Wanting to tour in China in a few months

Greetings. I am an American biker currently in the Philippines. I have been touring for the past year and a half with a 2003 KLR650 in Taiwan, Malaysia,Cambodia,Thailand,Laos,Indonesia, and now the Philippines. I would love to ship it to Vietnam or China but as of now I have not found a way to do it cost effectively. In that light I am considering a purchase of a used bike to tour China. I do not see much for sale on this board so I will ask if anyone can suggest some other web sites that might have a selection of used bikes anywhere in China for touring. I plan to spend up to a year traveling around so I need something I can modify with some panniers, and a top luggage rack. If anyone has some a way to get my KLR into China I am all ears ; ) thanks and everyone have an awesome day! :thumbsup:

Welcome to the site freedombiker, the answer to both your questions is a matter of $$$. You can easily bring your KLR here for a lot of money. Used bikes can be found, good used bikes are a bit more difficult and expensive. What is your budget? Riding here for a year sounds like fun, but it's going to cost you some bucks to get a machine reliable enough for that kind of tour.

Cheers!
ChinaV

thanks bro ; ) ChinaV... if I was to ship the bike from the Philippines which port would you recommend and do have a round-about figure on the cost to temporarily import my bike or possibly some contacts to smooth things over if you know what I mean? ; ) I am committed to this world tour thing and after a year a half in Asia thus far I am getting good at doing things on a budget from maintaining the bike, eating local foods, sleeping on a budget, etc so a year in China as big as it is will go quickly I am sure. I love to interact with the locals and live with families, couchsurfing, bikers, etc which deeply enrich-ens the experience. I am also thinking of learning some Chinese Medicine and looking into doing some business while I am there.

Hi mate,

I have one F650GS and one F650GS Dakar, both used and fully legal (!!!!!!!!!), with all panniers and stuff on hand. PM me if you are interested in a purchase or long term rental.
They are ready to roll out of the door immediately.

Cheers

I was't really serious about sending your bike here, it's kind of one of those "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" questions. We're talking many thousands of dollars :eekers: and you would have to work with a tour agency. You should search the site and look at some of the posts here about the rules and hassles of purchasing your own bike in China. What you want to do is possible, but a limited budget will seriously limit your options. Maybe familiarize yourself with the legal issues first and then get a little bit more specific about which kind of bike you want to buy and the type of mileage you plan on doing. Backpacking and couchsurfing around China via motorcycle is a lot different than coming here on a year long adventure tour.

Good luck!
ChinaV

Yes, I figured as much on sending the bike to China, however as the saying goes if there is a will there is a way. Connections can go along way, unfortunately, I have not made 'those' connections yet. The way that most have tried has not worked and the legal way is in fact expensive and doing a guided tour is definitely not my style. Many of the worlds bureaucratic rules are shit as far as I am concerned and as long as I hurt nobody I should be able to roam around where I choose, we know its not like that in many places and certainly in China. I have 2 more months here in the Philippines to get everything lined up and I am flexible and open to what works out best with no preconceived notions. I have learned that preconceived notions can and will only limit our options. Many of those options we may not have even considered. I came to the Philippines from Indonesia on ferries and then on a small fishing boat from a tiny island in the middle of the Muslim Mindanao Autonomous Region, which I am pretty sure is not something too many have pulled off with a motorcycle if any, and it sure as hell was not my original plan lol. However, it worked and it was an awesome experience and one hell of a story to tell the grandkids. A year long adventure tour of nothing but touring is not really the way I prefer to roll when I go to China. I like to mix it up with a variety of things to keep things interesting. Short term living, touring solo, touring with fellow bikers, touring a new Chinese girlfriend, partying, learning about the culture, etc is all part of my idea of an adventure. We are all individuals and certainly there are infinite ways to trek through this incredibly diverse world. I appreciate your input and welcome any more suggestions you might have. ~ Happy Trails

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Originally Posted by ChinaV

I was't really serious about sending your bike here, it's kind of one of those "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" questions. We're talking many thousands of dollars :eekers: and you would have to work with a tour agency. You should search the site and look at some of the posts here about the rules and hassles of purchasing your own bike in China. What you want to do is possible, but a limited budget will seriously limit your options. Maybe familiarize yourself with the legal issues first and then get a little bit more specific about which kind of bike you want to buy and the type of mileage you plan on doing. Backpacking and couchsurfing around China via motorcycle is a lot different than coming here on a year long adventure tour.

