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Yunnan ChinaYunnan China
North Yunnan, meaning Dali, Lijiang and Zhongdian (shangrila) are well traveled. Xishuangbana borders Laos and see more and more tourists coming and Bashoan corner in south west Yunnan sees a few travelers. The North east, east and south east are quite unexplored. True, there is less to see then in the north west, but for example Tonghai and the road from Kunming through Sonming to Zhaotong and south Sichuan are worth the journey, if you have the time.
So, how to get there and what is the attraction? Possible routes in YunnanIt really depends on your available time. Many cyclist choose for Kunming-Dali-Lijiang-Kunming, indeed a great area for bicycling with lots of things to see. There are many minorities, mountains, lakes and mostly reasonable good roads and good weather. There are other options available:
Getting to YunnanYunnan's main airport is located in Kunming, the capital of the province. There are several other airports in the province: Dali, Lijiang, Zhongdian (Shangrila), Jing Hong, Baoshan and other.
If you are already in China, you may want to choose the train to get to Yunnan. Kunming is the main entrance to the province and it's unlikely you will not visit the city sooner or later. Trains are available to Chengdu Sichuan and Nanning-Guilin. Opposite of the railway station is the bus station. If you decide not to cycle out of Kunming, a bus can bring you to almost any destination in Yunnan: Jing Hong is about 22 hours away, Dali and Lijiang have regular busses. Baoshan is possible too. As I have been quite a few times in Kunming I would advice cycling out of Kunming to Laos is a great option. Keep in mind the road out of Kunming to Dali, the 321, is after 50 km or so a motorway and no accessible for cyclist. Going out north to Zhaotong and north Yunnan to Sichuan is nice enough and the road to shilin (Stone Forest) is good to do too. If you plane the Zhaotong route, it will take you about 2 to 3 weeks, going to Guilin from Kunming takes 3 to 4 weeks depending how many kilometers you cycle and how many resting days. The Attractions in YunnanThe province contains almost half of the officially recognized minorities. Even in the old days of the Chinese emperors, her it was a corner in the empire and far from the capitals. Therefore it was difficult to reach and thus difficult to rule.
The south, Xishuangbanna was the next area and then Baoshan followed. Many areas however have never been really "discovered" by the masses, not even by the Chinese themselves. So, what are the options for a nice interesting bike ride. And, what do you need to bring apart of your bicycle and some humor? Yunnan is blessed with a moderate climate. However, the northern parts are at altitude, in winter it is cold, snow and ice can rule the area. The southern parts are much milder, Xishuangbanna has even in January the daytime temperature is seldom lover then 20°C though it can be cold in the mornings (last year I was there in February with 6°C. So if you decide to come in winter and want to cycle north, bring some cold weather clothes. Otherwise, bring as little as possible. You can get what you need cheap in China (apart of shoes sizes 42 and bigger). I have put together a rough map of Yunnan to give you a slight idea where the named places have to be found. Click here for the map. The best you can do is get a map in Kunming at the Xinhua bookstore in the city center. These are provincial maps and in Chinese but very good and very useful. Bike shopsKunming has an excellent bicycle shop. It is located near the Greenlake Park. Xiong Brothers' Bike Shop has a reasonable collection of good materials. They can fix your bike for almost any problem. There are reports of ripping foreigners off. In fact, they did repair my bike once for free, changed materials (I brought them in myself) but they didn't charge me anything. The address is: Behind the Wallmart in the city center of Kunming you will find another excellent bicycle shop. They are maybe a bit more expensive but they will have for sure more material. In the area of the PSB office and the Lao and Myanmar embassy in the Camellia Hotel), near the second Wallmart there are another view decent bicycle shops. They are worth checking out for some spare stuff.
In Lijiang, despite the fact it is a great place to ride a bicycle, you will not find a decent bike shops. Basic repairs can be done at many small bike rental shops. You'd be surprised seeing what they can fix. And in case you break a rack, read more here In other towns you can find the usual bike repair shops but don't expect to find good Shimano material. Subscribe to my Bicycle adventure RSS feed, if you don't know what this is, please read here more:
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Kunming is an international airport, you can fly in from several international departures (a.o.
Thailand) though for many you have to fly to either Hong Kong, Shanghai or
Beijing. 
Yunnan China is very colorful, in fact one of the most colorful provinces of China. For many years the travelers favorites were Kunming and Dali. Then Lijiang was "discovered". 
