The ghost of the former Southern Silk Road runs west of Baoshan, and the bus is initially slowed by police roadblocks and crowded village markets, then by steep hairpin bends as it skirts the dense undergrowth of the Gaoligong Shan Nature Reserve . Two valleys along the way are fertilized by the early stirrings of the Salween and Shweli rivers (the latter a tributary of the Irrawaddy), both of which ultimately empty into the sea several thousand kilometres away in southern Burma.

 

Six hours from Baoshan the bus trundles to a halt at TENGCHONG , an untidy, energetic town udergoing expansion. A Han-dynasty settlement which first grew wealthy on Silk Road trade, Tengchong has a high incidence of earthquakes , which have left it bereft of large historic monuments or tall buildings, but business still flourishes and there are some unusual geological sights nearby. The bus station is in the eastern outskirts along Huancheng Dong Lu. For the centre, continue south past shops selling bamboo furniture and pipes, and then bear west down either Guanghua Lu or parallel Yingjiang Lu to where Tengchong's high street, Fengshan Lu , cuts across them at right angles. A farther kilometre south down Fengshan Lu takes you past a post office and bank to the junction with Fangshou Lu , the main road west out of town. Cycle-rickshaws wait at the station, though a walk right across town takes only thirty minutes.

Tengchong's premier market is the Frontier Trade Bazaar , held every morning along western Guanghua Lu. With business revolving around household goods and food, things are not quite as romantic as they sound, but there's also a jewellery and gem market on Fengshan Lu, and both should whet your appetite for better affairs in Ruili. For a stroll, follow Guang Xiang for twenty minutes to its end at Laifeng Shan Park , several square kilometres of hilly woodland immediately southwest of Tengchong. Full of family activity at weekends, paths ascend to Laifeng Si , a monastery-turned-museum, and a resurrected, thirteen-story pagoda which will guide you to the park from town.

For accommodation , try the low-priced Tonglida Binguan (beds up to ¥30, huge doubles with bathroom ¥75-100) across from the bus station; the Post Office Hotel (triples ¥30-75, doubles ¥75-100), next to the post office on Fengshan Lu; or the quiet Tengchong Binguan (tel 0875/5121044; dorms up to ¥30, doubles ¥30-75) - walk to the western end of Fengshan Lu, cross straight over Fangshou Lu and head uphill, turn left and the hotel is about 100m farther on. Their cheapest rooms are bare, but they can arrange tours into the countryside, and the restaurant provides small set meals for the princely sum of ¥6. Other general places to eat lurk along Yingjiang Lu and Guanghua Lu, where evening stalls also sell charcoal-grilled chicken and fish. There's a tiny Burmese bar at the entrance to the otherwise avoidable Tengyun Binguan off Yingjiang Lu, marked with a tiny English sign and patronized by people claiming to be diamond merchants - you'll make friends here if you can hold your rum.