Good luck!
ChinaV

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You're right ChinaV, we need to be more specific with the answers although the legal issues have been addressed here many times.
I must admit that I was reading over this first posting way too quick :rolleyes1:

@ thefreedombiker
The first thing is the duration of your planned stay. You are most probably on a tourist visa, a business visa in the best case if you know someone to provide an invite.. A tourie visa is limited to 3 month, 2 entries @ 60 days each stay at the most. So consider to leave at least four times to re-activate your stay and additionally three times to apply for a new visa outside China (HK, Korea, ...).
Even if you manage to get a business visa, the max validity is one year, max 90 days each stay, so five times to re-activate your stays outside of the country.

The other point is that you can't officially (legally) purchase a vehicle in your name as a non-resident.

Next on the list is that you must have a Chinese driving license, and yes, we know it sounds ridiculous but it's the rule.

Timing is another issue since winters can be really harsh in a big portion of the territory.

Except for the visa, most adventurer visitors don't care about legality. However, since not too long ago, most of us, foreigners resident in China, do not recommend or support illegal riding.


Your plan is not impossible and most of the issues can be handled :mwink:

Hi Freedombiker, this is a post I put on the HUBB, answering some similar questions. My position on riding in China for non-residents after some wrangling with other riders and some deep reflection is that I neither condemn or condone it, and it's an individual decision that needs to be taken with knowledge of a fair deal of information.

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if anybody has bought a bike in China and ridden it within the borders?

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Unless you are on a tour you can't get a Chinese temporary motorcycle license, and you can't get a six year license unless you are a resident, so you'd end up riding technically speaking illegally. China does not officially recognize licenses from other countries or International Driving Permits, although they have made exceptions in the past. In most areas that are not big cities or sensitive in terms of their security (western Muslim and Tibetan minority areas) you'd probably be OK. But that is a probably not a certainly. Most likely if you were in a rural area and you had an accident and it was thought to be your fault, not having a Chinese license would mean you'd pay more in compensation, but some other kind of license would be better than nothing in most situations.

-In short you can be on a legal bike, registered and insured (but not in your name, but the bike would still be legal) but there could be questions about your legality...

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Is this a good way of getting around the usual expense and hassle of trying to motorcycle there?

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It is a good way to avoid the expense, but you still really need to consider the legal/safety/and other hassle risks. If you were an experienced rider who had researched fully into what they were doing, and had even studied a little Chinese and was happy to visit beautiful mountainous and rural non-politically sensitive areas, probably on a modest sized bike 125-250cc, then you would have a very high chance of a successful trip. Inexperienced riders and poorly prepared/researched folks could get into difficulties though.

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Originally Posted by ZMC888

Hi Freedombiker, this is a post I put on the HUBB, answering some similar questions. My position on riding in China for non-residents after some wrangling with other riders and some deep reflection is that I neither condemn or condone it, and it's an individual decision that needs to be taken with knowledge of a fair deal of information.

Unless you are on a tour you can't get a Chinese temporary motorcycle license, and you can't get a six year license unless you are a resident, so you'd end up riding technically speaking illegally. China does not officially recognize licenses from other countries or International Driving Permits, although they have made exceptions in the past. In most areas that are not big cities or sensitive in terms of their security (western Muslim and Tibetan minority areas) you'd probably be OK. But that is a probably not a certainly. Most likely if you were in a rural area and you had an accident and it was thought to be your fault, not having a Chinese license would mean you'd pay more in compensation, but some other kind of license would be better than nothing in most situations.

-In short you can be on a legal bike, registered and insured (but not in your name, but the bike would still be legal) but there could be questions about your legality...

It is a good way to avoid the expense, but you still really need to consider the legal/safety/and other hassle risks. If you were an experienced rider who had researched fully into what they were doing, and had even studied a little Chinese and was happy to visit beautiful mountainous and rural non-politically sensitive areas, probably on a modest sized bike 125-250cc, then you would have a very high chance of a successful trip. Inexperienced riders and poorly prepared/researched folks could get into difficulties though.

