Leaving Dali city, we continued our journey to the north. On the way to our next destination, Shangri-La, we have passed Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the lowest latitude snow mountain in the Northern Hemisphere. Due to the large latitude span of China and the fact that we had been living in the southernmost part of the country, we had never seen a snow mountain, which made us particularly longing to see the snow mountain scenery during this trip.
The further you go towards north, the higher the altitude, the thinner the air, the bluer the sky, and the more dazzling the sun. You can feel the cold wind rushing towards your face and the scorching sun burning on your back, even riding in the weather of October.
Along with National Highway G214, we arrived at the edge of Salween River, where we could see the rushing water and hear the very loud noise it made. The locals said that many people have accidentally lost their lives in this river. Across the river was the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. This is the first time we saw such a magnificent snow mountain, which had significantly different sceneries all over it, a thousand-year-old glacier on the top and a green foot, because of the extraordinary latitude it was located in. This mountain is the locals' holy mountain and embodies the patron saint "San Duo", where they hold devotional prayer every year.
The original plan was to end our trip here at this snow mountain and return. But after some discussion, we decided that there would be better scenery if we went further north. At last, we ended up with a big decision, move on to Tibet.
Nujiang Valley was ahead of us. The national highway ran through the mountains, with one stretch at the bottom of the valley and the next on the top of the mountain. It was completely relaxed and refreshing to overlook the vast range of the mountains from the top.
Everything went smoothly during the trip, except for a few hiccups - the rear brake screw of the Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled fell off. We were scared out of our wits, running a downhill slope with no rear brakes. Fortunately, the screw that fell was only served to immobilize, with no stress on it, so we continued our journey with it fixed up with a rope.
In the evening, we finally arrived at the stopping point of the day, Shangri-La. We stayed in this mysterious old city for the night. The altitude here was close to 5,000 meters. Our bodies didn't get used to it in time, so it was strenuous to go up even only a few steps. Therefore, we've just simply strolled around the old city in the evening without looking into it.
But there was already something of a Tibetan vibe going on here, as well as a few retro bike enthusiasts (this Bobber was supposed to be Yamaha XV400).
