Yuanyang - spectacular rice-paddy terracing, the 45th World Heritage Site in China. For details, please read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuanyang_County,_Yunnan
A few year ago, we went to Yuanyang with a tour group. We travelled from Kunming to Yuanyang in a tour bus. It was raining that day, I remember from 南沙 ( Yuangyang new town) at the Yuanjiang river side we went a long steep way up to the mountain. Almost at the top of the mountain, the rain and mist started to clear, a town on a mountain top新街镇( Yuangyang old town) emerged. The view was magical/fantastic which I still remember now. We couldn’t see much scenery that trip because of the rain/mist. I thought we have to come again and may be we could challenge that mountain road with a bike.
Before we went this time, I had used google map to see how difficult the ascend is. From Yuanjiang the river side 200m from sea level to 新街镇( Yuangyang old town) 1600m from sea level, about 30km all uphill.

201305 Yunnan 1 of 2 https://picasaweb.google.com/irkmwon...Iq0woyAl_nyjAE