Cycling Western Sichuan: A Little China, A Lot Tibet

Amazing landscape on the way up to our 4900 meter (16,170 feet!) pass before the village of Sumdo.
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Without a doubt, western Sichuan was the real highlight of our trip to China. People say that Tibet really begins in Western Sichuan, and we definitely felt like we had entered a new country and culture. Villages are populated with Tibetan people, have Tibetan architecture and, despite apparent poverty, are awash in the vivid colors and patterns of Tibetan life. These colorful patterns are everywhere: on clothing, prayer flags, and the doors of houses and barns; woven into intricate window patterns and the manes and tails of horses; and flying on prayer flags and long streamers attached to motorbike handles. All of this is found above 4000-meter altitudes against the backdrop of the grand and imposing Himalayas.

Stopped for snacks at a Tibetan village on the way to Xiangcheng.
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Cycling through this unique and beautiful place was an extraordinary experience, though, of course, not without its frustrations and challenges.  Biking at high altitudes, you can definitely feel there's a smaller amount of oxygen in the air!  So as not to talk your ear off, so to speak, we came up with a list of some of the highlights, or just plain memorable moments, of our time.  The accompanying pictures tell more of the story.

awash in the vivid colors and patterns of Tibetan life

Tibetan kids checking out Jes's bike.
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** Tibetan Sichuan has a kind of Wild West feel thanks to the fact most men wear cowboy hats over long hair, and sometimes even leather vests and boots. It's perfect gear for being outdoors herding yaks and handling horses – plus it looks really cool.  It becomes more of a Burning Man feel when you factor in that most of them are tearing around towns and highways on probably the coolest motorcycles ever - all painted in bright crazy colors, with masses of long, colored streamers whipping in the wind behind them.

The morning after The Noodle Incident. Behind Jes is the room we stayed in, which she used mostly for upchucking. Next to her is the kid from the family whose house this is. Jes was still sick in the morning, so we had to take the bus the rest of the way to Xiangcheng. Tole wanted her to ride over a 4100 meter pass that day!
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** An amazing snowscape rewarded us as we rode a 4900-meter (16,170 feet!) pass near Sumdo. It was so hard getting up there – so cold, the air so thin, our bodies so tired. But the view near and at the top was breathtaking. We traversed a vast and undulating quiet white world, all by ourselves. At least until the pass, when an SUV of Chinese tourists drove by and stopped so everyone inside could snap pictures of us. Oh well, it's probably the closest we'll ever come to being chased by the paparazzi.

We awoke to the sound of some visitors yakking it up outside our tent.
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** A uniquely Tibetan phenomenon is a little something called Yak Butter Tea. What in the world is that, you might ask. Well, it's pretty simple. See, you boil some water and you slap in some butter made from yak's milk. And then... well, that's pretty much it. Bottoms up! It's better than it sounds but I wouldn't go so far as to call it good.

** Wild camping in the Himalayas was pretty amazing. The cold, peaceful nights put on a show of endless stars. In the mornings, we usually awoke to be greeted by super-hairy yaks and friendly yak herders.

Later the same day, on the way to our 4900 meter pass. Getting a little tired - and COLD!
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** Once while we set up our camp, various villagers basically parked it and stared intently and shamelessly for up to a half an hour at a time. “Ah yes, now the crazy foreigners are making a sleeping place. Now they are trying to make fire. Ha ha! Watch as they slurp up their instant noodle dinners. Oh, the silliness! Let's get the other villagers to come watch – what fun!” But hey, we figured whatever – we were no doubt a pretty weird sight for them. Still, it feels really, really odd to be watched like that.

A lovely world of snow at the top.
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** Yunnan is famous for its “Crossing the Bridge Noodles”, but many people are probably not familiar with Sichuan's far less popular "Hugging the Throne Noodles." Unfortunately there was no throne, only a concrete community squatter shared by the entire village. Spending the night in a bedroom of a Tibetan family's home, thinking you might die while vomiting all night and making frequent trips across the mud field to the squatter, is not a travel experience one is likely to forget. Just ask Jes.

Self-photo at the top.
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** Many people were very kind to us as we biked through the cold, and sometimes through the rain or snow. People often invited us for tea, or just gave us smiling eye contact in the absence of shared language. Others invited us into their kitchens to warm up by the fire.

** Massive tangles of bright, flapping prayer flags, and often stupas, as well, mark the windy tops of the mountain passes in Tibetan Sichuan.  They make quite a sight, an especially welcome one after you huff it all the way up on your bike.  Apparently prayer flags are put up in the wind so that the wind can carry the blessings of the prayers to everyone it touches.

Beautiful, snowy riding on the way down.
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** Tibetan monasteries are fantastically colorful and ornate, and make a particularly striking contrast to the brown and white of the mountains. Inside, paintings and patterns cover all walls, ceilings and columns. Statues of red and blue demons and other crazy-looking creatures abound along with the Buddhas.

** We went out with a bang, with a grueling climb into the wind and mist to our final pass before Kangding. For what seemed an eternity, but was in fact only about four hours, we rode straight into the icy wind and uphill with almost no visibility. When we finally managed to spot the prayer flags that marked the pass, blowing wildly through the shroud of mist, it was practically a mystical experience.

Here in China, a room with shared bathroom might be something a little different than you'd expect in say, Europe.
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** In Kangding, we happened onto a performance at the monastery in celebration of Buddha's birthday.  The show included twenty-foot long horns, colorful costumes, and dance performances for an audience mostly of local Tibetans.

Chengdu and Shanghai

After finishing up biking, we spent a few days in Chengdu, where we stayed at the greatest guest house in China (Sim's Cozy Guesthouse), visited the Giant Panda reserve, and gobbled down unimaginable amounts of western food. We finally tried the famous Sichuan Hot Pot, where you cook your meat and noodles in a vat of boiling, spiced oil. We'd had the broth kind before and loved it, but this was a distinct disappointment. After cooking your food in the boiling oil, you then were supposed to dip it in cold oil that was mixed with some herbs. We could only handle a few little pieces before we had to leave in search of a BBQ stand. But hey, other people love it.

Some cool boys we met checking out Jes's bike. One way we discovered to communicate with boys who had bikes was mutual pointing at different things on each other's bikes and giving a thumbs up or going, ahhhh, mmmhmmm. At least this was some kind of communication!
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Next up was Shanghai, a thoroughly modern city that seems to be thriving in the midst of China's economic explosion. Our funnest evening was spent at a joint called Mundo Latino, where a phenomenal band from Cuba played and danced and then hung out drinking with us after closing. So our Spanish lessons came in handy in China, after all! Ultimately the most striking thing for us about Shanghai was the contrast of all the urban luxury and splendor of a big Chinese city with the poverty of the rural China from where we'd just arrived.  The disparity of wealth is mind-boggling. We're very interested to see how it all pans out in the coming years, and hope that things improve for the rural Chinese.

Tole in the cool town of Daocheng.
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Next up is France. Nearly all the time we were in Asia we fantasized in great detail about all the food and wine we would devour once we got there. It may not be as culturally adventurous as China, but we and our bellies plan to thoroughly enjoy ourselves!