"Southest Yunnan - Off the tourist trail " a Yunnan Sheng Travel Page by crewrower

I have been to Yunnan twice, once in February 2006 (described in more detail below), and once in February 2007. Both trips entailed flying from Shanghai, where I live, to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. Both trips were biking tours, where I sent my mountain bike on train to Kunming, and picked it up there and set out riding. The ride in 2006 featured us getting very lost, and consequently seeing some wonderfully beautiful and backward parts of China. The ride in 2007 kept us sticking mostly to the state and provincial highways, which are actually like secondary roads that run parallel to a newer highway.

During the 2007 ride, we started in Kunming, road east and hit many interesting towns in Yunnan on the way to Guizhou province, including the border town of Fuyuan, which is in a valley and surrounded by beautiful sceneary. It's a town that is bustling and alive, but still very much developing, and the surrounding areas have not been stripped and destroyed (yet?) which is the case with so many other parts of China. The ride was 2 weeks in total, and most days were spent in Guizhou province (via Guiyang, the capital, and then north en route to Chongqing).

I spent the 2006 Chinese New Year holiday (7 days) biking east from Kunming through southeast Yunnan province toward and into Guangxi Autonmous Region. We spent our time in Yunnan biking through Kunming County, Shilin County (Stone Forest), Luxi County and Shizong County. We also spent a lot of time along the Nan Pan River.

We traveled to places that are almost never visited by foreign or Chinese tourists. The natural beauty was amazing and the people were great. All the roads were of dirt and rock, and in one place we had to sail down the river to even pick up the next dirt road. Many pictures and tips will be posted here.