General Advice

• There are a number of excellent Buddhist temples and monasteries near the main route that are worth a detour or side trip. These include famous monasteries in Dege and Ganzi.
• A tunnel is currently under construction that goes beneath the Cho La Pass, and skips 1000+ metres of climbing. Chinese road tunnels are, however, terrifying.
• Language presents a significant difficulty. Google translate is often useless, as few of the people you encounter will be literate in Chinese, which is a second language here, and sometimes may not even be able to speak it.

Tips & Tricks

• When to go: Passes in the mountains will generally be open by May and start getting snowed in by October or so. The route will generally be greener the later in spring you go, and you run less risk of being caught in serious storms (though snow is possible on the passes at any time of year).
• At present, no travel restrictions under an ordinary Chinese tourist visa, though this being China, access to the Kham region (or anywhere in it) can be suddenly closed down at short notice. If applying for a Chinese tourist visa it’s generally best not to mention that you’re heading to a Tibetan area. The city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province is the closest major international airport to the route.
• Reaching the start of the route from Chengdu will require two days of long bus trips from Chengdu to Kangding and Kangding to Ganzi.
• At the end of the route in Yushu, there are flights to Chengdu, Xining, Lhasa and Xi’an.
• Dangers and Annoyances: The possibility of snowstorms in the mountains, heavy trucks on the Cho La pass, and aggressive dogs (I carried a few rocks in my top-tube bag to throw if they got too close).

General Notes

• The route is a wild-camping paradise – just pick a hidden spot off the road and set up a tent.
• The exceptions to this are the ascent and descent of Cho La pass, which features no reasonable places to camp, and the much of the section along the river road between Luoxu and Yushu, which is between a cliff face and a sheer drop.
• Given that this is Tibet, you may also ride up a hidden valley to camp only to find a family of herders living at the far end. In practice, this is seldom a problem, but if you’re setting up camp in someone’s pasture it’s polite to ask if it’s okay when you see them (generally when they’re rounding up animals just before sunset).

Food & Water

• Being the high mountains, fresh water is available at countless places along the route, so you shouldn’t need to carry more than a couple litres at a time. In some cases the streams and rivulets are pure snowmelt with no upstream habitation or grazing, but even in the worst case, much of the route follows rivers that can be safely drunk from with proper treatment (though I generally drank treated water from side streams).
• The towns of Manigango and Luoxu are the major supply points for food, having reasonably well-stocked stores. Smaller villages along the way often have a shop (look for advertising posters pasted to the side of a building) where you can buy basics like instant noodles and biscuits.