I apologize for any misspellings.
After a thoroughly fun night in Xian with some great hosts, I hit the road around noon time, on the 4th of November and headed southwest towards the Qinling Mountains. The weather was rainy, and it continued to be this way for the next 4 days. I left via highway 210, which goes through flatlands for about 30 KM before arriving at the Qinling range. The roads were beautifully paved throughout the entirety of this to journey, all the way to Chengdu.
Once at the base of the Qinlings, I found that there was a significant amount of climbing, as well as descending, as well as climbing again, peaking at altitude of 2700m or so. This was panda territory I am told, but there was no chance of seeing one apart from the ones on billboard adds and packages of cheap ciggarettes. Beautiful temperate, decidous forest with heavy pine forests at higher altitudes. Towns in the Qinling are ubiquitous and consist of snack and drink stalls as well as a few cafes. If you look at a map, you notice a bend in highway 210 that places it very closely to the G5 freeway. There is a tunnel which leads to G5. Though you cannot cycle on the freeway, I hopped a small guard rail, for efficiencies sake. 5 KM down the road, a 10 KM tunnel started and the police picked me up in their pickup. After 15 KM they pulled off the highway and deposited me where I had wanted to get off the freeway, at the highway 108 junction. No paperwork or nothing, just a click of their mobile phone camera to show off to friends, and they let me go. I like chinese policemen!
At Highway 108, the road started to descend toward Hanzhong, where I met pollution and heavy traffic. A night in a hotel with some friends, a good fish dinner and back on the road. Pulling out of Hanzhong on 108, the road continued to be clustered untlil about 30 KM away where I met beautiful rolling hill scenery. This continued all the way into cloudy / hazy sichuan basin about 100 KM away from Chengdu. In Chengdu, now recovering from some kind of rash, I think from bed bugs, but I am not sure, and planning the rest of the route to Kunming. I would love to get to western Sichuan, but I am not so sure if I have the time! We’ll see!
After a thoroughly fun night in Xian with some great hosts, I hit the road around noon time, on the 4th of November and headed southwest towards the Qinling Mountains. The weather was rainy, and it continued to be this way for the next 4 days. I left via highway 210, which goes through flatlands for about 30 KM before arriving at the Qinling range. The roads were beautifully paved throughout the entirety of this to journey, all the way to Chengdu.
Once at the base of the Qinlings, I found that there was a significant amount of climbing, as well as descending, as well as climbing again, peaking at altitude of 2700m or so. This was panda territory I am told, but there was no chance of seeing one apart from the ones on billboard adds and packages of cheap ciggarettes. Beautiful temperate, decidous forest with heavy pine forests at higher altitudes. Towns in the Qinling are ubiquitous and consist of snack and drink stalls as well as a few cafes. If you look at a map, you notice a bend in highway 210 that places it very closely to the G5 freeway. There is a tunnel which leads to G5. Though you cannot cycle on the freeway, I hopped a small guard rail, for efficiencies sake. 5 KM down the road, a 10 KM tunnel started and the police picked me up in their pickup. After 15 KM they pulled off the highway and deposited me where I had wanted to get off the freeway, at the highway 108 junction. No paperwork or nothing, just a click of their mobile phone camera to show off to friends, and they let me go. I like chinese policemen!
At Highway 108, the road started to descend toward Hanzhong, where I met pollution and heavy traffic. A night in a hotel with some friends, a good fish dinner and back on the road. Pulling out of Hanzhong on 108, the road continued to be clustered untlil about 30 KM away where I met beautiful rolling hill scenery. This continued all the way into cloudy / hazy sichuan basin about 100 KM away from Chengdu. In Chengdu, now recovering from some kind of rash, I think from bed bugs, but I am not sure, and planning the rest of the route to Kunming. I would love to get to western Sichuan, but I am not so sure if I have the time! We’ll see!
Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteHope youre having an awesome time, and keep doing what you do. Be safe and make good choices!
-Marie