Datang 318 Cycling Rest Stop
▲ 540 mAt the mouth of Datang town, the 318 Cycling Rest Stop and its graffiti wall sit at just 540 m — a favourite spot for riders to take their first-day group photo as they roll out of the Chengdu plain.
Day 1 of 20 · Act 1 · Out of Chengdu
Setting Out · Chengdu
Chengdu → Ya'an
792 m High point Warm departure
Day one of cycling 318. Roll out of the Land of Abundance across the flat Chengdu plain — rapeseed gold, bamboo groves and paddy fields all the way. An easy day to find your legs.
Landmarks
Chengdu
成都 · 500 m
The start line at 500 m — teahouses, the Land of Abundance, and the official kilometre-zero of the Sichuan–Tibet Highway.
Ya'an
雅安 · 620 m
The "rain city," gateway to the mountains where the plain finally ends.
Stops along the way
3 scenic check-in spots on this stage — pull over at any of them for a postcard.
Mengding Mountain Tea Garden Viewpoint
▲ 635 m"Best water from the Yangzi, best tea atop Mengshan" — the thousand-year tribute tea gardens of Mengding Mountain terrace down the hillside near 635 m, rows of green tea ridges layered against the distant peaks.
Qingyi River Viewpoint
▲ 620 mRiding into Ya'an, the rain city, you reach the Qingyi River around 620 m — misty and dreamlike, where the damp mountain air first settles on your face.
Questions about this day
Is day 1 of cycling 318 hard?
No — day 1 from Chengdu to Ya’an is the gentlest of the whole route, a flat roll across the Chengdu plain from 500 m to about 792 m. In the game it’s the day to find your legs: try the pedal, brake and shift, and let the roam gear carry you at an easy spin.
Where does the Chengdu–Lhasa ride start?
At kilometre zero of the G318 in Chengdu, at around 500 m. The first stage runs west across the Land of Abundance to Ya’an, the "rain city" and the gateway where the plain finally meets the mountains.
What does the Chengdu plain look like in the game?
Rapeseed gold, bamboo groves and paddy fields all the way. The four seasons change the fields under you — spring brings the gold rapeseed bloom, autumn the ripe paddy — and the weather can turn the sky from clear to the soft drizzle the region is named for.
A shared postcard from Cycling 318
Ride your own 318
Cycling 318 turns the road to Lhasa into a daily, cozy ride. Check in at the landmarks, collect a postcard from each, and fill your 318 passport.
Coming soon to the App Store