Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Sam and Erin are a newlywed couple taking an 18-month bicycle tour of Asia and Europe… and they’re bringing Sierra Blogging Post along for the ride.

We’re sending them gear and they’re sending us great stories and photographs from their adventure. They just sent me their latest dispatch from China…


We bicycled through China in the fall and early winter, from north to south, traveling through the central part of the country. China is full of amazing historical and cultural sights (which we certainly did not pass up), but the real magic of discovering Chinese culture lay in riding the many hundreds of miles between the cities and through the countryside.

We kicked off our ride through the country by cycling beside, under and around sections of the Great Wall of China. It truly is a wonder to behold. We rode over spectacular mountains north of Beijing, envisioning hordes of invaders from the north marching down the same canyons to face the Great Wall.

Many parts of central China are mountainous, and we had to make our way over many a mountain pass. We visited cities we had never heard of, but that have millions of inhabitants, and met many friendly, welcoming people along the way. China is a great country for bicycle touring - thousands of roads lead to remote corners of the country, and all of them are paved.

We were not the only ones using the roadside. We often shared it with local bicyclists, carts, farmers walking to and from their fields, herds of cattle, and children walking to school. When roadways cater to so many different types of traffic, you feel safer as a cyclist because you know motorists are accustomed to looking out for bicycles and foot traffic by the side of the road.

We also loved the food in China. The Chinese treat every meal as a special, festive event, made all the more so by having guests show up to the restaurant. We were often the center of attention. We were given the best seats, served the best food - which was fortunate, since we could rarely read the menu. We learned to ask for our favorite dishes in Chinese, and were even invited into the kitchen so we could point at what we wanted. Chinese cooks always made sure we were well fed and happy with our meal.

China is so large, we decided to cover portions of the country by train. We simply checked the bicycles and extra bags into the baggage center at the train station. Then we picked them up when we arrived at our new destination. The Chinese train system was amazingly efficient, even though it accommodates millions of passengers. We never had a problem and really enjoyed traveling with such a well-organized service.

It's hard to think of another country that offers the variety of cultural experience, terrain, climate and fantastic sights that China does. A safe, orderly and modern country, China makes an ideal country to explore by bicycle.