User Experience: Road Trip in GanSu

Jun 23, 2013
by Sarge Luo  
Views: 6,111    Faves: 9    Comments: 0

The dry and dusty GanSu province has always been an attractive place to me. Mainly because it's known for the "yellow dirt". I went to LanZhou city, capital of GanSu last year. The mountains I saw on the descending aircraft had me thinking of driving a van with my bike inside, and ride everywhere. And now, here comes my chance - BIKEcool magazine was organizing a few riding trips around China. GanSu happened to be the first destination.

airport
The riders include Li Xian Yi, a very fast DH rider from X-Team Bei Jing, Sun Jian, the riding instructor from the first mountain bike park in Da Lian, Xu Zhen Zhen from Chao Yang tires, and my colleague and photographer Zhu Jian Bo. Also coming with us are some journalists and photographers from bicycle and outdoor media.

train station
We group up in Lan Zhou and set out for ZhangYe, an old city over four hundred kilometers northwest. After seven hours of train and mini bus, we finally reached our first stop, ZhangYe Dan Xia geographic park. The park is far from the city. When we get off the minibus, we could see some shapes of mountains near by in the dark night. It was almost 2am the next morning when we finish building the bikes. But everyone was excited, looking forward to see the special geographic terrain the next day.

Dan Xia geographic park
Checking out the landscape.
The next day we followed the minibus driven by our guide into the geographic park. As we rode along the red brick road deeper into the park, the mountains become more and more astonishing. There’re countless mountains big and small, with different shape, and distinctive layers of colors combined with the rough surface that shows centuries of age. It took no time for you to start appreciating how amazing mother nature can be. All of us just kept riding on, and looking around, forgetting to explore and finding places to ride. Just going deeper and deeper into the beautiful scene.

Riding in the valley.
There are countless valleys forming a big network that goes among the mountains. We picked a wide one and went in. Because there’s no plant on the mountains, so when it rains, lots of water will come down the mountain and become streams or even rivers in the valley. The bottom of the valley is a natural model of how water cuts through ground. There’s a bigger riverbed made by big water flow, it’s wide, but shallow. Then you have smaller but a lot deeper ditches made by constant, but small water flow. They follow and cross each other, formed a very twisty trail. Riding here is fun. You can follow the bigger ones with lots of turns, and you also need to jump over some small but deep ditches.

Riding down hill side
Riding in the valley.
The valley wasn’t too long. After a few cross sections, we reached its end. The red mountains around looked like rock, but feels like solid red clay. Walking on them with Five ten shoes won’t even leave a mark. But if you stomp, a thin top layer became dust immediately. There’re very clear vertical marks of rain corrode. The local guide told us if we leave a foot print here, it will be gone just after a few rains. We carried our bikes up a little bit, Li Xian Yi and I rode down, left a shallow mark on the slope. So we decided not to ride on this kind of mountain anymore. They’re been corroded by water and wind all time. We don’t want to accelerate the process.

Landscape
So we got back on the main road and kept going, looking for better places to ride. After a few kilometers the red brick road ended. We continued on a dirt road, until we reach the place that the dirt road was destroyed by water flow. It’s hard to imagine the water from sky become big rivers that can destroy the road in this bone dry place. When we looked around, we see some taller hills with lots of desert plants. That’s somewhere we can have fun and shred some dirt!

Checking landscape.
None of us are professional riders. We have very limited free riding experience, not to mention it’s the first time for us to see this kind of terrain. Even riding on this kind of dirt is something new. For us, facing such an open landscape is just like putting a kid into a warehouse full of toys. For a moment we just don't know what to do. Naturally we started to look for existing trails. There are two that lead up to the yellow dirt mountain on the right hand side. They are both pretty steep and both lead to the flat top of this hill. So we picked one and start hiking.

Landscape
The view on top is even more beautiful. Red mountains continues far away, some dangerously shaped high cliffs hanging out like they were cut by giant ax. Multiple layers of different colors are so clear that made you wonder if the mountains are made like a sandwich. The flat top of this mountain is so wide open, and there's no obvious trail anywhere. Just dirt, and desert plant. A little bit further, it connects to some other hills that looks pretty steep both sides, like the back of a fish, and on top, there seemed to be a trail that connects quite a few hills just like that. There’s only one way to find out.

