Day 24: Danba - Hongyuan

Moving further North through Sichuan - and even though the mountains look less wild than in the past days, I’m still above 3,500m altitude.

Day 23: Litang - Danba

Re-did one of the days from my Sichuan trip last October. Why so? I finally sat down to revise my planning for the next two weeks so that I can arrive in Urumqi on the same day as Andreas. This meant cutting out the surely beautiful, but also a bit touristy part around Chengdu... So I’ll now stay in the more mountainous part of Sichuan, heading further North towards Langmusi.

Day 22: Shangri-La - Litang

Formally quite simple: Go North for 470 km. But: 150 km are gravel pistes with potholes of all sizes and depths, means six hours for that part alone. Several passes above 4.000m, highest point of the day was 4.630m. There, even a simple photo stop becomes an exercise that can make you dizzy. Gave a shepherd a lift to save maybe an hour of walking. She probably never before had traveled in a modern car, let alone used a safety belt... Later, I met a guy who had cycled his way up there from Chengdu which is around 700km away. Did I mention that we caught some dust?

Day 21: Lijiang - Shangri-La

A full day of scenic driving from Lijiang through Tiger Leaping Gorge to the water cascades of Bai Shui Tai. Met a few guys from Chongqing who had made their way with their BMW motorbikes. I just made it to Shangri-La before sunset from the many photo stops I did in between...

Days 19 & 20: Kunming - Lijiang

Wednesday in Kunming was Jan’s last day as my co-pilot - he headed for the airport in the evening and has arrived well at home! Today I left Kunming and headed towards Lijiang further up in the mountains of Yunnan. And as the Yun in Yunnan stands for cloud, I can tell you Yunnan has delivered...  Plus, we have some nice photos of my trusted C-Trek that has carried us already more than 7.000 km on this journey without any complaints! I hope it goes on like that...