Leaving Emeishan, it was clear that it was a good time to go. More and more people, and lots of cars coming in. It was another gray day; in fact, since we are in the Sichuan basin, it's been gray most of the time. It often feels a bit misty, but it's probably haze after all... We had a bit more than 150km to go towards Chengdu, so we'd split that in 2 nice cycling days again, with a stop in the middle - or in fact, probably a bit further. The first 30km of the road was 30km back on the same road as we had used to come in, not a nice one, we knew that already... It continued very similarly beyond that 30km as well (maybe slightly better), in fact most of the route until Pengshan was similar; 2 and sometimes 4 lanes, usually a hard shoulder to ride on but not always, quite a bit of traffic (with many trucks) but luckily not really busy (more in the opposite direction). The scenery was not great but OK, lots of agriculture and still some tea fields, not too urban - yet...
 |
| Buses in Emeishan, ready to shuttle the crowds to the mountain. |
The first option to stay for the night was a place called Meishan, midway to Chengdu. We were there early afternoon, and it had all been easy cycling, so we continued at least to the next place, Pengshan. In fact, cycling though Meishan, we saw the first other long distance tour bikers since we entered China! We had seen 2 other guys before, both Chinese cyclists, the first one in the very beginning, he was on his way to Thailand - unfortunately we could not have a good chat with him, as he didn't speak English - the second one we only saw from a distance. These 2 in Meishan we only saw as well, they were on the other side of the very wide road in the city, they did not see us (as they were, like us, zig zagging through traffic and various obstacles 😎), it would have been nice to chat with them...
 |
| Lunch stop, tasty spicy Sichuan noodle soup |
 |
| Snap shot from the bicycle, good impression of the route and the weather on this part of the ride... |
 |
| The moment we've been waiting for: a Stabruck coffee shop! |
 |
| When we left Pengshan we rode through this interesting but totally dilapidated old town. |
And so we continued to Pengshan, stopped for a snack, and decided to still continue to Huanglongxi, a small ancient town that looked nice. It became a 114km easy cycling day, and this way we had some time to visit Huanglongxi and only a short day riding to Chengdu left for the next day. When we arrived in Huanglongxi (late afternoon) it was still quite busy, but it soon became much quieter, clearly a lot of tourists visited for the day! It meant we could enjoy the town in the evening and next day morning without the crowds, great! By the time we left the next morning, around 11am, it was becoming very busy, and on the way out we saw masses of people coming into town (literally). Our timing had, unknowingly, been great!
 |
| Pretty Huanglongxi town |
 |
| Sichuan spices |
 |
| Huanglongxi town, some of it was newly built ancient style, some of it very authentic! |
 |
| Huanglongxi temple |
 |
| Huanglongxi temple |
 |
| Huanglongxi town |
 |
| The hotel owner really had done his best to get things sorted out for us, and prepared this note by the time we left. Fantastic! |
 |
| The crowds are getting in, we're getting out! |
From Huanglongxi we were able to follow a small rural road for about 20km, which was very nice riding and beyond all expectations, and then followed by another 25km of city cycling. Chengdu is huge, it was literally more than 25km city before we got close to the centre. But: it was perfectly fine! We hadn't looked forward to this part, because we don't like cities, we don't like the busy traffic, noise, chaos, that come with it - but it was not like that. Very wide boulevards, good bike lanes, little traffic most of the time (possibly thanks to the holiday of course), not even too noisy (hardly any honking here!); it was much better than we had anticipated, and a total contrast to cycling in Kuala Lumpur for sure! There are also many other people on bikes, and share bicycles everywhere. The system here is different: you can take and leave the shared bicycles anywhere you like; they all have a tracker, you open an app and immediately see all the bicycles in the area wherever they are. Much easier than the systems with the fixed parking stations.
 |
| Riding into hazy Chengdu |
 |
| We had been to many "smaller" Chinese cities on our way, this is another magnitude all together... |
 |
| Arrival at Natooke! Last stop in China, we'll be flying to Korea from here this Saturday |
We arrived at Natooke, a specialised tour bike shop in Chengdu run by 2 Americans, Jacob and Larry. Larry is a Warm Showers host, and offered his place to stay, so we're now so lucky to stay in his apartment, for the first time we're in a "home" and it feels very nice! The first thing we did was to go to the Carrefour (!) and buy a baguette, some cheese, olives, a bottle of nice French wine, and Nutella!!! Wow, heaven! After that early evening splurge, we went to an Irish bar - the Shamrock - had a great western dinner, and a couple of Belgian beers (Delirium Tremens, Duvel and La Chouffe: nothing wrong with that!!! - and enough for 1 evening after 4 months of very little alcohol...), and met a Dutch and Singaporean with whom we had a very nice evening. Woohoo, this felt so much like a much deserved reward, what a happy evening!
 |
| Without words... |
Now we have 4 easy days in Chengdu, no real plans yet. We'll have our bicycles first checked and put in order for the remaining part of our trip, then packed for the flight, at Natooke. Other than that, we'll just be taking it easy, and enjoy the city life...
 |
| The route we have followed since KL, 6700km, with thanks to Babs who has kept track all along in Zeemaps |