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5 Attachment(s)
Chongqing to Hohhot
15th August
Bike trip started as badly as it could have. I narrowly avoided being seriously molested by the rampantly gay cabbie that took me to guangzhou airport. As it was he stroked me a couple of times then was content enough throwing me strange glances and grunting under his breath. It was horrible, I just felt like a piece of meat, he didn't care about my mind or what I had to offer intellectually at all.
Arrived late and pissed in Chongqing and the guys took me out for dinner and beers. Left the factory at 10 this morning and headed north. As far as google maps was concerned I was a pedestrian so ended up doing 50 kms of nice enough dirt with decent scenery but wasted a lot of time. Also went the scenic route through tiny alleys in most towns which was interesting but a waste of more time. The rear exhaust bolt vibrated out again, every trip the same.
My phone did its usual trick first thing and refused to connect to edge. Luckily I had the first 1000 kms worth of maps downloaded so was able to continue as normal. Phoned China mobile in shenzhen and they sorted it, not sure how but great service from them.
Fairly nice roads towards wanyuan but a bit polished. Met a load of local bikers by the side of the road, all jap bikes. Gsxr, zzr a great big BMW etc. Still, they were impressed by the length of my journey if not by my engine capacity.
The bike is going great, smooth as silk after an extensive 20,000 km service. Had to put new front shocks on as they'd been slightly damaged in the crash on the last trip. I hadn't actually noticed but the new ones are great and now match the paint scheme!
Pulled into wanyuan at about 7.40, 430 kms today. Xian tomorrow and hopefully a few beers with Felix.
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Dirt detour due to pedestrian setting
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Not a bad spot to reattach exhaust
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Local bikers
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ZZR
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BMW - ugly or what?
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4 Attachment(s)
Re: Chongqing to Hohhot
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hayabusa - suicide in China
16th / 17th
Set off at 8 aiming to ride the 300 kms to Foping to meet Felix at 1. Unfortunately I hit about 100 kms of road under construction so Felix rode out a bit further to meet me. We then rode 200 kms of the fantastic G108 into Xian. I was kindly invited to stay chez Felix and Panda's along with with their friend Andy from shanghai, who'd hitchhiked all the way there. We all hit the beers hard at a rooftop barbecue then moved on to a couple of bars where Panda made us go home before we got into some serious trouble. Panda also offered me some travel advice, namely "hua mountain is gay, don't bother going". So the next day I tagged along with them to a local mountainside resort. After a brief dip in the pool we got on it again and perhaps even exceeded the excesses of the previous night, thanks in particular to Andy!
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Believe or not, this was taken before things got a little crazy!
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You can see the rock pool where we spent much of the afternoon
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Andy the morning after the night before
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Re: Chongqing to Hohhot
18th
Left the campsite at 9 and rode through boring and often beat up roads towards the hukou waterfall, where the roads improved. The waterfall itself was pretty impressive, not high at all but an abosulute shite load of water going over a hundred metres or so of falls. No-one stopped me or asked me to buy a ticket so it was a freebie. continued on to a nearby village, Jixian and stopped for the night, found a hotel by 7.30. 510 kms today, 1540 total, gonna get a move on now and try to get to hohhot early to make sure I can sort out bike storage.
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The scenery started to change into loess mountains - note my new top box (gay) and awesome saddlebags, sent by Fahni for me to test. They were excellent by the way, waterproof and crash proof!
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Hukou waterfall
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The main falls are obscured by the mist
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Stuffed highway? Any Ideas?
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Re: Chongqing to Hohhot
19 th
Left jixian at 9. Rode on some fairly nice and pretty roads before spotting some houses cut into the rock by the side of the road. They were quite stylishly carved into the mountain, which I think is called loess. Whatever it's called its crumbly stuff and looks like the whole lot will be washed away by the next downpour. I then pressed on to Pingyao, which proudly boasts of being a world heritage site. The main tourist entrance at the south gate was charging 150 a ticket. I thought its probably all modern tacky replicas anyway so went round the outside to have a butcher's. The east gate was open so I rode right in and saw the inside after all. Tacktastic! In fact some of the old looking hutong were quite cool but the garish modern replicas next to them spoiled it.
