart of the villages (one I remembered from some years ago when I stayed there. The ascending from Tongguan had been easy, this climb was easy too. It went up slowly. I still followed the river in a fertile valley with here and there a village. At 50 km I left the expressway. My road (number G213) went it's own way. Still it was slowly going up. I arrived in a wide open valley with many little villages. The road
condition had been excellent so far. That was about to change. And it
changed at the moment the road now started to climb more significantly.
But I was still in the valley. At the end of the valley the road, now in
poor condition, started to zigzag up. From the lowest point at 845 meter I
had already climbed up to 1100 meter, almost unnoticed.
I was about to leave the valley while the road became seriously damaged. It became a lot more difficult to cycle now. The agriculture grounds were now behind me and I was in the forests. It was beautiful, all green and trees, as a last part of the old wild forests that must have exists here for centuries. Steep hills with forest and my road went further up. I had no idea how high I would go. At a certain stage I thought I was up, at 1470 meter. I went down a bit but then the climbing started again until I reach 1700 meter. At this level I stayed for quite a few kilometers. It went up and down. Only the sound of the trees and an occasional motorbike disturbed the peace of the forest. Every once in awhile a truck passed but that was about to change. The closer I came to Pu'er, the more trucks I saw. And I saw also why: a stone groove, not a pleasant thing to cycle to. The groove created a lot of dust in the air and the truck demolished the road even more then it already was. But Pu'er was near and so was the end of the bad road. The last few kilometers where quick on a new laid road into the town of Pu'er. Back to Cycling in Xishuanbana Back to the top of on the way to Pu'er Back to the Bicycle Adventures.com homepage
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Search This SiteThe road to Jing HongFrom Puer it's still two days cycling. The first part goes to Simao. The next day goes to Jing Hong, worth the journey
YOUR cycling in China adventuresHave you been cycling in China? What happened? Any great story to tell? Cycling in China Adventure stories written by YOU Cycling in LaosLaos is a stonethrow from Xishuangbanna and a cyclist favorite for years. It's a very relaxed country. Chinese CyclistWhen a cyclist meet another cyclist, they stop and exchange experiences. This meeting was with a Chinese cyclist from Yining in the far west of China. On his local made mountain bike he cycled along all the borders of his country. I met him in Simao
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