Day 14, 76km:

This morning our route passed through the ruined city of Beichuan.

 It was destroyed in a earthquake in May 2008. 7.9 on the Richter scale

 killing 70,000 people in the region. They have made the ruined city into

 a museum. Stabilising what is left of the buildings and putting placards

 in English and Chinese with photos and stories of people who were rescued. 

It was pretty eerie and felt a bit like a ghost town. One story about a

 little girl who loved ballet had been rescued from the buried middle 

school losing her legs in the process made me cry. 

 
In the afternoon we descended from the mountains, our small road 

turned into a newly built dual carriageway which thankfully had a cycle path. 
 
We made fantastic time as it was all downhill. We stopped at a guesthouse

 in a big town on the plains. I was taken (still in my grubby cycle gear)

 by the friendly hotel proprietor to the police station to register our stay,

 which basically involved photocopying our passports and visas.