18.000 km around China in 2 months

Hi. I'm planning a good bye China trip in May or at least good bye for some time. (900PM pollution? crazy and this winter... I can't take it any more) I've been here over 2 years and I didn't see anything, so I have a plan to see everything at once. I'm not very experienced rider so I hope for your advice about all: where to go, what to buy, how to prepare etc. I know there is a lot ride reports in MCM, I will try to read all of them, but it's a long ride and it will take ages to precise where to go. I've read about Carl Parkers trips. It will be very useful. The trip should be something like Beijing- Lop Nur - Urumqi-Kashgar-Yunnan (not Tibet) - Hainan Island - Guilin - Beijing.
I'm working on my map, I just have some points so far. I hope to get more, maybe with your help and connect them in to final trip route.
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid...c0a8f2f2&msa=0
It's in Polish.
My longest trip so far was 1800km in 3 days. I'm not even sure if it's possible to spend 2 months on a motorcycle. I will quit my job, I have a visa until october or something, I have some money saved so it should be ok. I will try to find a sponsor, if I will maybe I will take it easy, make more stops and spend up to 6 months travelling. I would be happy to meet fellow MCM members on the way.

I'm most excited to go and check outh those:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...esert-patterns
I wonder if this is part of illegal mapping that Fahni mentioned and if I can get in trouble for that.
And there is Sattelite launch base on the way that is probably also closed to foreigners that I would also like to visit.
My motorcycle is Jialing 150ccm :wheelchair: :)
Cheers
Filip

Wow - best wishes Filip on your forthcoming adventure. Very exciting. Pat (same user ID name) also did something similar on his Qingqi, but going from Beijing to Yunnan. Lots of experience on this site, and lots of MCM members spread around the country.

Yeah, the pollution is unbelievable ... I need a break from it and may head somewhere warmer and cleaner for a week or so. Give the lungs a break - I have a constant headache these days.

Filip,

Best of luck to you. After many chats with lots of MCM'ers and other travellers, I will make a huge oversimplification. Draw a line (North to South) from Beijing to Hainan and forget about everything to the east. Focus your effort on things in the west, and spend HUGE amounts of time on Google Maps and Google Earth. Don't fall victim to the usual routine of covering massive distances just to say you've been there. It's better to spend a few weeks in special places like western Sichuan, Yunnan or Xinjiang than to brag about covering umpteen thousand kilometres through boring concrete and cookie cutter tiled cities.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Hi Flip,

That's some serious riding.

18,000 km in 60 days.

300km a day,

Ouch, I get a sore ass just thinking of it.

Gra.

@LaoJiaHou: Hey thanks, how is your motorcycle shop/ club going? I didn't really ride my motorcycle since July, but it still starts. Could you tell me how bad is it to leave it outside for so long? Is week or so long enough brake out from beijing? I feel like I need a year, I recently wonder that there are so many beautiful palces, where you can live in a beautiful old building, summer all year long with a view to the seaside and I live in this grey city;)


@ChinaV I had to read more carefully I thought you wrote west is not worth going and for me the way to Kashgar, all the deserted areas, Inner Mongolia is much more exciting than the south. It seems like there are not so many roads to choose from. I'm doing the south more just to go there and the west seems to be the real adventure for me. Kind of Chinese Dakar ;) I need a brake. I work in Korean office over timing like crazy since a year. This is kind of reset. East is not worth going? I thought it would be nice to ride along the coast but I can imagine it's not anything like riding along Mediterranean coast. China is usually disappointing. Anyway the route looks like I won't do much coast so maybe I'll do the straight line from Hainan to Beijing. Thanks for advice. Google earth is my only hobby recently. I'm planning to avoid cities.


@Graham Hey, maybe it will be 3 months, or 6 or I will give up after the first one haha. I think 300km a day is doable. If you ride curves in mountains 350 per day is ok and all the west part should be straight roads so I think I can do much more there. Yes the ass will hurt at the beginning




I was also thinking not to make a route, just choose some points and go from one to another without any real plan. Would that work?

Hi Filip,

I think we might have a little language/communication issue. I'm not suggesting you go south. I'm suggesting Xinjiang, Qing Hai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and Yunnan. Don't waste your time driving from Beijing to Hainan. The west is the best, but Yunnan and Sichuan is also mind blowing.

http://www.contactdi.com/2012/china_simple.jpg

Cheers!
ChinaV

Haha, nice and simple. I like. This could be the first page of your guide for bikers about China. The points on the east I have so far is Huangshen mountain that looks cool, the 1000 island lake and maybe the Tulou buildings. Not worth going there?

Maybe you could put your bike on a train heading west.I agree with ChinaV.West is best.If you go to Xinjiang make sure you keep going past Urumqi west.I am biased though.

I'm not saying there aren't some things worth visiting in the east, but if you have limited time or budget, the west has more to offer. For instance, Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), do you know about the fees?

¥100: Shuttle bus half way up the mountain to the cable car
¥230: Entrance fee
¥80: Cable car up the mountain
¥80: Cable car down the mountain
¥80: To get the bus back to the shuttle station

Almost ¥600 just in entrance and transportation fees. You won't be able to ride your motorcycle near the place. The hotels nearby also are very expensive. All that time, money, and standing around in line (over 15 million tourists per year), and there's a 50% chance you won't see anything because of the haze from pollution. :eek2:

If you live within a days ride of places like this, they are probably worth seeing, but if you create a trip through eastern China visiting popular places, you're going to rack up huge fees and probably be very disappointed with how little of it you get to experience on your motorcycle.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChinaV

Draw a line (North to South) from Beijing to Hainan and forget about everything to the east.

Cheers!
ChinaV

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Do that and you miss so much, crazy in my humble opinion.
Attachment 9866

What a waste to consider missing so many great places.

Gra.