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.
Dragon Boat Festival
Posted byyou'll make a fortune cookie.
Dragon Boat Festival
Posted byThanks for this. I always wondered what could possibly connect the ferocious paddling with triangular snacks. And was obviously too lazy to look it up for myself.
Interview: Environmentalist Li Yuan
Posted byAnd on not wasting water: get rid of Taiyangneng. The amount of water you waste while waiting for it to warm up is simply silly.
Hiking from Daju to Lugu Lake, part 1
Posted byI recently undertook a bike trip to 'Big Tool' and put some pictures up of the same valley. It's amazing how dreamy it is.
Check them out (especially the gallery at the end):
www.worldofnonging.com/[...]
Later, I heard that Daju used to be quite busy but the requirement to pay 200 RMB per person to simply use the road next to Yulong reduced the influx of tourists to a trickle. There is still an establishment rocking a "Best restaurant in all of China" sign, it seems to be mostly used for playing Mahjong as was the hotel we were staying in. Surprising they weren't out of business yet.
The next day we crossed the Yangtze and mounted on the other side. This also yields interesting pictures of Daju.
See: www.worldofnonging.com/[...]
Chinese academic ponders globe-spanning railways
Posted byNo country will be very happy to allow an increasingly militaristic China to build tracks that could one day roll an entire regiment to their doorstep. Not going to happen.