Portrait of an LBX

By Evan

*See all our pictures from the Ameng market here

Riding through Yuanyang with Louis, Yunnan on loaded 20" wheel Dahons in October, 2008. You think we're crazy now? by Andy

So, fair readers, since leaving our friends from that last post in Guangxi, we’ve made the big push and finally arrived in our favorite province in China, and the place that inspired this whole shebang over a year ago: Yunnan (雲南). It’s my fourth time in the province and Andy’s third, our last time being October 2008, when we took a one week cruise through the mountains for which we were thoroughly unprepared on 20” wheel folding Dahon bikes with my friend from home Louis. At the end of that trip, sitting in the Hump Hostel in Kunming reflecting over what we had just done over Qingdao and Rummikub, Andy and I decided that riding bikes around China taking pictures and writing was way sweeter than our day jobs. The rest is history.

Yunnan packs in the color, by Andy

Now, while Yunnan translates literally to the land “south of the clouds,” it could just as appropriately have been called the land “in the middle of the mountains (山中省)” or “the land of “10,000 colors (萬色省).” It deserves the mountain moniker because it’s just chock full of insane peaks over which insane highways climb at insanely steep angles, pushing us near (if we’re not already past it) the brink of insanity! It’s that second descriptor, though, that takes the sting out of all that lactic acid. As we forge into the west and toward the skies, the mountains open up into sprawling valleys cut into fractal-like patterns of centuries old terraced fields, and the people adorn themselves in the most eye-catching colors to be seen this side of India. More than the spicy food, the rich cultures, the pristine air, or any of the other million reasons to love Yunnan, the real reason to come is the visuals — drought year or not. (more…)