Some friends and I would like to travel up the road along the Yangzte river between the towns of Batang and Baiyu in the far west of the Sichuan province.

However, some friends of a friend of mine were robbed several times by knifepoint along that road. It was several times, because word got out that one could successfully rob these guys. The farmers who robbed them, targeted them because they were foreigners, and ended up taking between Y1000-2000. I'm not sure when this happened, but I think sometime in 2007.

Apparently they were in a minivan with Chengdu license plates, and that may have been why they were targeted.

I have since talked to someone else who said they had been along that road many times without problem. Does anyone have any experience traveling on the road between Batang and Baiyu along the Yangzte (Jinsha) River?