As the fourth biggest and most populated country in the world, China loves the superlatives. This place as almost as big as the whole of Europe. China isn´t only an economic and technological super power, it also seeks influence in the world´s politics and even space. Not much information gets revealed out of this communist, one-party authoritarian state and vice-versa not that much comes in from the western world. Human rights is one issue but today we want to have a look into the beauty of this country´s landscape, people and culture. Wit h the absolutely amazing Himalaya mountains in sight, also topographically China has it all.
I’m a winter refugee and I like to be comfortably warm all year round. As soon as the first snowflakes fall here, I get on the plane and head south. I’m not proud of it. But I find the cold terrible. In 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first climbed Mount Everest in cotton clothing. I’ve packed my high-tech merino wool underpants because we will be camping over 3000m in December. Yes, we actually want to go to the Chinese Himalayas in winter and yes, we also want to camp! So we start in the province of Yunnan to explore the Sino-Tibetan highlands on our Trek Fuel EX bikes.