More gorgeous loess landscape was to follow as I headed towards the zhaozhou bridge. The roads around pingyao were filthy, then things improved and I hit some more solid looking mountains. Just when it was going really well the road was closed, they'd blocked it off with a dirt mound due to repairs being made ahead. It was either go back 50 km or ride over it. I went over it and was treated to a gorgeous view as Shaanxi changed into Hebei and had the road all to myself. Stopped for a drink and drew quite a crowd, who I took a picture of. I joked I'd take it back to England to show my mum, and one old lady said "ahhh they have mothers too", she may have thought I was too old to have a mother or perhaps she was unsure how foreigners reproduce, maybe they just appear on boats.
Finally made it to near the zhaozhou bridge then dropped the bike in the dark on a dirt track, no damage just feel like a twat. Gave up on finding the bridge tonight and checked into a hotel at about 8. Did 630 kms today, 2170 total. Tomorrow will have a quick look at the bridge then its north all the way to hohhot.
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Great street food in the north. I usually had breakfast and bought enough for lunch by the side of the road somewhere
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House carved into the mountainside
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Pingyao from the outside
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Pingyao's interior, same old stuff you see everywhere
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5 Attachment(s)
Re: Chongqing to Hohhot
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Another shot of the loess house
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A temple inside Pingyao - I'm pretty much templed out after 8 years
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The inside of the wall actually looked pretty old
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I thought this eagle was cool as
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A nice place for lunch
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Re: Chongqing to Hohhot
20th
Left the hotel just after 7 and arrived at the real Zhaozhou bridge shortly after. The gates were not open yet and I tried to persuade the guard to let me in for a quick peek but no joy. I rode round the back (they've built a huge wall round the whole area) and just when it was looking like a dead loss I found a gap in the wall and went through. I rode straight through the gardens (on the footpath) right up to the bridge. It was a pretty nice one, as bridges go, so I took a couple of snaps and was off.
The roads were busy and boring up to and beyond Shijiazhuang, which is a fairly big non motorbike city. I rode straight through the middle nae bother save a few shocked looks. The roads and scenery improved as I went into the mountains south of wutai, even did a couple of river crossings! I had mapped a route next to wutai mountain thinking I could decide whether or not to buy a ticket and continue on my route. In fact, there is probably a 25 km2 area that you have to pay to enter, 268 quai! My hand was forced as going round would have meant doubling back a ways and also I'd escaped a couple of tickets so I thought why not. I didn't really know what to expect (having done no research!) but disappointingly the scenery wasnt anywhere near as nice as the previous (free) 100 kms. However, if you like temples this was the place to be, unfortunately most of them were modern replicas, even the giant stupor looked brand new. The place was also full of cranes building new versions of China's glorious past. On the positive side though it's the most motorbike friendly tourist attraction I've been to, you hardly need to get off the bike to see most of the sights, perfect! God (Buddha?) knows what the monks make of it all.
The roads were great after wutai, nice tight mountain sweepers mainly and I made it to Hunyuan, just south of Datong and the Mongolian border. It's a pretty interesting place, small but with posh hotels, (I found a pikey one though) lots of tiny alley ways with newish brick hutong type buildings everywhere, and its surrounded by decent size mountains. Just had noodles and rou jia muo, am on my way to getting pissed. Did about 600 today, 2670 total.
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More loess scenery
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This guy had the cutest little ass
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I had no idea what this was for, it was in the middle of nowhere but looked important
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No more bike trips for me, next time I'm travelling by ass
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These mountains are near the Shanxi Hebei border
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Re: Chongqing to Hohhot
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Thou shalt not pass! (unless you're on a bike)
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The deserted road on the border between Shanxi and Hebei after the road block
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The group of locals who were unclear how/if foreigner's reproduced
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Zhaozhou bridge - it actually is very old!
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Re: Chongqing to Hohhot
Brilliant, classic and callous. No no no, you got it all wrong, they don't think! we just appear on boats (or planes) they know we materialise from aboard a Martian mother ship from Mars, and consequently need to peer at us Martians as we navigate our way through their world. Glad to see you are bucking the trend and doing it your way, boots and all, cheers!!! . - scribed!
:popcorn:
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5 Attachment(s)
Re: Chongqing to Hohhot
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More of the mountains near the Hebei border
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Large selection of street food in Pingshan
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The next 3 pics were taken in the mountains north of Shijiazhuang
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Re: Chongqing to Hohhot
keep it coming man. I didn't have time to take pics on my recent trip so let me see the sights through yours!