Riding ridge lines.
The single tracks on top of the hills are fun to ride. You've got this kind of dirt that's just soft enough for your tire knobs to dig in. If you turn hard, the dirt starts to move, but in a slow manner that you feel perfectly in control. But if you pedal very hard on the climb, you can end up in a drift and loose speed. Especially on the steep climb that we’ve rode quite a few times for photo shooting.

photo
Climb
Riding down hill side.
Coming down from ridge line.
We had fun, but that was far from what the landscape can offer. So we came back, got together and start to check out the side slopes of the biggest dirt mountain. I'd say it's pretty steep, especially looking from the top. But there are a few spots that has good transition to the flat valley bottom. Li Xian Yi decided to ride it. I decided to follow him with a GoPro. I have rode steeps like this, or even steeper back home. But rolling down something so big and so long, still made me uncomfortable, until we finally did it. Then it's like the gate has been opened, the animals are rushing out. Everyone started to look for rideable spots and shred hill sides. We ride it straight, we make turns, we start together and spread out... Everyone’s having a good time.

Funny crash photo.
Crash on soft dirt.
And in this place, this terrain, I learned my first freeride lesson: Always check your line before riding it. I came down a small hill side, everything was nice and smooth. I was super relaxed and enjoying my moment, when suddenly my front wheel slowed down drastically. My rear wheel suddenly went up high in the air. “Oh, Sh…” I was thrown over the bar with the T was still in my mouth. It turns out that the dirt in this particular place is super soft that I dug a big hole on the dirt when I crash. Even with full face helmet and goggles I still ate a lot of dirt and looked like someone just crawl out of dirt.

Night ride.
Luckily I wasn’t hurt at all. But my front brake was broken. I was out of the night ride on the hill ridges. Obviously everyone else had lots of fun! Night falls around 9pm here. When it comes to sunset, it gets dark very quickly, and when it's dark, there's absolutely no light at all.

Kang Le grass land
Landscape on the way
Landscape
photo
Although we all wanted to stay another day for more exploration and riding in the geographic park, we had to leave for our second stop of this trip: Kang Le Grasslands. It was only 50km, but took more than one hour for us to drive there. Everything outside the bus window is new, every view is beautiful and exotic for the group of people coming from the east coast. Suddenly someone noticed the huge grass hills ahead, sheep and yak starts to show up here and there.

Drinking Qing ke liquor
Landscape
We stopped in a small holiday resort called Yu Gu Le Yuan for lunch. Where we were greeted as honored guests. Two native girls came out singing to everyone, present a HaDa and a small cup of QingKe liquor. It tastes a little bit like vodka, but less alcohol. During lunch break we were able to check the valley that we will ride across from mountain top. The land is all big slopes covered with grass, and the trees are all together forming some large dark colored areas like lotus leaves on water.

Weird tea.
Yummy...
The natives are called YuGu, with very small population. Their traditional lunch for guests consists butter tea and mutton. To my surprise the mutton was not barbecued, just boiled with water kept the flavor very original. Although we didn’t ride in the morning, but nobody would refuse to feast on such delicious food.

photo
Shortly after lunch, we set out for the valley in the afternoon. Riding down hill on the coal cinder and dirt road was nice and easy. There were a few coal mines near by, but they are all abandoned now. Some small coal manto remained, but not worth digging. We were supposed to ride across the valley along this dirt road, but there are a few places worth exploring. The first is the big grassland.

Climbing is hard.
There were steel wire fence to keep the sheep from wondering away, but it was no barrier for people. We had a local guide who spoke briefly with the land owner, and we’re in. It was the climb that reminded us we’re on 3000 meter altitude. Things that would have been easy back home become very hard work. And the fence show up so often, cuts the grassland into quite a few pieces.

Planning the line.
photo
catching some air.
Landing a whip
We quickly gave up the idea of following the mountain ridges up and down. Instead, we found a small terrain feature that allowed us to do some jumps for the photo shooting. The grass land is firm and dry, our tires rolled happily. Riding up and down the natural terrain is relaxing and fun. The ground is smooth, you have countless line choices. Only things you need to watch out are the marmot holes.

photo
Back on the road that goes through the valley. A long climb waits ahead. Luckily it wasn’t steep, and we could slowly ride, enjoy the view, fresh air, chase some sheep that somehow got out of the fence. After a few kilometers we came across this amazing place. On the left side of the road is the grass land that has absolutely no tree, not even a bush. But on the right side, it was a pine tree forest with moss on the ground. The two distinctive fields made a very big contrast just like ice and fire side by side. And of course we couldn’t help to climb up the forest to explore a little bit.

