...in 1997 and 1999, I made two alpine bicycle trips in China/Tibet...

The first was from Yunnan up to Tibet via Lijiang, Deqen, Yanjing and Chamdo, basically far western Tibet. I cycled back down from Chamdo to Chengdu, in Sichuan. The elevation change, from Yunnan up into Tibet involved traversing 3 mountain ridges, with the highest pass at 5003 meters. It took days to ride up there to Markham and Chamdo... But the views on the way, particularly riding up to Deqen, were phenomenal: the enormous Mt. Meilixue towers over the road G214, which is already over 4000 meters up... The local people were very nice. Back then, all the roads were a hard-packed red clay, and road grades seldom exceeded 7 or 10%, they were usually around 4 or 5%, but those passes climbed up forever, like non-stop up for 20 or 30 kilometers... Then down again, and up again, and again...

In 1999, I went back to China, Xinjiang and Tibet and got a view of the Himalayas from the north side. I flew to Kashgar and cycled south to cross into Tibet from Xinjiang via the Kunlun and Karakorum mountain ranges. Wow, that was something else. Above the Karakorum valley, the Aksai Chin plateau is upwards of 5,000 metres. I was camping out, woke up one morning to discover the dawn temperature was 9 below zero Celcius... My tent was covered in frost, and this was July... But I just packed up, and started riding. By late-morning the temperatures were already approaching 20 degrees Celsius. Fabulous luminescent mineral water lakes, isolated spring-fed reedy green wetlands with ducks in the middle of the lunar-scape, and Lake Pangong is huge. ...Continued riding to the ruins of the Guge Kingdom in Toling county, set beside the Sutlej River. The most spectacular view of the Himalayas is from high road coming south, going down into the canyons before Toling/Guge...

Anyway, in those days, camping out solo, eating local foods, carrying my own snacks, etc., I spent only 300 U.S. a month on food and accomodations. Each trip was two months long. I cycled over 3 or 4,000 kilometers up there... Cost more to fly in and out from Taiwan via Hong Kong than all I spent on the road.


Leaving the Karakorums up into Aksai Chin...


The Guge Kingdom in the Sutlej valley...


Rainbow at Tsaparang village, Toling county...


The beautiful badland butte overlooking the Sutlej River at Tsaparang, Toling county, Tibet...


Tibetan truck drivers at the top of the road over into Toling county...


Two Tibetan women working at the tent hotel on the shores of Pangong Tso...


Tibetan nomad, his family yurt and my cycling tent beside it...

Here are a few more photos from my cycling trips to Tibet...


Tibetan nomad girl beyond the first pass after Kailash mountain on the way east into central Tibet, 1999...


Khampa boys of western Tibet at a public pony race in a meadow near Markham, 1997...


Young Tibetan women at the pony races in the meadow near Markham, 1997...


Stupendous panorama of the high Himalayas, looking south at them from the high plateau above the Sutlej River valley, 1999...

Oops, small-big error in my post about Tibet: Chamdo is in the far east of Tibet, which is in the far west of China, which I visited in 1997. The Aksai Chin, the Guge Kingdom and Toling county are in the far west of Tibet, visited 1999...

It is a pity, since 2008 and the Lhasa uprising, China has closed off Tibet to all independent travellers... The only way to go there today in 2022, by bike, is on a 3,000+ dollars group tour for 2 or 3 weeks; so, there's no more 2 months of free camping in the wilderness like I did for less than 600 dollars plus airfare...

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sat Jul 02, 2022 7:31 am Ressl;
I envy you, musty have been great< how long? where did you enter exit?

I need to check the exact date, but if I remember correctly, it was 16 days. Entry in Phuentsholing and exit in Samdrup Jongkhar. That was one of the challenges, because at that time, the requirement had been, that either entry or exit has to happen on a plane - but Druk Air refused my 3t Landrover as luggage
The route was not that difficult to determine - if you look at the map, there are not that many options. So first I went north, did the western loop (where I killed my front diff when the car fell in a drainage), continued (on rear wheel drive) to Thimpu (where of course I went up to the Tigers Nest - but different to my guide I have Alpine experience, so I had to wait for him 30 minutes at the entry of the monastery), then continued (on the only road) to the west (which got tricky, due to road construction and fixed opening hours of the road).
In the beginning my guide was as flexible as a crowbar. Thankfully he realized very quick, that I am not the ordinary tourist and if something fails, or there is something unexpected on the way, I don't make trouble. So it happened, that I went with him to places he never had been before or wasn't even aware of, on the other hand he got me to other places, I had not on my itinerary. So both of us had a very special experience on this trip and as mentioned before, if you go for the local food, it is amazing (this I did on the 2nd day with the tour agency, telling them, that they can save a lot of money by not ordering the tasteless special tourist food at fancy special tourist restaurants, while the guides had to sit separately and get their local food - absolutely no-go! - instead I will go with my guide to the local restaurants or even shacks. Thankfully they agreed - something that I would super strongly recommend to everyone going to Bhutan)