Tiger Leaping Gorge, the Jewel of Yunnan. The gorge is about 40k in length but seems much longer when it is cycled since it is up and down all the way with some quite steep hills demanding low gears. The middle of the Gorge is where the rock stands in the centre of the Yangtze surrounded by a ferocious current of water boiling up everywhere and is the rock onto which it is suggested that a tiger once used as a stepping stone to escape across the river. There are 400 steps down to the edge of the river but you can be taken down by some tuffies in a Sedan Chair if you are a bit tired, lazy or rich. At this point you can take photos along with a mass of other Chinese tourists, ... read more

Rest day in Lijiang Day 8 Rest day is a bit of a misnomer since I seemed to have been busy doing jobs most of the day. First a trip to a bike shop to borrow a headset spanner for Kristine. They had plenty of Bikes and just one small toolbox of spanners which would struggle to sell at a jumble sale. However, I found a large adjustable spanner which a ploughman must have left there one day and we managed to tighten up the bearing. A trip to the hospital to see Roger and Elaine and they were still waiting for a letter from the doctor to say they could not operate and the patient must be taken elsewhere. Otherwise the air ambulance would not be allowed to fly to Lijiang. The paperwork and beaurocracy ... read more

Day 6Jinchuan Old TownThe road to Jinchuan today in constant sun, as usual, although coolish on bare arms until later in morning. The first 30k was along the valley heading North along what is a very busy route for lorries and every conceivable vehicle known to China, mostly the small trucks driven by donkey engines (single and twin cylinder diesels which make a loud knock when accelerated). The small trucks looked like they were in convoy there were that many of them heading to town. Those heading our way almost gassed us unless we could pass them, which was not always difficult especially on hills. The hills came in a big way with hairpin after hairpin for 25k and with a rough road surface in many places, especially on the bends. On the descent we also ... read more

The beds are so hard that I am struggling to sleep. It took several hours and many shifts of position to get any sleep at all and the the next I heard was my phone ringing at 9am. It was our guide David wanting to know if we had gone to the wrong restaurant since he had not seen us. Us being myself and room mate Jeff from Oz. Today was a steady day roaming around the many streets of this ancient city established in 1382 but much of it rebuilt in the last 20 years or so as a major tourist city occupied by mostly Bai minority people in their distinctive white and blue dresses and fancy head dresses not unlike the American Indians without the feathers. The city is set out in a grid ... read more

Mount Jizu Temple We were looking at a long day today so up at 6.35 for 7 'o' clock start to have breakfast of noodles and some unknown things to help us on our way. The one thing about Chinese meals is that you know the format of rice,noodles,cabbage etc but never know how hot the peppers are going to be until 2 minutes later and your palate shrieks out in pain.The first thing after breakfast in the lock up garage was to go up Mt Jizu by way of a 10 seater golf type buggy to the Gondola. Once out of the gondola about 300 steps got us to the top puffing and panting at 3,200m altitude. The temples up there were quite impressive with all the Buddha's on display and the ’Teapots’ where the ... read more