Yunnan Bed Car Leisure Tour (1) - Heading to Western Yunnan

February 15, 2021

Today is the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, and our bed truck has set off again, this time the target is Yunnan. I didn’t do any homework, it was just a casual leisure trip. We chose to set off on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year to save on tolls, so we didn’t plan to get off the expressway along the way and planned to go directly to Tengchong in western Yunnan.

I set off from my home in Chengdu at close to 11 o'clock in the morning and arrived in Xichang after 18 o'clock. I wanted to spend the night in a service area in front of the Xichang exit. I clearly saw a "Xining Service Area" on the navigation, but when I arrived at the ramp, I saw a road sign saying " Exit Xichang North, I hesitated for a moment, and after passing the ramp, I saw that this is both the Xichang North exit and the service area. I had to get off the expressway at the next exit, Xichang. I checked on the "Wowo Self-Driving" APP and found that there was a Wowo only a few hundred meters away, so I went there. This is a sales office. The small parking lot has a good environment. Trees separate it from the street, making it peaceful and quiet. The PetroChina gas station next door has a recessed area with several parking spaces. The location is inconspicuous and has convenient access to the bathroom. We decided to spend the night here. The next morning, of course, we couldn’t cook at the gas station, so we moved to the parking lot of the sales office next door to make breakfast. There is not a single car here except us.

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.Wowo in Xichang. North latitude 27°54’0.54″, east longitude 102°12’24.162″

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February 16, 2021

Continue on the highway. The Rongli Expressway has not yet been fully connected. From Huaping County to Yongsheng County, the navigation allowed us to walk 90 kilometers on National Highway 353. This section of the national highway is completely mountainous, and the road conditions are also poor. There are almost no straight roads. When encountering large trucks, it is difficult to find overtaking opportunities. The neighbor’s RV who was camping tonight said that this kind of mountain road made them dizzy, and lamented that our bed truck was better for traveling.

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.Scenery on National Highway 353

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After exiting National Highway 353 in Yongsheng County, take the Dayong Expressway. Not long after, I saw a sign for the observation deck. Yunnan is indeed a tourist province, and observation decks have been built on the highways. From this viewing platform, you can see Chenghai in Yongsheng County, which is a lake in the Jinsha River Basin.

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.View Cheng Hai from the observation deck of Dayong Expressway

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In the evening, we arrived at the Sina service area on the Dayong Expressway, which is within Lijiang City. This is a new service area, very clean and quiet. The flowers are blooming and the air is fresh. Here we made dinner, washed the car, and heated our feet. An evening walk is like taking a walk in the park. Only our bed truck and an RV will stay here tonight.

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.Sina serves the area, is very clean, very quiet, full of flowers and fresh air

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February 17, 2021

In the morning, we departed from the Sina Service Area and continued along the Dayong Expressway. We arrived at the Taoyuan Jinsha River Bridge in less than ten minutes. After crossing the bridge, we saw another observation deck. The Jinsha River widens like a lake here. The viewing platform by the "lake" is like a park, with beautiful trails and children's play facilities.

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.Taoyuan Jinsha River Bridge

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.The Jinsha River widens here to form a lake. This is a corner of the lake.

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.The viewing platform here looks like a park

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When we were approaching Tengchong, we saw the sign on the road and we saw Mangshi, which was more than 100 kilometers away. We stopped at the service area in front and searched on Baidu. Mangshi had the Golden Pagoda, Silver Pagoda, Shubao Pagoda and other attractions, so we decided temporarily that we couldn’t get off the expressway in Tengchong and walked a little further to Mangshi.