China summary

When we left Malaysia, we knew that cycling through China was a serious option, but it was not sure at all if we would indeed go there. Thailand was a certainty, Myanmar and Laos high on the wish list (Myanmar didn't make it in the end!), Korea and Japan likely, but China was the big (and yes, big it is!) uncertainty in between those. We didn't know if it would work in terms of timing, whether we actually even wanted to cycle through China and also, if it wasn't going to be too heavy with all those mountains in the south... well, China was great, we're 100% glad we did go, what a wonderful experience! We spent 37 days in China and would have happily stayed longer - but it was time to move on as we had made more plans meanwhile!

The kitchen at our first "choose from the fridge" restaurant.

Awesome cycling on the beautiful G213, direction Menglun

We really enjoyed china most of the time, although we had maybe a little motivation dip after 3 weeks or so. This was probably not that much because of China as such, but I think we mostly needed a bit of rest - which was not that easy to find here. After all, by then we had been riding more than a month in tough mountainous terrain, and while riding through China was fantastic, it was also challenging in many ways - you'll read that throughout this post. China was so interesting because it was so different from other places we know well in Asia, mostly South East Asia. It looks (very) different: buildings, nature, cities, even how people dress, the roads are different, language is totally unknown to us, interactions with people are different, scale of things is beyond anything we know, the Chinese culture is both (partially) new and fascinating, ... The list goes on and it's difficult to just describe what is different and why, but it's definitely that difference that has made it so interesting, fascinating and at the same time, sometimes difficult. Finally, it's also a country of contrasts and contradictions, I think that will become more clear throughout the post too.

Cup of tea, anyone?

or rather coffee?

Ahhh, the Chinese! So interesting, nice, friendly, helpful, pleasant - most of the time. The girl who helped us with our SIM card, the lady who made sure we had a fresh pack of coffee, the guys who did everything to get us to the hotel we preferred - these stories are incredible and make China what it is! Of course we had other experiences too; people who were arrogant, blunt, even rude. Mostly this is actually when they don't really know how to solve a situation, for instance when they "can't" allow you as a foreigner in their hotel. Chinese can seem really blunt, by just standing right in front of you when you're watching something, by stopping their car right before you when you cross the road, by almost walking over you, ... It's sometimes strange for us, but you can just notice that this is not badly intended; somehow the Chinese people don't pay attention to this, it's normal, you see that other Chinese are also not getting irritated by things like that at all.

Bike sharing in Pu'er, we saw this in many Chinese cities and being very well used, well done China!

The tea horse trek village, definitely a bit touristy but still very nicely done; it certainly makes you feel in China!

People are often really charming. We thoroughly enjoyed observing people of all ages enjoying themselves in the city parks in the evening: dancing, talking, playing, roller blading, whatever. An old man walking around with a little bird on a stick. The enthusiastic performances in People's Park, and so on. They are so uncomplicated in this kind of things, it's wonderful, it feels like they don't "unlearn" to be a child as much as we do. Less charming: the rasping from deep below, and spitting - anytime, anywhere, also on the staircase, in the supermarket, etc. The one thing which I won't regret leaving behind: communication problems! It's so hard to even pick up the most essential terms in Chinese, even after more than a month I don't feel like I've learned many new words. We found some ways to cope with it: a few words after all, Google Translate (big help!), pointing, laughing, ... Funny also how people wrote things down in Chinese for us if we couldn't talk, and being very surprised we could not even read!

Cycling uphill through cool pine forest.

Many charming villages on our way, especially in Yunnan

Cycling in China was incredible and much beyond expectations, probably even some of the best we've had on our trip so far. The mountain scenery was just magnificent. Of course, with mountains comes hard work, but the rewards were so great that it was so much worth it. We didn't know in advance if we could handle those mountains and only decided in Luang Prabang to go for it, and luckily we did! After almost 1,5 months of mountain cycling we briefly had enough of it and took a short bus ride, but other than that we would immediately do it again! Chinese roads were mostly good, most of the time, but when it was bad it was really bad, and we've also had some of the worst sections of road since we left on this trip... For much of the time we had little traffic, and this is something we really wouldn't have imagined in busy China. Also here, some exceptions with (very) busy roads and lots of noisy, dusty, smelly roaring trucks and of course: the eternal honking!!! (Another thing I won't miss)...