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Freedombiker,
welcome to China (once/if you get here). ZMC888 has some very valid points. You might like to consider the F (business) visa option or alternately get a Z (work/temporary residence) visa either through an agent (caution with that option) or else a job such as teaching oral English for a minimum number of hours. Some academies/schools/language institutes might only need you to work 3-4 days/wk or do 12-16 hrs/wk. That'd be one way to get a valid 1 year visa.
You need a lengthy visa to be able to see as much as possible, which might be difficult if you have to work fulltime. Another issue is being able to get a drivers/riders license as ZMC888 wrote, you need the right visa for that to occur. As for your bike, listen to get it in and be all legal is not easy, even for people with connections. There's lots of conjecture about that says, foreigners in China can legally import one vehicle void of taxes and duties etc provided the vehicle is for the foreigners sole use and agrees not to sell it -or some other rumours based around similar themes. Check out a few of the China expat orientated websites, as there are numerous threads in cyberland on variations of the same topic. Basically it amounts to a load of BS. Just in the past several months I know one guy who imported his BMW 1200GS from overseas. It cost him as much as the new purchase price of the bike in applicable fees, duties and so forth... basically the same as the identical bike costs here in PRC new. You could ofcourse find a way to bring your bike in through the back door as many imports do (grey market vehicles), but you won't be able to register and plate it 100% legally. So better to buy legal bike here... just do some reading of the various threads and make your own decision just be ready to suffer the consequences. One thing to be mindful of here, is the real lack of road awareness by the general population, which is not like anything found in any other Asian country. I've driven and ridden in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Chinese here in China are just totally a different species in terms of common sense when it comes to the road and vehicles. You'll see...

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Originally Posted by doc

There's lots of conjecture about that says, foreigners in China can legally import one vehicle void of taxes and duties etc provided the vehicle is for the foreigners sole use and agrees not to sell it -or some other rumours based around similar themes.

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I've heard this rumour too. Must be BS, as I've never heard of it happening. It may even be technically possible, for example one liberal department of government may allow this, but I reckon that other more traditional government departments will absolutely hate this idea, especially if there is no money in it for them, and you can bet bringing a bike in will involve at least 5 government departments! There is a lot whining about foreigners seeming to have preferential treatment these days from many local Chinese, although in reality this was a case over 5 years ago but isn't really the case today.

I've heard it's actually possible to buy a 'Z' visa through the backdoor for 5000 RMB, but turning into a resident permit later could be tricky though.

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Originally Posted by ZMC888

I've heard this rumour too. Must be BS, as I've never heard of it happening. It may even be technically possible, for example one liberal department of government may allow this, but I reckon that other more traditional government departments will absolutely hate this idea, especially if there is no money in it for them, and you can bet bringing a bike in will involve at least 5 government departments! There is a lot whining about foreigners seeming to have preferential treatment these days from many local Chinese, although in reality this was a case over 5 years ago but isn't really the case today.

I've heard it's actually possible to buy a 'Z' visa through the backdoor for 5000 RMB, but turning into a resident permit later could be tricky though.

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It is definitely :bs:. There is, or probably was, the opportunity for representatives to buy a car every once in a while free of duties an charges. It is (was :confused1:) true that, as a foreigner with a permanent, un-interrupted, 5 years or longer stay on a residence permit, you can import one vehicle without involving an agent. However, all taxes and duties still fully apply.

A Z visa is usually only issued outside China and it's purpose is that the holder of it enters China for employment or permanent residence. On rare occasions it will be issued inland. There are backdoor opportunities for sure, but these are rather unsafe.
Sidenote regarding backdoors:
A buddy just applied for a green card (10 years working and residence permit). He's happily married to a Chinese woman for 15 years, they have two kids, run their own successful company and own an apartment. All seemed to be good, when during the application process authorities found that his wife's name and credentials were false. The marriage and all benefits with it have been pronounced invalid. The guy is pretty f....d now. [/sidenote, although it wasn't really backdoor]