The Cangshan mountains rising above Dali and Erhai Lake

Cycling / Dali & Erhai rides

Private cycling journey

Dali & Erhai Cycling Days: 4 Days in Yunnan

Dali may be China's most liveable cycling town: a 2,000-metre valley between a nineteen-peak mountain wall and a 250-square-kilometre lake, with a villages-and-café culture that has grown up around the visitors who came and stayed. This journey rides the lake loop and the foothill roads for four days, sleeping in the same bed every night.

  • Duration4 days
  • Nights3
  • Best windowMar – Jun · Sep – Nov
  • Starts & endsDali
Ask about this itinerary

Dali between the mountains and the lake · 2,000 metres, and the riding season never really ends

The lake250 km²

Erhai, Yunnan's second-largest highland lake, at 1,972 metres — the loop around it is ~120 kilometres of lakeshore road and village lanes

The wall19 peaks

of the Cangshan range to 4,122 metres — every ride here finishes looking up at them, and the foothill roads climb their lower folds

The altitude~2,000 m

valley floor — high enough to feel the plateau sun, low enough that nobody needs to think about it. Riding weather runs year-round

The tea roadXizhou

the old Tea Horse Road market town north of Dali, with Bai architecture, baba flatbread, and the morning market that still sets the town's clock

Why this journey

One bed, four rides.

The best cycling trips are sometimes the simplest: a good town, a good bike, and a week of rides that return to the same table at night. Dali is the original of that genre in China — the expat cyclists' base camp since the 1990s — and its rides stack up: the full lake loop for the big day, the Cangshan foothill villages for the climbing day, the tea-road towns north, and the short café-culture day for arrival legs.

Three nights in a converted courtyard guesthouse in Dali old town mean no packing, no support-chase anxiety, and evenings that run to the town's own rhythm: the foreigner street, the lakeside sunsets, and Yunnan's kitchen — which deserves an article of its own.

Route Briefing

Four day-rides from a single Dali base: an arrival shake-out, the lake loop, the Cangshan foothills, and the tea-road day north. Distances flex to the group; the van covers all of it.

  1. undefinedundefinedundefined
  2. undefinedundefinedundefined
  3. undefinedundefinedundefined
  4. undefinedundefinedundefined

The Journey

Four days from one bed.

Every ride starts and ends at the guesthouse door; the van rides along with lunch and the phone-charger questions. Days flex up or down in distance without breaking the plan.

  1. Day 01

    Fit the bike, find the legs

    Dali

    Meet in Dali old town, fit the bikes, and roll out for the shake-out ride: the lakeshore path south of town, the wetland parks, and the first honest look at how big the Cangshan wall actually is.

    Evening in the old town — the courtyard guesthouse's dinner, or the street food crawl for the adventurous. The Bai cheese-grill stalls are better than they sound.

  2. Day 02

    The big day around the water

    The Erhai loop

    The journey's centrepiece: the full 120-kilometre loop around Erhai, counterclockwise so the wind works for you and the views arrive in the right order — the fishing villages, the temple points, the long northern causeway with the lake on both sides.

    The van carries lunch and meets at the halfway towns. Riders who want the shorter version ride the northern half and van the rest; nobody apologises here.

  3. Day 03

    Up into the village folds

    The Cangshan foothills

    A climbing day, gently: the roads that fold into the Cangshan foothills below the nineteen peaks, linking Bai villages, spring-water wells and the valley's old orchards. Fifty-five kilometres that feel like more, with the lake reappearing at every turn of the climb.

    Afternoon for the Three Pagodas — Dali's thousand-year-old landmark — or the cableway if the group wants the high view.

  4. Day 04

    North to the market town

    The tea road — Xizhou

    The last ride runs the old Tea Horse Road north to Xizhou, the Bai market town of carved houses and baba flatbread, timing the morning market if the day starts early. Lunch in the town's famous courtyard café, then the easy roll back for afternoon departures — or the extension south to Weishan's old town. Ask us.

What's included

What is included, and what is not.

A base-camp cycling week is the simplest product we run: good bikes, a good bed, and a van that makes every distance optional.

Included

Arranged and paid in your price.

  • T

    h

  • T

    r

  • E

    n

  • T

    r

  • T

    h

  • T

    r

Not included

Either yours to arrange, or a question we will gladly answer.

  • T

    r

  • S

    o

  • T

    h

  • C

    y

  • T

    r

undefined

Enquiry

Ask us about this one.

Tell us your dates and riding level. We will come back with the season outlook, the day-by-day plan, and a written outline with a price.

Difficulty
Easy to moderate — all distances optional
Group size
2 – 8, private departures
Best window
Mar – Jun, Sep – Nov
Cost guide
From ¥6,800 per person, twin share

Trip details

Fields marked are required. This enquiry is filed against this itinerary, so you do not need to repeat the outline. There are no fixed departures to pick — this route runs to your dates, so put them in and we build around them.

Read next

Guide: Dali & Lijiang · Article: the lake circuits · Article: the valley rides