Riding in pine tree forest.
Riding in pine tree forest.
The forest wasn’t very big, without any obvious trail inside. But since there’s no bush, we have countless choice of lines. The slope is steep, yet climbable. The altitude made us hike instead of ride the hard climb. Took us quite some time, but the way down is very rewarding. I was able to repair my front brake with zip ties, but unfortunately the hydraulic hose was damaged so it couldn’t build pressure properly. I have less than half braking power. So riding down the forest become a challenge for me. All the way down I have pine trees flashing out from left and right. The only memory I have about my line is that it’s very twisty cuz all the time I was busy avoiding trees, and the near miss made it super exciting.

photo
Landscape
Too bad we’re on a tight schedule and couldn’t stay longer. So we rode on. After a short climb, comes the pleasant downhill part. It’s pretty mellow, but the road is more twisty, and also bumpier. It’s more fun to ride since there are more turns and you can actually pump to gain more speed without pedaling. A river came out from the mountains flowing on the left side of the road, crossing the road 2 times. And there are big packs of sheep walking on incredibly steep hill sides on the other side of the river. Finally we came to a small village and hit pavement. The street looked almost empty. But we’re lucky enough to find a shop that sells fruit. So we took some rest there, loaded the bikes and headed back.

Jia Yu Guan
We took the minibus from Zhang Ye to Jia Yu Guan in the night of day 3, it was a slow trip mainly because the super strong side wind that keep pushing the bus sideways. We reached the hotel around 2 am, so everyone got up late the next morning. And when we finally meet up in the lobby, it’s raining! The local people told us we’re super lucky to see such big rain falling down here. But we certainly think otherwise. One good thing about the rain is that I got this extra time to replace my front brake with a new one.

Jia Yu Guan Castle
A trail around the castle.
Don t worry the wall is not the real ancient one.
Don t worry the wall is not the real ancient one.
Don t worry the wall is not the real ancient one.
After lunch, the rain become very small. We loaded our bikes in a truck, and jumped in a minibus, hoping that the rain would eventually stop. It did when we reach Jia Yu Guan, the most important castle on the Great Wall in Ming dynasty. The plan for today is touring. We brought the bikes just in case there’re good spots to ride. But unfortunately the old castle is under repair, not open to tourists. So we don’t have much to do there. We took our bikes out, rode along the single tracks that goes around the big castle area, took some shots, and left for some mountains far away.

Hard climb
GeBi, a word from Mongolian, means desert. But it’s not the Sahara type desert. GeBi is the desert land that has loads of stones mixed with super dry dirt and sand. We learned this word the hard way on our trip.

Riding on mountain ridge.
The minibus drove on a dirt road that leads into the mountains far far away. Obviously when we reach these mountains, it’ll be dark soon.We saw a smaller mountain near by, so we told the driver to take us as close to these hills as possible. When we finally stopped in the middle of nowhere, the road is about 1.2km straight from the foot of the mountain. This is where we learned about GeBi. The ground looked pretty smooth from distance. But when you go up close, rocks everywhere. You can easily get the geographic story just by looking at the sides of some really deep water channels. The ground is made up by a big mix of small rocks and dirt. Because there’s very little plants, when rain falls here, water can easily wash away the dirt, leaving only rocks on top. And the dry dirt is also easily blown away by the strong wind often seen on this kind of wide open terrain, so the ground become super loose and rocky. This 1.2km of wide open space is also a bit uphill. But climbing on such a rocky ground is very hard. Not to mention that you can’t really cut it straight because there’re natural water channels spreading from the little valley by the foot of the mountain. Sometimes they become 2 feet deep and the sides are vertical. There’s absolutely no dirt at the bottom of these water channels. The rocks are free to roll anywhere. If you happened to ride into them, you won’t move a single meter without your rear wheel slipping on the ground and wasting your precious strength.

