Wonders Of Yunnan Travel

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@pjn54
Basically there is no policy. It is up to the bus driver. It all depends on the point of there being space for the bikes in the hold or on top of the bus.
Busses from Kunming to the outlying areas of Yunnan transport all kind of cargo as well such as one-day-chicken. In these cases there simply is no space. Bikes are not allowed in the passenger compartment of the bus even if there is plenty of space.
Often an extra payment is required direct to the bus driver but not always. Our longest trip from Lushui to Kunming for instance was free of extra charge. All other trips were some 20 to 50 RMB per bike.
PS-1: Bikes are not allowed on the high-speed trains.
PS-2: It is quite possible to send your bike as a parcel ahead of you with one of the many parcel services in China.

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Hi @pjn54, I've done a fair bit of cycling (and taking buses with bicycles) around Yunnan. I don't know if there is such a thing as an official policy on taking bicycles on buses. Usually, when you show up at a bus station or wave a bus down, you can take it with you. Either in the hold or on the rooftop, depending on how much space there is and what kind of bus it is. Travelling around national holidays will make this more difficult, but outside holidays I've never had a problem. It helps if you show you are accommodating, by taking the panniers off and maybe even the pedals and twisting the handlebars so it takes up less space. It also helps to keep your bike in one piece, if you are helping with putting it in the hold or on the roof.

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What's the official policy, when it comes to bicycles on long distance buses in China? How difficult was it for you to bring your bicycle on board, and how did you go about it?

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BBC Earth, encompassing their "Planet" nature documentary series spanning decades, published their Top 5 "Nature's Oddest Looking Animals" on Youtube yesterday:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLPjP3hjhMM

Borneo's long-nose proboscis monkeys made it on the list as #4:

@3:29
#4: The Proboscis Monkey

Ironically, #1 is awarded to "The Monkey With Blue Skin and No Nose." These Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey, or 四川金丝猴 in Chinese, are endemic to Southwest China. If memory serves right, I believe they were once featured here on GoKunming:

@11:39
#1: The Monkey With Blue Skin and No Nose

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The Haba-Bendiwan Route shown on the map passes through the mining area. It will be covered in a future article in the series. In the past I was concerned about hiking the area due to the use of explosives. In 2018 while in Bendiwan I heard blasts up above and saw dust clouds rising in the air. As of 2019, the mine is reported to be shut down permanently after fifty years in operation. The Haba Snow Mountain Provincial Nature Preserve took credit for shutting it down, due to environmental concerns, which I learned about from a Preserve employee. I saw no mine workers anywhere while passing through. You don't want to drink from any streams in the area. They are polluted by mine tailings and take on a milky coloration. Water pipes high on the mountain bring down clean water to villages in the gorge. I passed such pipes at 3,900 meters and they ran up the slope even higher than that.

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Thanks for sharing.
Question: do these trails pass through the tungsten mines which are located high up on the slopes of Mt Haba above Tiger Leaping Gorge? I always wondered if those tungsten mine areas are off-limits to hikers? How many miners are actually up there, and will they try to kick out hikers if they see them?