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August 29, 2006

Company on the Road (for a while)

Click on image to play video (high speed connection advised).

LOCATION: Zhongdian, Yunnan Province, China
SEE WHERE WE ARE!
Longitude: N: 28.11°
Latitude: E: 099.45°
Miles from Singapore: 3202

Yesterday I ran into some Chinese bikers who were also heading for Tibet. They'd originally made contact with each other via a mountain bike website and traveled from various parts of China to join this group expedition to Lhasa. They'd only been riding for two days from Lijiang, just 100kms away, and one of them had just joined that morning (having been delayed) and set out on his first day unfit and unacclimated to pedal 100kms and climb 1400 metres to an altitude of 3250 metres! I realize being professionals with only a few weeks off from work they had a tight schedule, but this seemed too much too soon.

I hung around the group for a while mainly for something different, and to trade conversation with a couple of them that spoke English. It wasn't too long however before the new recruit started lagging behind and swaying all over the road, complaining of heart pain. All the others were already out of sight up the mountain by this point, and his radio didn't seem to work properly, or was already out of range, so we stopped and thankfully he spoke enough English to be persuaded to wait for a bus.

Traveling to Tibet is a relatively new concept for Chinese people who have only recently begun exploring their own country and neighbouring areas since the easing up of things here both politically and economically. The opening of the new railway from Beijing to Lhasa has brought a deluge of publicity in the form of TV programs and magazine articles that is designed in part to attract Han Chinese business investors and tourists alike to what the government has dubbed 'Shangri-la'. For centuries Tibet has been a place of mystery with an almost mythical appeal for many people, including the Chinese. But this is fast changing: the mist is now fast lifting and if you have around 300 Yuen (around $40 USD) for a train ticket, or a mountain bike as these folks have, then paradise and the forbidden city beckons.

As long as you're Chinese though. If you're a 'foreigner' you need around five different permits, issued by five different authorities (army, PSB, police etc) and be a part of an established tour group in a 4WD jeep in order to travel overland through eastern Tibet. Which is one reason why I won't be joining as the 10th member of their group. Another is the limitation of traveling in such a large group speaking another language would drive me mental after a while.

jason

Posted on August 29, 2006 12:34 AM

Comments

Posted by: Steve Woolf at September 1, 2006 6:57 AM