Sichuan → Yunnan · On-road · Rental or own bike
The ride that goes looking for the Lost Horizon - from the pandas of Wolong across Kham to the three holy peaks of Yading, then down into Yunnan for Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lijiang and the matriarchal shore of Lugu Lake.
The ride
James Hilton never came to China. He wrote Lost Horizon in 1933 from Joseph Rock’s articles and photographs in National Geographic, and invented a valley that half of Asia has been claiming ever since. This ride crosses the country he was reading about.
It starts with pandas at Wolong and the Four Sisters mountain, climbs through Danba and Tagong into Kham, and reaches Yading - Chenresig, Jambeyang and Chanadorje, the three peaks Rock photographed. Then it drops south across the Jinsha into Yunnan: the first bend of the river at Benzilan, Sumzanlin Monastery above Shangri-La town, the White Water Terraces where Dongba religion began, and Tiger Leaping Gorge under a four-thousand-metre wall.
A full day in Lijiang, then Lugu Lake and the Mosuo, who have kept a matrilineal society intact, and finally Xichang in the Yi country of Liangshan, where the bikes go back and you fly home. Four minority cultures, two provinces, one legend.
Five passes crest above 4,000 m. We never gain the whole height in a day - the route is built so your body acclimatises as you climb.
The route, day by day
The fine print, in plain words
See it to believe it
Photography by Liu Bin · Greatway field archive
Dates & enquiry
Private departures on your dates, roughly April to October. Tell us when you're free and how many are riding - a booking consultant will get back to you within 24 hours.
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