Beautiful picnic spot (first and almost only one we've seen in China) midway on a long climb, perfect for a short stop with quick energy intake

Wonderful morning view, leaving Tongguan, great weather and beautiful blue sky

Apart from wonderful natural scenery (ah, the perfect morning coffee break spots we've found!), we also rode through a lot of beautiful traditional rural villages, without exception fascinating to see. Contrary to Thailand or Laos, it was typically not possible to stay in these small villages, you almost always end up in a bigger town. Speaking of which, some of these look very small on the map, but something like a small Chinese town does not really exist; for us they were all at least a small city. Riding through Chinese cities was usually fine however, even the really big ones like Chengdu. There are almost always decent bike lanes, and even though you often have to weave through all kinds of obstacles, it's safe and practical. The big exception here was Panzhihua, a really bicycle unfriendly place.

The way up, with series of hairpin bends, but always with a gradual gradient

Mojiang city square, this is the kind of city square where people gather and do all kind of evening activities - mostly dancing

The timing of our China leg was very good, with the spring in full swing we had nice weather, blue skies, pleasant temperatures and a lot of fresh green, flowers, blossoms with only a few short periods of rain, and of course haze towards Chengdu. The cooler weather also meant that we didn't have to leave very early in the morning anymore to avoid the midday heat, great! Despite this nice weather, we haven't camped at all in China. On the one hand because hotels were good and cheap (see below), also because it wouldn't have been easy (although we found a few spots where camping would have been very nice).

Almost every town in China has some bakeries, although they don't sell the kind of bread we know. It's mostly sweet bread and pastry, soft and fluffy. They do have some bread however, and we found delicious sugar loaf bread (suikerbrood)

Delicious Sichuan hotpot!

Whenever you read about traveling in China, you will read about the fantastic food. We confirm! Food was great! It was funny, sometimes a hassle also, to order - especially in the beginning, it became better as we grew more used to it. Just going to the fridge, pointing at what you'd like to eat, and the kitchen then magically preparing some dishes with that, was a new and exciting experience. It was much easier if there was a menu, which seemed to be more frequently the case in Sichuan than Yunnan. Even if in Chinese, Google Translate came to the rescue! We then just pointed at some dishes on the menu which we thought would be fine, still got surprised usually, but that way we did get proper dishes. We did not always eat vegetarian but usually did, and normally there was ample choice. Then, we discovered the Sichuan hotpot, one of those WOW food moments, this will surely remain a favourite forever. China surprised us with bakeries, always everywhere although strangely, none of these (except in Chengdu) had "real" fresh bread as we know it (although this was typically what was shown on ads and menus). We were also surprised that, outside the really big cities, China is still very Chinese in brands and products, you'll find very little international ones. For example, we saw the first Starbucks on our China trip in Chengdu only! We did not find Nutella, we had to move heaven and earth to find ground coffee (and not 3-in-1) despite seeing all the coffee plantations in Yunnan.

Incredible rice paddies, more and more impressive as we cycled through the mountains

Wonderful weather, fantastic views, charming villages, ... Yunnan!

Nearly at the highest point, what a view!!!

And then: what else about "typical" China? Well, another thing we won't miss, is the hassle to either find a hotel that can accept us (that difficulty did not happen too often luckily) or to get registered. It's compulsory for all hotels to register their guests; for foreigners that's a bit more complicated and the people often get lost in translation (literally). It often asked for a heavy dose of patience once you arrived at a hotel, not really what you're looking for after a day of heavy cycling... You notice a lot of police on the street, everywhere, but on the other hand they never interfered with us, and they are certainly friendly. Internet was omnipresent, incredible, but the internet speed was as good as always terrible. It's also essential to work via a VPN connection in China, because of the Great Firewall - you won't get on Google sites, Facebook and many others without VPN. China is also big cities, and haze - although we've seen the impressive efforts done in terms of investments in renewable energy.

Making the most of the wasted time at a road block, enjoying coffee in our comfy chairs. This road was closed per 2 hour blocks, to allow for safe working on the mountain for a dam under construction.

