Heads up on the Huqingping (Shanghai)

The national highway #318, otherwise known in Shanghai as Hu-qing-ping is a great road for motorcycles, one of my all-time favorites. The best part is where it goes through the Dianshan Lake area which is sparsely populated, not much traffic, and excellent paved conditions.

There are, however, two police checkpoints on that road to be aware of.

One checkpoint is right along the border line of Shanghai and Jiangsu provinces which is best avoided by using a backroad (PM me for details). That particular checkpoint is manned by the PSB and they are known for stopping bikes and taking down details of your documents in either direction. There was a story not so long on this forum about a rider who got stopped and then had his license confiscated at that checkpoint

The other checkpoint is closer into Shanghai province. If you're heading into town, they managed to set up a new booth exclusively for the EXPO last year which has, for the most part, been closed down now. Heading out of town, there has always been a checkpoint in that area. For the most part it was inactive, but nowadays it has been revitalized.

I learned this information the hard way while getting stopped last week. The policeman was very aggressive about it, he stood right in front of the bike and forced me to stop. I showed him all the documents I had and played the dumb laowai role. No speaking Chinese whatsoever. Given that I was semi-legal (car drivers license, fapiao, passport) and played innocent they let me go, but things could have been a lot worse. Towards the back of the police office there was a line of chained up impounded bikes, and I thought mine would have ended up there.

The shocking part about this was I had cruised through that particular checkpoint at least 200 times by now without incident. In fact, a few years back, I would do this ride across the border every single day in order to get to work.

There is, however, a backroad which bypasses that particular checkpoint as well as the other one. I only discovered it recently and wished I had figured it out sooner. At any rate, if you're interested in doing this ride with the backroads, it'd make for a lot of fun.

Dear Steve,

What, in your view, are they looking for? Unlicensed, unregistered bikes? Or are bikes no longer allowed on that stretch? I've been stopped at those checkpoints before, often without even putting a foot down, and never had any problems.

It does seem that there is a broad crackdown under way to phase out unlicensed riders and unregistered bikes. As one who has gone to substantial lengths to be squeaky clean legal, I can't see much downside to this. What's stopping you from going from "semi-legal" to fully legal? The driver's license motorcycle endorsement is relatively painless in Shanghai, as dewsnap and others have demonstrated recently. If your bike is not legally plated, well, that's easy to solve too -- assuming you can pay the price of admission (7k or 47k for outside or inside the ring, respectively) and your bike meets the ever-stricter emissions standards.

cheers!

From what I could tell (and there was plenty of time to make observations while standing around for an hour) the police were stopping all vehicles going through the checkpoint. This included cars, trucks, vans, buses, bikes, scooter, electric scooters, even bicycles! They asked to see licenses, registration, identity cards, and so forth.

They were working a team system. One of the police officers would stand just in front of the checkpoint and haul in vehicles. His colleague worked behind the window and did all the administrative stuff, including paperwork and issuing fines. There were several other assistants wearing the yellowish uniforms who were essentially useless, but stood around for appearances sake.

The rider who got stopped ahead of me was driving a licensed scooter and the police wanted a thorough inspection of all the stuff he was carrying. He worked for some kind of delivery company, and it was mostly boxes of food, etc. The police also wanted to see a fapiao for the scooter, which he didn't have, and they got into a huge argument about it.

Every so often, a trucker or van driver would end up stopping, arguing, and paying a fine through the electronic system, which included a computerized receipt.

Meanwhile, I saw dozens of other scooters and bikes anticipate what was going on and they cruised through the checkpoint on the wrong side of the road, as a way of avoidance. One scooter rider nearly got tackled off the bike by the same officer who caught me just before the checkpoint. But this guy pulled a stealth ninja move, did a quick U-turn, and went on the wrong side of the road. The officer and his buddies had a laugh over this one.

I don't think they were looking for anything specific, but it was more or less a document and inspection check. It appears very similar to what the EXPO check must have been like in the other direction last year. Since the EXPO check has basically shut down now, my guess is that those in charged moved over to the opposite side of the road and resumed the same kind of operation for vehicles leaving Shanghai.

As for being fully legal that is indeed my goal. The main hindrance to this time. Things happen too slowly in China and there are always so many difficulties and obstacles with getting things done. But if all goes according to plan, I should end up being fully legal by the end of this year.

