China
Independent overland self drive travel in China is only possible with special permits, as well as having a government approved guide with you 24/7. This is very costly and a huge limitation on free spirited travel. There are however benefits in terms of communications and dealing with the ridiculous level of bureaucracy.
It was with a level of excitement, and trepidation, that we approached the China border. In the end of the day, it took some six hours to finally get into China and having sorted all the paperwork. This included having the vehicle warrant of fitness done, obtaining Chinese number plates and a Chinese driver’s licence. All being entirely ineffective and a total waste of time. We were told that we were very fortunate to have got through so quickly. Most people apparently use up the whole day to get the paperwork done.
Driving in China is a pleasure, so far, after the crazy driving conditions in countries further south. Roads are wide, in good condition and drivers have some degree of respect for the traffic rules. There are however, unfortunately a substantial slice of the drivers who have serious driving skills limitations and this makes for frustrating driving. The single lane mountain roads, which carry a large number of big trucks, is a whole different matter. Overtaking on blind bends and corners is common. The simple rule is to anticipate danger and try and stay out of harms way.
Our brake pads were totally worn down after our antics in the remote mountains of northern Laos. The pads only survived 10,000km. Incidentally, the computer based China vehicle warrant of fitness test did not pick this up, which demonstrates how rediculous the whole border procedure was. We made a beeline for the nearest city, Jinghong, to have the brake pads replaced. Having the guide, made it easy to make advanced arrangements. Interestingly, all the big trucks have large water tanks, which squirts cold water on the break drums when they apply breaks going down the steep mountain passes.
Our permit restrictions requires that our entire time in China had to be pre-planned and cast in concrete. Not ideal. Strangely enough, foreigners may only stay in government approved hotels, which yet again unnecessarily complicates travel in China.
Our first main area of interest is the rice terraces of Yuanyang in Yunnan province about 600km north east of the Laos-China border. Distances between areas of interest are huge, however there are fantastic freeways, motorways and provincial roads that make it easy going. Holdups do however occur. We ran into a traffic jam kilometres long on the freeway apparently due to a random decision by an official. We were parked up on the freeway for 1 ½ hours and the held up vehicles comprised mainly of big trucks. Our vehicle was a hit with the truck drivers and we soon had a half a dozen drivers checking things out and chatting with us.
Hours later on a provincial road travelling through massive mountains, we noticed a huge cloud of dust ahead. It turned out to be a massive rockslide, that had just occurred, caused by unexplained reasons. The driver of a small truck, that was also held up by the rock fall, said that we should follow him as he was a local and knew of a track that went over the mountain and joined the provincial road beyond the rock fall. What a fantastic side trip. The track was extremely steep and is used to provide access to remote villages. This is exactly our kind of site seeing.
The rice terraces are spectacular and combined with seeing the local minority tribe (Hani) made this visit extremely memorable. We are told that the terraces have a 2,000 year old history. They have been constructed up against the hillsides, and extremely steep in some areas. They were full of water during our visit and the reflections and colours made every angle a new and amazing sight. We enjoyed a fabulous sunset over the terraces and unfortunately two unsuccessful and freezing 5.30am rises to view sunrise. Fog and mist the spoilers.
The Hani are incredibly hardworking. Everything is done manually, mainly by the women, and they toil all day including bringing animals, food and wood home, carting building materials up and down the steep slopes and working in the rice paddies. They have very colourful dress and the cloth they embroider themselves. We enjoyed watching and photographing the locals and it seems they have just had a neck full of tourists, with not too many smiles.
