Napa Hai Nature Reserve, Shangrila, Yunnan Province, China

A 23 mile ride around the Napa wetlands and nature reserve.

Shangrila, Yunnan Province, China
WikiTravel: wikitravel.org
TripAdvisor: tripadvisor.co.uk

The route is almost entirely flat, but given the ~3200m altitude (10,500 feet), it is definitely advisable to wait until you have been here a couple of days and allowed your body time to adjust before doing any strenuous exercise.

Take at least twice as much water as you would need for a similar ride at sea level, and make sure you stay well hydrated. You exhale and perspire significantly more moisture at higher altitudes.

There are a number of shops offering basic mountain bikes for hire in the vicinity of the start/end point of this route.

I have drawn this route over the Google satellite images. Google's road map of the same area seems to be slightly offset.
This is the route we took, which includes a fairly long section on a national highway towards the end. It is possible to take a detour along some small village roads that will avoid most of the highway section (including the hill), but that will take you to one of the places where you may be stopped at a toll checkpoint by the villagers.
The highway, though busy, does offer views over Songzanlin Lamasery.

Be sure to take a pair of binoculars to enjoy the diverse birdlife.

Finally, beware of roundabouts with a Buddhist Stupa built in the centre...
No really - take care!
Although China drives on the right hand side of the road, and consequently go anti-clockwise on roundabouts, many Buddhists believe that they gain merit by circumambulating a stupa in the clockwise direction and that to do so in the opposite direction would generate bad karma.
Some also wish to avoid generating negative karma when behind the wheel, and so will cut across oncoming traffic in order to travel clockwise on a roundabout if there is a stupa in the middle.
Shangrila's busiest stupa roundabout actually has a special design to allow the inner and outer lanes to travel in opposite directions so as to accommodate this while maintaining safety.
On minor roads outside the city, you may see a simple red arrow painted on the roundabout to warn you that oncoming traffic will be coming round it in the 'wrong' direction.

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