Editor's note: Today we came across an interesting story from Shelly Bryant on Tai Shan, From China Heading South, where Bryant talks about Bob and Claire Rogers who are planning a pretty intense bike trip in China this September.

From Shelly Bryant:

Bob and Claire Rogers are gearing up to be on their bike again.  The couple often travels around on their tandem bike, touring exotic locales the right way.  They get to see the world, close up, and appreciate sites that more touristy sorts miss altogether.

Their upcoming trip is following a theme of “Shangri-la:  myth and reality.”  They will begin their journey in Yunnan, and travel southward to Bangkok.  They start in September, and will be on the road for 4 months.

I reviewed a book written by Bob some months back entitled The Return of No. 44.  That was my first contact with the couple, and got me to exploring their website, The New Bohemians.  You might enjoy their photos of previous trips in China, including their Western China pictures and shots of the rural East.  You’ll find some amazing images there.  I also love their narrative of their trip along the Silk Road.

I’ll be following Bob and Claire’s adventures online.  If you’d like to do the same, just pop in over at The New Bohemians.

From The New Bohemians: On the road again soon: Shangri-la and Beyond:
 

We leave September 1 for Chengdu, Sichuan, China to begin a tandem bicycle tour of SW China and SE Asia. We begin in Chengdu, Sichuan, where the earthquakes killed thousands last year. We will visit some pandas and probably visit our first important Buddha statue before heading into high country where the Himalayas transition from the Tibetan plateau, giving birth to all the great rivers of SE Asia. After a long crossing into Yunnan, we will drop into the sub tropics of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and end probably in Bangkok, one of our favorite cities.

We are feverishly making preparations: Zippy, our 38,000 mile Cannondale mountain tandem. He’s our precocious teenager. Though still strong, he always requires a complete rebuild from the frame up, because the places he takes us are hundreds or thousands of miles from a modern bike shop. We like him to start out without the creaks and grinding noises he will acquire after rain and grit take their inevitable toll. Claire sewed patches on holes and weak spots of our 38,000 mile Cannondale panniers (no they are not sponsoring us). We are far to sentimental to buy a new bicycle or panniers; we’ve come a long way together. I’ve been gathering all the tools necessary to fix almost anything that might go wrong in a few thousand miles, though as I learned on our Silk Road Crossing, I can’t carry replacement parts for every eventuality.

Claire is working on her Chinese, and I will, as usual, smile and use various vigorous hand signals attempt communication. The airlines are making it more and more difficult to travel with bicycles, let alone a tandem, so after painstakingly rebuilding him, I have taken him apart, down to the smallest package possible, and it still exceeds the maximum size, but is underweight. We are hoping for compassion from the agents.

Sounds like an amazing adventure they are about to start. We plan to keep you updated on the China part of Bob and Claire's trip through Sichuan,  the Tibetan plateau and Yunnan, so stay tuned on CTn or for the lastest go to their website: The New Bohemians.