having biked the area extensively and always on the lookout for traffic free areas, I can recommend the following:
Diqin (I assume you mean Shangri-la): head out east on the East Ring road, over Baishuitai, Haba and the east end of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Go to the west end. Do the trek back to the east. Hop in a ferry or take the new bridge over to Daju. Get transport or hike or ride towards Lijiang on this old road. It has a couple inevitable touristy spots, though. From Lijiang, if you are walking, there's a beautiful hike over Shigu (at the first bend of the Yangtze) on an old horse trail towards Jianchuan. If you can't hike, you're stuck to a fairly tourist-laden road to Jianchuan.
At Jianchuan head out to Shaxi, do Shibaoshan etc. Continue down the valley over Yangbi, or head out to Yunlong if that's not too far out of your way, go into Dali. From Dali take the old road over Chuxiong to Kunming.
Of course, if you can meander more, I suggest you approach Kunming from the north.
Shangri-la to nowhere: A week on the edge of Tibet
Posted byIf you crossed Central Asia during summer, I think a luggage this size would be enough for the essentials.
Luggage does not increase with distance. Once you have a tent, sleeping and cooking gear, a change of clothes and some tools, that's it.
Many long-distance riders like to add extra panniers to the front wheel in order to balance their bikes, but with good material and careful planning, this isn't necessary.
A bigger problem is food and water, but you could lose this extra ballast once you're past the barren areas.
Official: Yunnan will have two bullet trains by 2016
Posted bySo that's:
Official: "Yunnan will have two bullet trains by 2016"
not:
Official: Yunnan will have two bullet trains by 2016
:)
4G/3G connections are possible at high speeds. It all depends on the handover when you move from beacon to beacon. Some providers are particularly bad at it, others better. I remember that I had no problem using mobile internet riding high-speed trains in Germany with Deutsche Telekom, but with O2, the connection would always drop.
Streaming movies over Wifi is very unlikely. Takes up way too much bandwidth and most people who bring their computer will have their own movie collection.
Megatrudge 2014: 400 kilometers across the Gobi
Posted byrespect Pavel. That's a real bloody challenge!
Land mines and coffee in Wenshan
Posted byBecause they have no idea where they put them. That's the deal with mines, military don't seem to keep track of where exactly every mine is positioned, especially as some of them are moved around by landslides or other factors.
Elephant poached for ivory in Xishuangbanna
Posted bycloudtrapezer you're just saying something. China is actually one of the few countries to enforce a pretty strict wildlife protection policy. Banna is one of the few places where elephant populations are growing instead of dwindling because of this policy, much in contrast with other Asian regions.