Cycling Around Lake Dian: The Roads Around Kunming's Polluted Heart

Two weekends ago was 5/1 (May Day), or International Workers' Day, and I had my plan in order:  sleep, watch some movies, enjoy the sunshine, and maybe get some work done.  That was until Friday evening when my friend Abby asked me if I wanted to spend the weekend with her and my other friend Lisa  cycling around Lake Dian (滇池), south of Kunming.  A little hesitant at first, she talked me into it, and I woke up early Saturday morning to go rent a bike.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="361" caption="{Photo of Lake Dian taken from XiShan (I didn't take this photo)}"][/caption]

Lake Dian, a highland freshwater lake, is the largest lake in Yunnan Province, and the eighth largest in China.  It was the model for the much smaller, man-made Lake Kunming at the Summer Palace in Beijing.  It is truly spectacular that such a vast lake is so close to Kunming City, and only makes it all the more depressing that the water is EXTREMELY polluted.  We're not talking just "don't drink the water" polluted.  We're talking "do not touch the water" polluted.  (I was even a little afraid to look at it.)   The water in Lake Dian has been classified Type V (the worst possible rating), meaning the water is unfit for agricultural and industrial uses.  The reason:  prior to the first wastewater treatment plant being constructed in Kunming in 1990, all of the city's bacteria- and disease-ridden wastewater was dumped untreated directly into the lake.  The factories and farms crowding the lake's eastern shore no doubt do not help the matter, and despite billions of dollars being spent to clean up the water, it's been estimated that over 55% of the lake's fish population has died.  It is even more worrisome to see locals out fishing in its depths.

Despite the pollution, I had yet to go down to the lake, and decided a weekend out exercising with friends was better than a weekend spent sleeping and being unproductive.  So, Saturday morning, we got a quick  breakfast at Salvador's, and then set out south down through the city by the canal, passing roadside tattoo artists, coca-cola sponsored police tents, and endless honking cars.  We made it past the airport, heading east (clockwise around the lake), and keeping to local roads.  The city quickly turned into farms and smaller towns, extensions of the city.  After a while, we stopped to ask directions from a few PSB officers, who pointed us towards Chenggong-the main extension zone for Kunming city and home to the new campuses of all the major universities in Kunming.

Past the town, construction was strewn in all directions, new high-rises stood looming over the surrounding agriculture, and the roads were covered with rocks and dirt.  Massive diesel trucks roared by us, sounding their loud air-horns obnoxiously as if their engines weren't enough warning of their approach.  They kicked up the dust in clouds, making it difficult to breathe, and knocking debris flying into the air at us.  When we eventually stopped for lunch, our faces were brown with sunglasses-shaped patches of skin, and our eyebrows were white with dust.  We rode out towards villages,  under bridges, and through the black smoke of slashed-and-burnt fields.  More than once, the trucks were backed up honking at each other, and we did our best to weave in and out between them, dismounting when necessary.  It was a rough ride, if only for the traffic and dust, and I huffed and puffed, climbing up the final set of hills for the day, thankful to be that much closer to our first night's destination.  We zoomed at top speed down towards the southernmost point of the lake, the town of Kunyang (昆阳), over 70 km around the lake from our starting point.

We rode into town, found a hotel, and washed the dirt off our faces.  Every part of me was sore, and it was difficult to walk through the town.  We found a public square honoring Zheng He (郑和)-the famed early 15^th century Hui mariner and explorer from this small corner of Yunnan, who commanded fleets of ships sailing as far as East Africa.  The square was alive with local families and old men flying kites, vendors grilling chuanr, and children delightedly bouncing up and down on small inflatable carnival rides.  Later, we returned to our hotel and played cribbage before calling it a night.  I was exhausted, and my arms had apparently been sunburnt during the ride.  Moreover, with all my muscles aching, I hastily decided to apply tiger balm to my legs, back, and shoulders, falling asleep at around 11pm.  Two hours later, I awoke in a cold sweat, my sheets soaked through, and a text message on my phone.  One of my friends in the adjacent room was very nauseous, and wanted to know if I had any medicine.  I gave her something, took a shower, and went back to sleep, noticing briefly that it was pouring outside.  The next day's ride wasn't looking too promising.

Fortunately, the morning brought a sufficient lack of rain, renewed energy, and easiness in my friend's stomach.  So, we settled our bill with the hotel, strapped our packs to our bike racks, and left the town of Kunyang heading Northwest back around the lake.  The roads around the lake are all under construction-part of Kunming City's 12 year plan to expand and increase transportation routes-and the start of the second day's ride was beginning to seem like a repeat of day 1.  Fortunately, the western edge of the lake is less developed and much more scenic, and the road quickly flattened and became paved.  Just before Haikou on the southwest corner of the lake, we had a choice to make:  stay on the local roads, climbing up into the mountains and around, or sneak onto the expressway, cutting straight across flat roads and the new bridge into town.  We snuck past the toll, a little wary we were going to get chased or yelled at, but we were clear.  We saw the green, polluted waters below us as we crossed the bridge, and made it into Haikou.  We switched to local roads, and we passed donkey-drawn carriages, construction men yelling "Hello! How are you?" in English, local restaurants selling fresh-caught fish from the lake (!), and scenic "tourist" spots with mediocre views.  We made it to XiShan (the western hills), where the impressive cliffs towered above us on our left, a few stray sheep bleating somewhere up above us, invisible.

We stopped for a snack in a small village towards the north of the lake, watching the local stray dogs interact, sniffing each other and lying in the middle of the road, obstructing local traffic.  Asking for directions, we found a main road back into Kunming proper, and rode through town until we were back on familiar turf.  We pushed the last leg up towards WenHua Xiang, and locked our bikes up outside Salvador's (where we'd started nearly 140km ago the previous day) for lunch.

Since this was primary a cycling trip, I didn't take many photos, but I'll throw some up when I get the chance.