Thanks for the heads up Steve. I was just on Huqingping Highway today heading out towards Zhujiazhou and Dianshan Lake. I agree, it's a lovely road for motorcycles.

Fortunately for me i didn't see any police checkpoints but your words of warning come as a blessing as i was planning going back out that way towards Taihu. I still don't have my driving license yet (27th April) so i'll be more careful and avoid that road. Today could have been a disaster.

Btw, the whole licensing process in Shanghai is fairly simple, health check, theory test, then road test. The whole process only took me around 10 weeks.
If you need any info PM me.

Cheers mate.

Sounds great, well I'll be taking a closer look at the info posted here on Shanghai motorcycle licenses and legalities. Who knows, it may be easier than I thought.

As for the Huqingping checkpoints, I don't think it's a cause for too much concern. If you're out and about on weekends, I'd imagine the checkpoint is unmanned. The time I got caught was a weekday afternoon, and it was very rare I'd be going through at that time and in that particular direction.

For example, the hundreds of times I got through there without incident happened either early in the morning to get to work, later at night, or else on weekend cruises. The afternoon on a weekday did present a problem, which was a first time -- so that's another variable to consider.

You can always use the backroads to avoid the checks if you need to. I'd suggest first going slowly up to the toll booth to get a sense of what's going on, maybe stopping a fair distance behind and watching what happens to other vehicles. Then, make a call whether the backroads are necessary or not.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Steve_R

One checkpoint is right along the border line of Shanghai and Jiangsu provinces ... There was a story not so long on this forum about a rider who got stopped and then had his license confiscated at that checkpoint.

---

Yup, that was me. Basically lost my license for riding hungover. D'oh!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by euphonius

What's stopping you from going from "semi-legal" to fully legal?

---

RMB 50,000?

Cheers for the heads up anyway Steve. I don't really know what they're looking for when they have those checkpoints where at random times they just stop everyone and other times they're left totally unmanned. The back roads are safer for sure, i prefer to avoid the police even if i'm legal. Here's the road i took into shanghai last time i came back from suzhou. Is that the one you take?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by felix

Yup, that was me. Basically lost my license for riding hungover.

---

D'oh is right! Well, glad it worked out in the end.

As for the road you mentioned, yep, that's certainly one of the possibilities. I nickname that one "river road". Interestingly, you may have noticed that within the last year they set up a modernized checkpoint at the location marked on the map. There always was a check there, right at the border of course, but it has just been upgraded. Whether or not they stop bikes there is unknown. Probably not.

I've since found another backroad that has no checks on it whatsoever, in fact it bypasses two of them. I'll post it here once I make the map.

Regarding the legalities, I'm aiming to purchase a Shanghai C plate towards the end of the year, once I get my motorcycle endorsement on the license and register with a suburban address. If that's possible (stress the word if in China) then I'll pay the price. If not, will settle for living downtown and using fake plates. Downtown plates just aren't an option for me, as the 50,000 RMB is too expensive, combined with the expensive downtown rent.

Just a heads up on this topic : I've been stopped by the police on the river road showed on Felix's post above, at their checkpoint. No problem whatsoever when you're fully legal, but I'd not advise to go there anymore if you're not legal and trying to avoid the main checkpoints on the G318.

Cheers Fred!

Thanks for that, Fred. I figured it would come to this, and it looks like it has. At any rate, I'm one step closer to being fully legal in China. Got my motorcycle drivers license back home while I was in Vancouver (Canada) this summer!

Meanwhile, for those looking to avoid the checkpoints and are still not quite legal, then there is a route that bypasses both the river road *and* the two main G318 checkpoints. The route is a little complex and is best understood with a map which I'll see if I can post here a little later. For now, will just try and describe it by text.

As you're coming out of Shanghai on the 318, you want to turn left at the road that goes to XI CEN. It is a T-intersection with a traffic light, the last light before the first checkpoint actually.

Go on that, cross underneath the express, go past the town a little bit, cross a small bridge, and turn right on the first paved farm road you see. It will go for about 5km and it zigzags a bit. Follow the express on your right, and use the small blue police boxes (nobody is ever in them) as guidelines if you get lost. The road will spit you back on the G318 at the 62.5 KM mark and you've cleared the first checkpoint.