Riding on mountain ridge.
Riding down mountain ridge.
Riding down mountain ridge.
However, the mountain is better. Still rocky, but a lot more dirt, and the rocks are not so loose. Some riders are already on top. There’re very few plants on the mountain, and the plants are very small. So I can just choose the shortest line to group up with them. When I reach the top of the mountain, I realize that it’s not a “small mountain” that we thought it to be. It continues far away, and we happened to found one of its small branch that reaches out towards the dirt road. Riding on top of the mountain is always a pleasant experience. Especially when the grip is good. We followed the mountain ridge, it looked like we can keep riding forever. Turning backwards, we can see a railway cuts across the big flat land, a train moving like a green worm. A bit further there’s a lake, reflecting sunlight just like a mirror. The huge clouds moving slowly with the wind, some snow mountains start to show up on the left side of the horizon. We came back pretty excited, imagining the good ridings we can find in the forests of the big mountains near the snow mountain the next day.

The river bed
Looking at the snow mountains far away.
This car had 2 flat tires and stopped in the middle of the road.
We got up early, and marched towards the snow mountains as planned. Because the road could get worse, we left the minibus, and hired two SUVs. But when things look perfect on plan, they never work as planned. In the middle of nowhere, our convoy got stopped by two other SUVs. One of them had 2 flat tires. And there’s only 1 spare. So it can’t move. We stopped to see if need some help, but by the time we decided that there’s nothing we can do, we found that one of our SUVs also had a flat. With the soft ground, it took quite some time for the driver to set up the lifting jack and change the tire. The spare one was pretty worn. We’d have to drive slower and more careful to prevent another flat.

photo
The dirt road climbs up the mountain along the valley. When we reached a bridge, our local guide showed us the dry river bed that goes up and deep into the mountains. This is where we need to go. The riverbed looked pretty wide and flat, the ground is all made up by very small stones. It’s easy for SUV to drive on. But our truck almost got stuck soon after it drove in. One SUV went in with the photographers. The other one was called back. We don’t want to risk the truck, so we took a few bikes apart and load them onto the SUV.

The riverbed was pretty long. And leaving the truck was a good idea because there were a few sections that the truck could never pass. The SUVs went back and forth, transported everybody deep into the valley. Slowly water start to show in the river bed. Not long after that we end up on a dirt road in a big grass land. But soon the dirt road stopped. One of the photographer and I went deeper inside to see if we can find a way to go uphill. Just to find 2 Tibet hounds barking and showing teeth to us. Apparently they are guarding the sheep, and they are not leashed. Nobody is stupid enough to mess with this kind of dog. So we backed out quickly.

photo
Changing tire of the SUV and transporting people back and forth took us a lot of time. There isn’t enough time to find another way since we have a train to catch later at night. No matter how unwilling we are, the expedition ends here. It’s time to check out the surroundings and see the opportunities here.

photo
Where we end up is close to the end of the valley, deep inside the Qi Lian mountains. It’s a wide open area, but the slopes on the side was too steep to climb. And even if we climb up, the only thing we can do is just shred it straight down. There’s no plants, no trail. A bit further away, across the river, there’re some pine tree forests high up, and seems to be some trails on the mountain ridge. But in order to get there, we will have to pass the dogs, or swim across the river and climb some incredibly steep slope. Not something we would want to do at that moment. However, the dirt road that we came looks pretty good for riding. We decide to go back where we came in, on our bikes.

photo
photo
We gave the SUV with the photographers a head start. There’s no way they can catch us if we go first. The dirt road is divided into two trails by the yellow grass in the middle. It’s a bit downhill, so picking up speed is super easy. We rode fast, and passed the photographers in no time. When the dirt road ends, we rush down into the riverbed, and waited for the vehicles.

photo
We took some photos and video shots when they catch up. And continued all the way to the bridge, where our truck got off road and almost stuck. Riding in the river bed looked easy, but actually quite challenging. The stones are all loose, traction become very unstable. Brake in a straight line, pick good line in turns to make them wider is a very useful technique. Stay low and loose is also important because your wheel can suddenly wash out and regain traction the next second. But this unstable traction also made our last ride in this trip a very good one.

photo
Being able to enjoy the beautiful scene, and riding some different terrain, this trip is eye-opening for all of us. Even after we come back, going through the photos and videos, is like re-living the days we spent there. We can’t help thinking about the possibilities that we didn’t think of back then. This trip is also a true test to our bikes, gear, planning, logistics as well as riding skills. And we’re looking forward to the next one because for sure it will be even better!

