Great arc of the great Shangri-La 2 - 22 day bike tour
Difficulty: Hard
Average riding per day: 80km (50mile)
Average altitude: 2500m(8200feet)
Highest altitude: 5050m(16000feet)
This trip is the combination of the most beautiful part of Great arc of the great Shangri-La and Cross Traverse Mountains from Cheng Du to Dege. It is rated the most difficult trip in all of our bike tours. You paddle harder, you enjoy more. But be prepared for the hardship.
This trip starts from Chendu, then traverses the Traverse mountain, heads down to northwest Yunnan ,and ends trip in LiJiang.
The highlights of this 22-day trip are: nomadic culture on grassland in Sichuan, landscape of Traverse Mountains, Tea-horse trading road culture.
Here is the day by day itinerary:
Day 0, Group meet in Chengdu
Total distance: 10km(6mile)/Riding distance: 500m(0.3mile)
Cycle in Chengdu, relax in traditional tea house.
Day 1, Chengdu—Gu’er
Total distance: 249km(150mile)/Riding distance: 80km(50mile)
Average altitude: 1600m(5300feet)/Highest altitude: 2200m(7300feet)
Drive out of heavy traffic section all the way to Wenchuan (140KM), start cycling along a tributary of Ming river, visit a Qiang village called Taopin, there were some amazing stone watch towers stand for thousands years. They were built up to defense them from their enemy—north nomadic cavalry. Keep on cycling to Gu’er, stay in a hot spring hotel.
Day 2, Gu’er—Hongyuan
150km(90mile)/80km(50mile)
2800m(9200feet)/4000m(13000feet)
The valley today still beautiful, but we will end it very soon and cycle into grass land after crossing a 4KM long tunnel. We will see nomadic tents everywhere, nomads herding their yaks and sheep, flowers bloom, it’s a great view when we cycle up to the watershed of Yangtze and Yellow river, but be careful, dogs might attack you some time. Hongyuan means “red land” because of the Red Army had been crossed the grass land, and also because of thousands soldiers died there during the Long March, “their blood made the land red”.
Day 3, Hongyuan—Tangke
80km(50mile)/80km(50mile)
3200m(10000feet)/3300m(10000feet)
On the way to Tangke, we will cycle of the major road to visit a big monastery of Red sect. It’s a huge one with lots of big stupa. Tangke is on a big bend of the Yellow river, it used to be a very famous grass land which owned the best destrier. Nomads there are very proud of their horses.
Day 4, Tangke—Aba
137km(85mile)/80km(50mile)
3200m(10000feet)/3700m(12000feet)
We will take a dusty back road deep into grass land, visit the most traditional nomads tents. People seldom speak Han Chinese but they are very friendly. We are welcome to be their guests. Aba is a religion center of Amdo nomads, there are 52 important monasteries in this county. We will visit a couple of them, and we have chance to be guests of living Buddha.
Day 5, Aba—Rangtang
147km(90mile)/80km(50mile)
3000m(9900feet)/3700m(12000feet)
It’s a long riding day, but the landscape is so amazing, when will climb up to the first mountain pass in the morning, we could see the whole holy town is in the golden sunshine. Wild animals might cross the road sometime—they have no sense of traffic rules. Road keep going with the head water of Dadu river, people live along the river make life by part herding part farming and part of gold mining. They believe a very old branch of Tibetan Buddhism—Jolang sect, and only there.
Day 6, Rangtang—Luhuo
140km(87mile)/90km(56mile)
3000m(9900feet)/3800m(12500feet)
This section is seldom traveled by westerners, Luhuo is famous for it’s forests, and it used to be a very important county for logging, and Tibetan there built houses by using lots of huge log, each one might be more than a house, more like a castle.
Day 7, Luhuo—Ganzi
84km(52mile)/84km(52mile)
3400m(11000feet)/4100m(13500feet)
A hard mountain pass is Luoguo which has three tops to torture us.
Tibetan nuns could be seen when we climbing up form a small village,
they always curiously stop you and ask you strange questions, like
“How could you change your eyes into blue?”. Khampa people are
More open in this area, some times they even want to have a photo
with you by dressing up traditional long gown.
Day 8, Ganzi—Manigango
90km(56mile)/80km(50mile)
3500m(11500feet)/4000m(13200feet)
More nomads, more Kangpa people, more monasteries, bigger grass land and no big mountain pass, everything would be perfect today.
Day 9, Manigango—Dege
115km(72mile)/80km(50mile)
3600m(12000feet)/5050m(16700feet)
Highest mountain pass called Qola today which is 5050m on altitude.
