The four seasons of the G318
Cycling 318 has all four seasons, and each reshapes the whole road. Here is what each one looks like — the blooms, phenology and festivals are the real, season-gated content in the game. You can switch season freely.
Spring — blossom on the road
Spring lights the route with blossom: the Nyingchi peach blossom festival from mid-March, Bomi’s thirty-kilometre peach valley, rhododendron climbing Sejila Pass by altitude, and rapeseed gold on the Chengdu plain.
Summer — green grasslands & festivals
Summer is the high grasslands at their fullest green, with the August horse-racing festivals on the Maoya plain at Litang and Batang, ripening barley, and the Shoton and Ongkor festivals near Lhasa.
Autumn — the golden poplars
Autumn turns the poplars of Xinduqiao — the "photographer’s paradise" — to gold, under the clearest high-altitude skies of the year, with the barley harvest gilding the valleys.
Winter — snow & prayer-flag red
Winter lays snow over the passes and bares the poplars; the prayer flags burn red against the white — a quieter, stark beauty on the roof of the world.