Special thanaks to the sponsors of this trip:
Trek, Specialized, Scott, KS, X-Fusion, Tektro, Chao Yang tires, HT pedals, Taokas, Ferei lights, Race Face.

Photos by BIKEcool Magazine, Biketo.com, Alpinist Magazine
Article by Sarge Luo

Author Info:
sargeluo avatar

Member since Jun 29, 2002
2 articles

38 Comments
  • 11 0
 Great to see some awesome riding west of the Pacific!!!

Looked like an awesome trip.

It's late here, but I'll defiantly give it a full read tomorrow (:
  • 8 0
 Rock on! You western guys will see more and more coverage from the other side of the Earth! And everyone of you will be warmly welcomed to come to China for a fascinating ride!

CB教主发来贺电。
壮哉我大天朝!
  • 6 0
 另外给楼主一些小建议:人名的翻译:通常来讲三字的汉语人名,翻译的时候是分成姓和名两个部分,即姓氏首字母大写,名的第一个首字母大写,后面的都小写。例如李显一——Li Xianyi;
地名的翻译:通常来讲地名都会翻译为一个单词,单词中除首字母外不出现大写。例如甘肃——Gansu,而不是GanSu。

一点拙见,希望《骑迹》越办越好。
给力的报道。加油!

Hey you foreign fellas don't need to use Google Translate for this. I'm just discussing the translation of Chinese names with the writer. Wink
  • 1 0
 谢谢!
  • 8 0
 I vote that crash picture become POD!
  • 3 0
 还"None of us are professional riders. We have very limited free riding experience".尼玛这帮人可是全中国玩车数一数二的了好吗......谦虚也要有个限度!
  • 1 1
 Freeriding is more difficult than the other way of riding,so if you are not a freerider,you can not ride free .By the way,this is AM riding,not freeriding.
  • 2 0
 listen man, there is no definitive line that separates AM and FR, there is some FR there too, probably mostly AM but def some FR as well! nice article btw, really good one!
  • 1 1
 Ok,I think freeriding is some stuff like WTTE in my mind,maybe I were wrong.
  • 2 0
 here i give the definition of "freeriding" that i know, freeride is called a line that you pick your self, like they are doing in some places in that video! That is what freeriding is! trail riding is when you follow a trial and so one i hope you get the idea! And yes wtte is indeed a freeride mtb-ing.
  • 4 0
 We need a photographer and teacher.so we can do better. --> 我们需要一个摄影师和大师,这样我们能做的更好
hello freeride.
  • 3 0
 Great write up, nice edit too, did anyone else think the intro music to the edit sounded like the soundtrack from the pc game Rome total war?
  • 5 0
 Now that's a photo epic. Great write up.
  • 5 1
 For these guys who live in the big city,they never know what big mountain it is.
  • 4 0
 Really enjoyed the article! The great thing about PB is seeing other people enjoying the same sport in such different places
  • 2 0
 Looks like a great place but I wanted to see more of the big mountain stuff in the edit tree was to much bombing it along the road Other than that it was cool
  • 3 0
 Damn Looks like a dream, makes our local bikeparks look lame Big Grin
  • 4 0
 Nice post!
  • 3 0
 哇哇 中国的骑行都来了!!!顶
  • 3 0
 Not a place to forget to bring enough water - great pics.
  • 3 0
 Hell yea. Now THAT's a trip report. Nicely ridden and reported - thanks!
  • 3 0
 Freeriding on a Scott Spark, Epic!
  • 1 1
 Genius actually
  • 3 0
 Beautiful Scenery. Care to add a googlemap POI?
  • 3 0
 good job!!
  • 2 0
 Thats awesome!
Are the remedy 8's modified?
  • 3 0
 Nice Trip!
  • 2 0
 Looks like a good time. Reminds me of Nevada.
  • 2 0
 Nice write up. Good read and great pictures!
  • 1 0
 虽然早就看过了,但还是要来一顶!!!
  • 2 0
 #fireroadlaps4days
  • 2 0
 perfect!
  • 1 0
 我希望他们用google~~~

Frown
  • 1 0
 前排就坐观看。
  • 1 0
 nice terrain, nice pics!
  • 1 0
 Niceeeeeeeeee
  • 1 3
 At times thought i was reading a chinese article.
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