Equipped with iron wills and voodoo magic, cycling helmets and their most refined tea palates, the participants of this year’s 2013 Golden Week Yunnan Bike Journey rolled through 385 glorious kilometers of banana trees, tea bushes, homestays, and firewater-induced dancing. Hutong Guides Jake and Rob, along with our invincible partners Wendy and Echo, helped our 12 adventurers discover the best that Xishuangbanna has to offer.
We ate pineapples picked fresh from the bush and learned the finer points of cooking spicy Dai cuisine. We harnessed our inner strength and perseverance to stomp up the hills, and picked the most delicate of wild teas, and then processed them into our very own Pu’er Tea Bricks. Each day, our adventurers met a different minority and savored their unique specialties. The secluded villages brought new experiences, new flavors, new stories, and new friends.
We would like to thank rider Mei Ying Leong for letting us use her (amazing) pictures – to see the complete set, visit her Flickr page.
The Hutong’s Bike Journey explores one of China’s last virgin lands where one can find undisturbed but welcoming cultures, from the area’s most populous minority, the Dai, to the region’s most remote ethnic groups. Renowned for its tropical climate and lush rainforests, the region is teeming with wildlife, rare plants, and historical & cultural significance. Xishuangbanna is the birthplace of tea cultivation, and is the home of the Pu’er tea plantations.
This 7-day bike trip and cultural excursion takes place each October during Golden Week. The Hutong also brings school groups to Xishuangbanna to study ethnic diversity, the history of China’s borderlands, the pro’s and con’s of economic development, environmental preservation, and to be immersed in nature. We also organize private trips for groups of families and friends.
For more information on joining the 2014 Golden Week trip, or planning your own adventure in Xishuangbanna, contact info[at]thehutong[dot]com.