How to clear the next? Turn left on G318 and go a tiny bit more to the 63.3 KM mark and then turn right on the next paved farm road. That will spit you across the provincial border, and will turn into a small and narrow gravel farm road. Then you go across a small bridge, zigzag to the right, under the expressway, past a large lumber yard, and the road will get paved again. You will see a SINO CANADA school on your right where I used to work at. Keep going until the traffic circle, turn left, the road becomes a wide 6-lane paved artery which goes 3km south back to the 318 near LUXU TOWN.

Turn back right on the 318 and you have now cleared all the goddamn checkpoints.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Steve_R

Thanks for that, Fred. I figured it would come to this, and it looks like it has. At any rate, I'm one step closer to being fully legal in China. Got my motorcycle drivers license back home while I was in Vancouver (Canada) this summer!

Meanwhile, for those looking to avoid the checkpoints and are still not quite legal, then there is a route that bypasses both the river road *and* the two main G318 checkpoints. The route is a little complex and is best understood with a map which I'll see if I can post here a little later. For now, will just try and describe it by text.

As you're coming out of Shanghai on the 318, you want to turn left at the road that goes to XI CEN. It is a T-intersection with a traffic light, the last light before the first checkpoint actually.

Go on that, cross underneath the express, go past the town a little bit, cross a small bridge, and turn right on the first paved farm road you see. It will go for about 5km and it zigzags a bit. Follow the express on your right, and use the small blue police boxes (nobody is ever in them) as guidelines if you get lost. The road will spit you back on the G318 at the 62.5 KM mark and you've cleared the first checkpoint.

How to clear the next? Turn left on G318 and go a tiny bit more to the 63.3 KM mark and then turn right on the next paved farm road. That will spit you across the provincial border, and will turn into a small and narrow gravel farm road. Then you go across a small bridge, zigzag to the right, under the expressway, past a large lumber yard, and the road will get paved again. You will see a SINO CANADA school on your right where I used to work at. Keep going until the traffic circle, turn left, the road becomes a wide 6-lane paved artery which goes 3km south back to the 318 near LUXU TOWN.

Turn back right on the 318 and you have now cleared all the goddamn checkpoints.

---

All this, oooor.... get legal... Seems to me it would be much easier, haha !

Naah, just pulling you leg a bit Steve, as you wrote you're in the process of becoming fully legal.
I always think of this kind of thing as a balance or calculation between the less evil : what is the easiest : getting fully legal once and for all, or having to dodge all the intersections with cops in Shanghai, having to plot routes around checkpoints, etc. . In the current situation, my decision was quickly made... ;-))

Here is the route i took home from xitang (a lovely water town in zhejiang) today.

IT took 1h30 and i didn't see a single cop the whole way to xujiahui. There is an old border station on the road where i put point B but it looks like it hasn't been manned for a long time; there were a couple of guys sleeping on the road beside it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Steve_R

You will see a SINO CANADA school on your right...

---

That place brings back memories, Frobelland was out there in the 90's, Disney style amusement park that failed like many other projects (see pics attached).
Ride safe, PAL

http://i52.tinypic.com/2i7pijn.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/14iohzl.jpg

http://i53.tinypic.com/2008dhh.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/14vk1fm.jpg

That gorilla is terrifying. Abandoned amusement parks are the scariest shit ever.

So you've been here a while then pal? No wonder you're so jaded!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by felix

So you've been here a while then pal? No wonder you're so jaded!

---

Had my first H-D in China 1989, yeah, you can say I have been around for a while riding different bikes all over ML China: H-D, BMW, Ducati, CJ.... hope KTM gets over here soon with legally imported bikes.

Ride Safe, PAL

Thanks for posting that route map earlier from Xitang ... gonna try it out this weekend!

Meanwhile, here is the route map I was mentioning of that convoluted plot around the #318 checkpoints

Interestingly enough, I survived a year (2008-09) of teaching at that ex-amusement park. Actually the school never ceased to be an amusement park.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=....135848,0.3368

On a somewhat related topic, I haven't seen nary a cop around Shanghai checking for bikes, etc. What's the deal? At this point I've long given up on trying to figure out how the rules and enforcement work. A colleague of mine commuts to and from work now in downtown SH with a plateless Changjiang 750 motorcycle and sidecar and he doesn't give a rat's ass about the cops.