Bingzhongluo

Chongding Church

Bingzhongluo is a city/small town in Western Yunnan.

Understand

The town consists of a single street of hotels and restaurants. Internet is available via slow DSL. Very few people speak English.

Get in

Bus from Liuku or Gongshan. Police checkpoints will arrest illegal taxis/private drivers between Liuku and Gongshan and specifically target foreigners for questioning when entering or leaving Liuku.

The provincial government has imposed a ¥100 entry fee for any "tourists" going into Bing Zhongluo Xiang. It is hard to avoid the fee unless you look like local Chinese. The gate inspectors are not allowed to ask for ID cards, so they impose the fee on anyone they think is a tourist or from a different part of China.

Get around

Use your feet, or hire private drivers. If you get nervous with normal Chinese taxi drivers, you will have a heart attack going down partially collapsed one-lane roads on the edge cliffs with raging white water rapids below trying to pass tractor-trailers on blind corners. Do not go past Liuku if you can't accept this.

See

The whole place is a huge vista of mountains bathed in clouds with streams and a very natural environment for China.

Do

Go hiking, bring a stick to beat off poorly trained dogs. Consider getting rabies vaccine before travelling. The single hospital there was empty with a few mobile phone numbers to call on a blackboard.

Buy

Nothing to buy beyond food.

Eat

Only a few restaurants that serve nothing more than basic food. Can arrange to BBQ a piglet among other animals, and/or buy food at the market.

Drink

Rice wine.

Sleep

Sleep in the modest hotels.

Go next

Take the bus back to Gongshan or Liuku.