Yunnan | Sichuan | Gansu & Shaanxi | Shanxi - Beijing

Scott and I really arrived in China on 19. February 2003. I hadn't thought it was possible until that day after all that I had heard in advance. But it seemed to be taken for granted to welcome us (and the bicycles!) and to wish us a good stay. Mengla, the first town on my map was declared as a "small, uninspiring stop en route to Laos" in the guidebook. That city exceeded all our imaginations. After those little bamboo huts which I had seen in Laos, this was a metropolis! Massive concrete buildings, neon lights, full shops, huge internet cafés - a culture shock! Jinghong was the first city with more than a million inhabitants on the way north through the Xixuanbanna region in southern Yunnan. Across uncounted mountain passes exceeding now 2,500m and roads which partly didn't exist we reached Dali on 07. March - the city of the three pagodas on the Erhai lake. The surrounding mountains there are towering 4,000m high, giving us an impression of what was going to come further on. Lijiang, being probably one of the most beautiful cities of the region took us completely under its spell. Numerous sights and natural beauties left us no time to breathe - like the Tiger Leaping Gorge further north. It is so narrow that people tell once a tiger would have leapt across the up to 3,900m deep gorge. From Zhongdian we definitely realized the majority of Tibetans. Today the city is cynically called Shangri-La-City. From here the hardest climb leaded us through snow and icy cold temperatures to the northernmost corner of Yunnan - to Dêqên. Scott reached his point to turn around there. He followed down the Mekong, to fly back to Tokyo.

I was by myself again. After many endless seeming climbs along gravel roads and passes above 4,700m I finally reached the highlands around Litang (4,000m). I had already reached the Sichuan province, the province of the four streams. 80% of the population there are Tibetans although it is situated outside the "Autonomous Area of Tibet" which was formed by the Chinese government. I still needed to do a lot of paddling because there were still a lot of high mountains to go across before I would have left them in northern Sichuan. On the border to Gansu province I spent a few days in Zöige to wait for a parcel and to recover from a mean intestinal disease. In that region I also visited the Tibetan Labrang-Lamaserie in Xiahe, in its size the second biggest after Lhasa. A huge monastery where you could easily believe that Tibet would be alive like 100 years ago.

From there I slowly came to the low lands of central China. All the greens and the air full of oxygen made my condition double. After having heard of SARS on the German radio Deutsche Welle I started being in doubt about going to Beijing. Still though I didn't want to give up my plans for the Trans-Siberian Railway. After cruising along the Hwangho River to Shaanxi and coming to Xi'an, I took the chance to visit the Army of Terracotta Warriors (Bingmayong). Because of SARS the whole region was nearly without tourists and I stood all alone amongst the 2,000 years old figures. Also later on the summit of Hua Shan (2,200m) and in the ancient Han Chinese town of Pingyao I was the only visitor. Just after that I found out about the problems with that long conceiled disease in China: All restaurants and internet cafés were closed, to many towns the access was completely denied and on every corner my temperature was taken. Even all mobilephone networks seemed to be blocked for me. But I was allowed to carry on. After having passed the probably dirtiest region in China - the coal mining area of the Shanxi province near the yellow river - I reached Beijing on 23. May 2003 on a broken rim.

So far I hadn't had an idea about that city. I was surprised on what a small room 13 million people were living - the city is hardly bigger than 50 km in diameter. From Tianmen Square (Square of Heavenly Peace) I stepped into the Forbidden City. From the square where Maos Mausoleum is standing, where students demonstrating for democracy were brutally murdered, where every morning dozens of patriotic Chinese are crying during the national hymn is played and the flag is raised. Once again I wandered all by myself through the Emperors Palace and was amazed by the ancient culture. Not to waste the time, which the "friendly" employees of the Russian embassy needed to procede my visa, I decided to visit the Great Wall. I wanted to see the original Wall, the wild parts. So I kept away from touristy renovated parts and cycled to Huanghua. In times of SARS that was quite tricky because I needed to avoid several road blockings. Beijing was the centre of SARS then and one wasn't allowed to leave it. Even though I soon stood on the old ruins of the Great Wall, enjoying for the last time the big history of that country. It wasn't my idea to get fever and cough that night. My biggest worry of course was to be discovered with fever and to be taken to one of these quarantine camps. Stories told than one could have spent weeks there. Aspirin helped me to reduce my temperature and to pass the checks to the city, the hotel, Russian and Mongolian embassy, at the train station etc. So I sat on the train to Moscow at 11. June 2003.

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