Route Info – Boten (Laos) to Daocheng Yading (China) loop

I belive one day this would be a super popular route for most south east asian countries when China finally opens the borders for free land crossing. Still its a long way to go and I was not going to wait so hence we did it with a guide.

Now much of Google Maps in China is actually outdated hence most of the roads we took were not on the map at all. The China AMAP is a good detailed map. Unfortunately only available in local languege and no other.

The loop as I try to plot on google map below looks more like a stright line instead of a loop but then again we did use different roads to go and back albeit a little parelel.

Boten - Laos to Daocheng Yading - China Loop via motorbike

Day 1 – Cross Border into Mohan and ride to Mengla Police Station for registration of bikers then onwards to Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture Jinghong for the first night.

Day 2 – Jinghong to Kunming by passing Puer. Stayed at Kunming for the 2nd night

Day 3 – Kunming with stops at Dali for a few hours and onwards to Lijiang for the 3rd night

Day 4 – Lijiang towards Yulong Snow Mountain scenic stop then onwards to Tiger Leaping Gorge scenic stop and onwards via the famous Tiger Leaping Gorge scenic road to Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Shangrila. Overnight at Shangrila

Day 5 – Shangrila via unmarked road some shortcut through the mountains that the guide says lets not do that again until they repair the roads and we reached Daocheng County Yading

Day 6 – Rest Day ... spend the day around Yading

Day 7 – Yading via S216, S217, G214 going a longer way up north to turn back south towards Hutiaoxia town. Spend the night a Hutiaoxia

Day 8 – Hutiaoxia via Nanjian to visit the Tulin Wuliang Soil Forest scenic area then towards Zhenyuan for the night

Day 9 – Zhenyuan stopping at Puer for lunch and ending at Mengla for the night

Day 10 – Border Crossing from Mengla to Laos Boten