China on Two Wheels, Adventures in Yunnan

From the metropolis of Kunming up into the mountains and rice terraces: A film crew sets out on a 1000-kilometer bike ride through southwestern China - a grueling journey on rough roads.


Yunnan is China's most colorful province. Many ethnic minorities live here: Tibetan, Hui, Bai, Yi, Miao. The adventurous tour takes us on small asphalted or gravel roads thousands of meters up into the mountains of China. From Kunming via the famous old towns of Dali and Lijiang to the fabled city of Shangri-La with its Buddhist temple district. The 3000-meter-high mountains are no joke, as the film crew discovers. But they offer some unique experiences and now and then even a feeling of time travel. Even now, the villages in the mountains are still difficult to reach: they used to be almost sealed off. That makes the landscape with its mountain vistas, rice paddies and countless temples even more beautiful. Here solitude alternates with lively cities and tourists.

 Curved roofs, temples, narrow streets: the village of Heijing is straight out of a picture book.
Curved roofs, temples, narrow streets: the village of Heijing is straight out of a picture book.
But the most important question is: what sort of welcome will the weary cyclists get in the remote villages? Are people in Yunnan reserved or friendly towards strangers? Ariane Reimers and her team set out on their adventurous two-wheeled journey to find out. Their shortest leg was just 42 km, the longest 200: they were on the go in southern China for almost a month.