Day 1  Kunming
Arrive in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province. met by Ride China staff and taken to your hotel. 

Day 2 Kunming to Jianshui(1748m)   (220KM)  
Pick up from your hotel and transfer to our garage, pick up the bikes, organize your luggage. You may leave the unused to our garage. Ride to Jianshui county, arrive in Jianshui, the ancient Chinese cultural city full of gardens, old houses and water wells. We check in the hotel and We ride out of Jjianshui and visit a nice old village at Tuanshan, beautiful gardens and old houses featuring precious wood carvings of doors, window panes. We then follow the rider to an architecture wonder of the Twin Dragon Bridge of 17 arches. visit a private garden belong to the Zhu Family. Tonight you may walk around the town and join the locals at the Tiananmen City Gate. 

Day 3 Jianshui to Yuanyang trails and villages (275KM) 
Shortly we will be riding to the valley of the Red River, our first big river on this tour, which flows to Vietnam. and finally climb up again to the mountain town at Yuanyang - a most delightful vicinity populated by the Yi, Tai, Miao, Hani and several other minority groups. It is the right season to watch the terraced fields and peasants working in the fields with their buffalos. With their resilience and diligence, Hani and Yi ethnic people created wonders both practical and exhilaratingly beautiful to behold. Crop is grown on steps carved into slopes and together with the clouds enveloping the mid-mountains, the landscape is transformed into a remarkable work of art. You will ride to Shengcun and Duoyishu village and have lunch at this minority town and proceed to Duoyishu and Tiger Mouth Village, along the ride we will pass the terraced fields and meet Hani and Yi Minorities.  Overnight at Yuanjiang

Day 4  Yuanjiang to Lincang  (321KM) 
Ride on highway for 130KM and turn north on national road to Jing Dong, we travel to the tea plantation area of Yunnan. Most good tea is from this region and be carried all the way to Tibet as far as to Nepal and India. 

Day 5 Lin Cang to Dali (380KM) 
We wend our way southwards over the modern version of the Ancient Tea-Horse Road to Dali, Yunnan Province’s 2ndmost important city and also one of China’s most historic. The Bai Kingdom and the Kingdom of Dali were both centered here between the 8th and 12th centuries. Today Dali is peaceful and this historic walled city is well preserved. We lodge in the Old Quarter tonight. An early arrival means there is ample time to wander around the streets and explore this atmospheric town. 

Day 6 Dali to Lijiang  (180KM)
We make a stop a Three Pogodas of Dali, we ride to Lijiang-a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Lijiang’s charming Old Town is a maze of cobbled streets, canals, and stone bridges that date from the Ming Dynasty. You are free to explore this ancient city at your leisure. Lijiang is a ‘shop till you drop’ type place and all sorts of interesting items are for sale.

Day 7  Lijiang – Tiger Leaping Gorge - Shaxi Village (270KM)
We will leave Lijiang and ride through Jade Dragon park to the third deepest Gorge in the world, Tiger Leaping Gorge tucked between Haba Snow Mountain and Jade Dragon Mountain, we take a motorized ferry cross the Yangtse River and ride to Walnut Grove.  After a late lunch, we ride through the gorge to Shaxi. Another memorable drive that will take us into the heart of rural Yunnan as we ride along the ‘Old Caravan’ road past tranquil scenes of mud brick villages, bamboo groves, rivers, and paddy fields through rural scenery takes us to Shaxi. You really sense a feeling of timelessness, as the way of life here has remained unchanged for centuries. This road was once very busy tea horse caravan route. The road was used by the horse caravans transporting tea and salt between villages and they went as far as to Tibet and India.

Day 8 Shaxi to Kunming (460KM) 
We ride out of Shaxi on the zigzagged small roads and get back to the highway to Kunming. We celebrate our adventure with a beer, or maybe two! 

Day 9 Onward flight
Transfer to airport for your onward flight home

Tour Prices in USD/person

"Thanks for a fantastic motorcycle adventure, Elliot and I enjoyed it very much, looking forward to coming back again" Scott Wood-Australia

"It was great to see the most beautiful parts of China by motorbikes" Fredrick-Sweden

Photos and Video of the trip: https://ridechina.com/Trip-Photos/list/Southern-Yunnan.html