We might start cycling very early in the morning. Sandy road will make us exhausted but the long down hill is what we expectant.
Day 10, Dege
50km(31mile)/50km(31mile)
2500m(8250feet)/2700m(8900feet)
Dege, a small town near the Gold Sand river. It is the center of Kangpa culture. We will visit a traditional printing house which print Buddhism bibles, and a unique monastery which also feed Hinduism gods. In the afternoon we will cycle to the Tibetan border and drive back.
Day 11, Dege—Ganzi
205km(130mile)/70km(44mile)
3500m(11500feet)/5050m(16700feet)
Mostly drive, choose some nice down hill cycling.
Day 12, Ganzi—Xinlong
103km(66mile)/103km(66mile)
3200m(10500feet)/3250m(10700feet)
A rolling road goes along the Yalong river—One of the major tributary of the Yangtze. It’s a warm valley with breezee on your face, a very nice relax riding day.
Day 13, Xinlong—Litang
130km(81mile)/50km(30mile)
3600m(11900feet)/4300m(14200feet)
This section is really hard, out of Xinlong, after crossing a bridge of the Yalong river, road becoming rough and muddy. But the country sight is so nice, people there use very short hoes for farming, they bend really hard for working. I don’t why they don’t use a longer shaft? Litang is a high altitude city(4100m), nomads there are mixture of a big family of Mongolian Keshik and local Khampa. Because of that, Litang gets the best horse riders in the Great Tibet. We will stay with a local reach family in the evening, they make the best butter tea in western Sichuan.
Day 14, Litang—Daocheng—Yading
210km(130mile)/80km(50mile)
3600m(11900feet)/4200m(13800feet)
Today we have a big mountain pass to cross, huge moraine are everywhere along the road, you can choose some of them to do a little bit bowldering.
Day 15, Yading (hiking day)
Yading is a national park where the three holy mountain stand: the Avoloketchisavara, Manjushri, Charnodorji. We will have a one day trek to have a view of them.
Day 16, Yading—Derong
230km(140mile)/70km(43mile)
3400m(11200feet)/4000m(13200feet)
Because of the distance is too long and the road all paved by cement. We will drive all the up hill road and cycle all the down hill section. And also, the most beautiful view is all on the down hill sections.
Day 17, Derong—Benzilan
95km(60mile)/70km(43mile)
3000m(9900feet)/3400m(11200feet)
Today we will get into Yunnan province, and the Yangtze area. It’s more dry in Yunnan part, huge cereus wild growing in the canyon. Benzilan is a small town, but most of the local people have lived there because of the Tea-Horse trading road, they worked as stablemen. Their caravans even have been to India or further.
Day 18, Benzilan—Zhongdian
83km(50mile)/60km(37mile)
3000m(9900feet)/3600m(119000feet)
Cycle along the Yangtze, cross two mountain passes to Zhongdian, Zhongdian located in a wide valley between the Yangtze and Mekong.
We will visit the “lesser Potala Palace”—Gardan Songzanlin Monastery in the afternoon.
Day 19, Zhongdian—Sanba
120km(75mile)/80km(50mile)
2500m(8250feet)/3200m(10500feet)
A tough day witch is about 80KM long and 4 mountain passes on the way, but very beautiful view on every passes, on May we could see lots kinds of rhododendron. Along this 80KM, we could see three kinds of ethnic group: Tibet, Yi and Naxi. They have different architecture style, different dressing and live style. But the were all very important on the Tea-Horse trading road in the history.
Day 20, Sanba—Walnut grove
50km(30mile)/50km(30mile)
1800m(5900feet)/2400m(7900feet)
Today we have two short continuous mountain passes to conquer. After that we will have a very long down hill road all the way to Daju, a small town built on the Yangtze riverside terrace. And then we drive 10KM to walnut grove. Start trekking, down to the most grand section of the Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Day 21, Walnut grove—Qiaotou—Lijiang
114km(70mile)/60km(37mile)
2000m(6600feet)/2600m(8500feet)
Cycle through the Tiger Leaping Gorge, drive to the First Bend of Yangtze. Keep on cycling to Lijiang. Naixi Ancient Music Performance in the evening.
Day 22, Trip end.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
Group size 1: $5300USD/person
Group size 2 - 8: $3100USD/person
The price includes:
* A hotel/guesthouse room based on double occupancy, private room available with extra charge;
* Food;
* A transportation/support vehicle;
* A professional English speaking guide who will be riding with you and singing fork songs;
* A nice mountain bicycle rental.
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