Good morning China. Today will be my first full day riding in China from Puer to Jingdong, a bit over 300 km. Should be done in 5 hours including a lunch break.
Spend the first two hours after getting up with un packing everything after yesterday’s inspection and when the officers left all clothes in a pile and we had to rush to stuff it into the bags and paniers again. Had to fold everything again neatly so it fitted into the bags again without bloating everything.
Having a Chinese breakfast but with a great cappuccino coffee. I cannot complain about it. The hotel looks odd from outside, tugged away in a back alley, but the rooms are modern and comfortable with good beds.
They even brought me Hami melons just now , coming from Hami, ca 5000 km from here. I will spend a night in Hami during my last week on this China leg when driving up to Khorgos at the border to Kazakhstan.
Here is the Road book for today:
🏍️ ROADBOOK TAG 5 (C1-2) — PUER → JINGDONG
DATE: 4 June 2026 (Thursday)
FROM → TO: Puer → Jinggu → Jingdong
DISTANCE: 302 km
DRIVE TIME: ~4h 22min (est.)
ROAD TYPE: 100% tarmac (G323 / S222 provincial)
MAX ALTITUDE: ~1,400 m ASL (Wuliang Mountains)
WEATHER: Passing showers (68% chance), 17–23°C. High humidity.
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ROUTE OVERVIEW
Puer north via G323 into the Wuliang Mountains (无量山). This is the longest riding day of the Yunnan section. The Wuliang range is famous for its ancient tea trees and prized pu’er tea. Jingdong (景东) is a Yi autonomous county — from here north, you’re entering ethnic minority heartland.
⚠️ MOUNTAIN FOG: Morning fog common in Wuliang valleys — visibility can drop to 50m. Start after 8:30 AM.
⚠️ RAIN: Passing showers likely. Watch for slippery patches on G323.
FUEL: Fill completely in Puer. Jinggu has a mid-route station. Jingdong has Sinopec.
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CULTURAL CONTEXT
THE YI PEOPLE (彝族): Jingdong is a Yi autonomous county. The Yi have their own script dating to the Tang dynasty and are known for the Torch Festival.
TEA HORSE ROAD: The route follows a key segment where tea porters once carried bricks north toward Tibet.
DESTINATION: JINGDONG YINSHENG TEAHOUSE HOTEL
Small county hotel. Limited English.
LOCAL SPECIALTY: Yi-style grilled meats and wild mushrooms (⚠️ June is mushroom season — only eat at restaurants).
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GPX FILE ATTACHED
Compatible with Garmin, OsmAnd+, and Kurviger.
Kurviger Link: https://kurv.gr/8R3dz
Ride safe, Carsten! ⚡⚡⚡
16:25
All together another great and easy riding day. The highways in China are simply fabulous. They know how to build km long bridges and tunnels and keep them pristine clean and in perfect conditions. The ride started with a bit of a scary situation when I was rear bumped by a SUV on the highway. I had just overtaken a truck and started to move to the right lane and I was looking to the right mirror, when I suddenly felt a bump and saw a right mirror from an SUV crashing into my left handle bar and flew off. Thanks to engineers from Honda, the bike stabilised immediately and I was looking into the rear mirrors to see, what happened behind me. I slowed down and could see the SUV slowly stopped at the emergency lane, obviously without a right mirror. As I was not at fault and there was no damage to my handlebar (and barkbusters) I decided to keep going, keeping strictly within the speed limits. I never used my cruise control on the bike as often as today. The good side effect was that the average consumption was never as low as today.
The hotel I’m staying at is a bit outside of town. It’s brand new, great fresh rooms, a huge bed, a Japanese automated toilet and all the things a great hotel room should have. I was a bit concerned about dinner as there is nothing around, but for 16 Yuan (3 €) I’m getting dinner, wonder what it will be.
Tomorrow I will reach Dali and then Lijiang where I will have another rest day to explore one of the great places here in Yunan.
Time to take a shower now.
This place is a kind of tea centre for the region with a tea shopping center next door. Quite bombastic.
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