Continuing on after our final rest days of the trip in Shanghai. We pass through a few of the popular sights that are in the area including one of the largest Buddha statues in the world and one of China's most sacred mountains.

We manage to cover over 1,200km in three days as we make the choice to take the highway to get back down south to the coast where we have plans to visit Macau, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen.

We've now passed 100 days on the road! 100 days since we left from Beijing, in the heat of summer to our first destination in Chengde. So of course to celebrate there's rain, mud, a broken luggage rack, and spectacular mountain scenery!

Busy days out of Chongqing- Expressways, farmland, planned and unplanned Giant Buddha visits, all topped up with some spectacular remote canyon driving through southern Sichuan.

Riding from Chengdu to Chongqing, getting kicked off the highway twice in the name of safety... Rain, mud, and construction on the National Roads sure sound safer to me! (end sarcasm)

Not quite done with the dirt roads and construction but a definite improvement over the past few days! Only two more days before getting to Chengdu but before that we stay overnight with a Tibetan family.

Well the sand storms and desert heat from only a few weeks ago certainly seem far away now! Read about the start of our adventure on the G219 into Tibet as we hit snow, 5,000m high mountain passes, and the beautiful scenery of the Kunlun Mountains and into Tibet.

We made it to our first major tourist destination in a while as we head to the ancient city of Pingyao and visit a few different sights that are dotted around the area. Then... more construction of course!

Starting to make our way south now as we leave the periphery that had treated us so well thus far. Bring on the trucks, rain, dust, and construction!

Continue making our way south and soon west as we contend with strong cross-winds (not such a big problem) and large river fords (a relatively bigger problem).