Riding through wind turbine valley. The heavy winds we had the day before were maybe not so exceptional... There were hundreds of turbines in this valley, if not more than 1000...

Another gigantic solar farm on our way, what you see here is just a little fraction of the entire installation.

China is also mega projects, the scale with which they undertake projects is sometimes beyond imagination. The highways under construction, with enormous bridges, tunnels galore, mountains carved out, just incredible. Chinese build entire cities at once; not one house, not a couple of houses, not a couple of apartment towers even, but dozens of towers with roads, train lines and stations, shopping malls and entertainment facilities, parks, and so on - or for instance, just build a new "ancient town" like the one in Chuxiong; amazing. I mentioned the renewable energy installations before. The number of hydropower dams we've seen, the wind and solar "valleys", far beyond a scale I've ever seen before. Or something else most people probably don't realise (I didn't before this trip): the vast majority of cars on the road in China are now Chinese brands, cars designed and made in China - and they look like decent modern cars. Just less than 10 years ago I think there were still very few Chinese cars, and they could not compete with imported ones; it has completely shifted in few years time, an enormous leap.

Great roads through beautiful landscapes

And terrible roads... Possibly still with beautiful landscapes but that's a bit hard to tell...

View over the tea plants and bamboo from our coffee break spot; no problem to find scenic and quiet spots on the way (most of the time)

Mega... I mentioned that even "small towns" are like quite big cities for us. Chinese towns and cities are quite pleasant however. They have mostly wide lanes, often tree lined, with big sidewalks on which you can actually comfortably walk, parks, commercial areas, well planned. They all look a bit the same and are a bit "soulless", but fine and practical. The hotels we found in China were better than expected, and there were many! Sometimes entire streets full of hotels, even in really small towns... Beds were almost always better than in Laos or Thailand, only bathrooms were sometimes smelly...

Thanks to the slow travel by bicycle you get to see this kind of charming authentic villages

An old house in Heijing

Huanglongxi town

We loved absorbing the (old and new) Chinese culture, the ancient towns (the real ancient ones, but even the not so ancient ones), the pandas in Ya'an, Emei mountain - definitely one of the highlights, the temples, all the minorities (especially in Yunnan, we saw so many). The attractions we did were great, only very expensive! Also, the best and most well known attractions get very busy on weekends and holidays, so that is definitely something to keep in mind in China...

The stone forests near Yuanmou, as a result of erosion, impressive views.

The Yangtze River, seen from 2000m high, one of my biggest goose bump moments!

Bifeng gorge, beautiful hike from the panda base, another highlight

Would we do anything different, looking back at it? I don't think so; the route we followed (mostly similar to Pedalling West, thanks again for the inspiration Andy and Claire) was very much off the beaten track. That was very nice as that is the kind of experiences we're looking for, although it's not always the easiest and most comfortable travel! We could have gone through Dali and Lijang, it would have been easier in many ways, but I'm glad we didn't. There were other options, we can't compare of course, but we're glad we did what we did. We experienced China (well, at least Yunnan and Sichuan) in a very different way from ever before, and even often said that it would probably be a very interesting place to live for a while - which I wouldn't have thought beforehand.

The panda centre in Ya'an, one of the big tourist attractions near Chengdu

Emei mountain, another major highlight of the China tour (not on a bicycle for once)

A volunteer photographer made a picture of the two of us a the top of Emei mountain, yeey

And then the very end: budget. We used an average budget between the Thai and Lao budgets, a bit more than 1000 EUR per month. We would have been near the same budget as Thailand, if it weren't for the expensive tourist attractions (Ya'an, Emeishan) and the splurges in the cities (ahhh, these temptations of good food and Belgian beer!). We used about 50% of our budget on food, and 25% on accommodation.

Scenic and mystic Hufu Temple near Emeishan, surrounded by mountains and forest

Huanglongxi temple

Monks going to a ceremony in Wenshu Temple, Chengdu

That's about it - it became a much longer summary than I anticipated. That's because China was great, we had such fantastic experiences and were so glad we included this in our trip, and we'll be back!!!