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Neil Bryan
"Three China Cycling Adventures"
Page 1
Copyright © Neil Bryan, 2004.

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China 1: South China and Eastern Sichuan (Kham) - Page 2

At Manigange I fatefully turned right and headed towards Yushu. Getting out into plateau country, I was rewarded with wonderful vistas of yaks peacefully grazing around typical black Tibetan tents. Tibetans burn dried yak dung for cooking, and that smell fills the air. Kids go out in the morning to gather it, singing while they toss pieces into baskets on their backs. In Tibet they practice REAL sustainability, as opposed to our spoiled, oil powered culture.

Near Serxu, I saw a monastery and went for a look. That led to lunch and a photo with the monks. Just before I took the picture, a rock fell off the wall behind the monks, and one monk bolted for the monastery – bad omen!

Also near Serxu I came through a town with huge white festival tent set up. Going inside I found a dance performance in progress. The women were really surprised to suddenly meet a bearded foreigner in a turquoise cycling suit. I walked through the tent-I did not want to create a scene and stop everything. Outside a throng of Tibetans pressed in on me to shake my hand.

Finally I arrived at the Jinsha Jiang, the upper section of the Yangtze River. Wishing to explore off the beaten track (and Yushu was closed up tight by the government at the time, anyway) I headed down along the river on a horse trail. A day later, while taking a break a small snake bit me on the hand. I was unconscious within three minutes. When I came back to life hours later I was very sick and had to crawl down the trail to get water. I had a very tough night on the trail.

The next day Tibetans came by on horseback and gave me beer and blew rice liquor all over my swollen arm. In the evening a young monk on horseback and a little boy came to get me. I rode the horse into their village, where I stayed for a couple of days. Other Tibetans came through on the trail, and together we rode down the beautiful valley. The same monk was happy to take my bike.

In a village I was treated with acupuncture by one doctor and his industrial-sized needles, and then antibiotics and goat’s blood by another. Slowly recovering, I rode into Dainkog where I got snake antivenom. After overnighting there I rode out of the valley, arm still in a sling. Tibetans in one village ran out to cheer me on and help by pushing my bike.

Finally reaching the main road I had come up on weeks before, I opted to return to Chengdu by truck and bus. A group of deaf mute Shanghai girls got me a bus ticket in Garze. The bus stopped one night in Kangding, and I got a tiny room. Soon there was a rap on the door. Police? No, it was friendliest girl from the group…

At the Mt Davis Youth Hostel in Hong Kong I met world cyclist Heinz (then only 25 years on the road) and my cyclist friend Phil (met in Japan), who had lost his valuables when a pannier popped off while riding down a pass in central China. After a hanging out for a while, I returned to Canada and then went to Taiwan.

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