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Cycling from Dali to Tiger leaping Gorge

Pashoutdoors (6 posts) • 0

Hey all! I was wondering if anyone knows of any bicycletouring rental shops in Dali? Me and my friend wants to cycle to from Dali to Tiger leaping gorge end of this month on our own.

Let us know if this route is okay and any bicycle rental with panniers that we can rent will be great!

AlexKMG (2387 posts) • 0

Route is fine though you'll be riding with traffic for a while before qiaotou. Most of the climbs is after qiaotou heading to Shangri-la. Dali should have plenty of bike rental shops. I'm sure you can work out some kind of deal, but might have to leave a large deposit.

Pashoutdoors (6 posts) • 0

Hey thanks!

My friend is not very experienced, do you think this will be a better route dali-shaxi-jianchuan-lijang?

Any tips and recommendations is much appreciated

lemon lover (1006 posts) • +3

Between Dali and the TLG or Lijiang you pass the water divide between the rivers going south and the Jinsha (Upper Jangtze). It is thus a long way up and then a long way down and this over a dusty road with lots of trucks. To the TLG you simply follow the river valley so without too much of a climb. To Lijiang you will have to climb up to the Lijiang plateau again but that road has less traffic nowadays since the motorway opened.

Frankly knowing this area pretty well it would not be my favourite route to cycle and I am pretty sure it will not be a nice cycling experience.

Cycling to Shaxi is over roads much more suited for cycling then the routes to TLG and Lijiang.

Shaxi is a mountain range west of Dali and there are four possible routes:
1. Around via Xiaguan and Jangbi and then north.
2. Via Eryuan and then west over the mountain. (Steep and at high altitude thus can be cold and windy, so windy that they placed windmills there)
3. Via Niujie and west over the mountains. (Steep and at high altitude. Gravel road which is under reconstruction. Not recommended unless very fit and experienced mountain biker)
4. Around via Diannanzhen just south of Jianchuan. (This crosses the water divide twice)

I would recommend you go to Shaxi only. Go via the south (Xiaguan, Yangbi) and return via the north via Diannanzhen or take the same way back.

When you rent a bike in Dali make sure it has good brakes. The bikes are normally rented out to people cycling around the lake which is all flat so bad brakes will do but the road out of Xiaguan drops very steep and you really need good brakes there.

Pashoutdoors (6 posts) • 0

Hey @Lemonlover, thank you so much for the very detailed information. This has been the most helpful thus far after digging information all over the net for a decent route.

I have a question. If I leave for Shaxi, do I leave from Dali Old Town? Does it pass the erhai lake?

My plan was to cycle from Dali Old Town, do the Erhai Lake and cycle to Shaxi, onwards to Lijang. From Lijang, I wanted to get on the bus and hike the gorge and come back down from there by bus to Dali or so since I only have about 8 days. I would probably skip the Diannanzhen.

Does this sound feasible, route and duration-wise?

Again, thank you tons for being so helpful!

lemon lover (1006 posts) • +3

From your first post I assumed that you wanted to leave from Dali Old Town (FYI: Xiaguan is called Dali as well but is something completely different then Dali Old Town some 15 Km north of it. Generally speaking with Dali we mean Dali Old town.)
There is a special cycling route around the lake that is used by hundreds of tourist daily who use bikes or e-bikes. Anyway it is a good way to check if you have adapted to the altitude because it is at an altitude of about 2000 meters. The round trip is about 80 Km and mostly flat but surprisingly many don’t make it around (Including lots on e-bikes because their batteries have gone flat).

I would do Dali to Shaxi in two days.
Dali to Yangbi is about 55 Km and you drop about 500 meters so easy going but you need good brakes. Yangbi has some gems like the old chain bridge and Chinese mosque.
Yangbi to Shaxi is about 110 Km and a nice cycling road.
(The only other place to stop overnight is Liantiexiang some 62 Km from Yangbi)

From Shaxi you can make day trips to Shibaoshan National Park and you can try to cycle to Maping.

From Yangbi you can cycle west via Taipingxiang to Beidouxiang. This is the old Burma Road and the dirt/cobblestone road has been upgraded recently (Some cobble stone and dirt stretches are still there). This is a really nice road and has historical significance. In Beidou there is a small guesthouse in the middle of the village but is hard to find.

Cycling to the TLG and Lijiang you have to take the big provincial roads and they are horrible to cycle. Anyway both places are terrible tourist traps which I usually avoid. A better option is taking a bus to the TLG area and walk the trail instead (See elsewhere on this forum)

Pashoutdoors (6 posts) • 0

I can't thank you enough for being very detailed with your answers. Thanks, once again!

Your plan on cycling west via Beidouxiang, sounds interesting but i might have to put the bikes on a truck / bus to come back to Yangbi and make my way to Shaxi.

I definitely look forward the trip and hope I can score some decent touring bikes with a good braking system like you mentioned!

Pashoutdoors (6 posts) • 0

I was mapping out the route and found another route that follows the lake more closely and is shorter and rides along the lake: bit.ly/2Hkx3gJ

Do you think this route is fine as well, road-condition wise?

lemon lover (1006 posts) • +1

Don’t know because your link does not open here in China (without VPN).
I presume you are talking about the route around Erhai lake (Dali Lake). There is only one possible route on the east side. On the west side there are more options but the best for cycling is the one more or less next to the lake. This route is well signposted (as special cycle route) and thus easy to follow. You just cycle from Dali to the lake until you see the sign and then just follow them. (Both the G214 and S221 can be cycled as well but are rather horrible)

Pashoutdoors (6 posts) • 0

Yes, it's following G214 and S221 and cuts to G5611 after that.

Thanks for your advice, guess we'll just have a look when we're there.

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