Coming to China on my own motorbike...

Hello everybody!

Me and my boyfriend decided to pack it all in and start travelling around the world with our 20 years old Honda Transalp.
We are currently in Turkey and I'm trying to plan ahead the road we will ride this spring. We are planning to go trough the middle east, up to Mongolia and then enter China.
Yes, I'm probably trying to plan too far ahead, but I'm just being optimistic and pretending that there will be no problems at all in the Middle East and that we'll arrive as fresh as a daisy at the Chinese border ready to deal with the lumbering Chinese bureaucracy.

Have any one of you ever tried to enter China with his own vehicle? Beside trying, did any one of you actually managed to enter?
Do you maybe know any skilled travel agency that could help us with this?
I remember that when I was living in Kunming (which unfortunately was 3 years ago...) I met a guy that was riding his motorbike coming from Dali (I guess Shangrila and further north) and going down south. If he managed to enter, I want to do it too!

Can you give us any advice on the topic?

I read the thread on the driving licence and it says that sometimes it is possible to obtain a temporary one and then if we decide to stay longer we could think about getting a real one (maybe obtaining a residence permit trough a school or so..). What do you think?

Thank you in advance!!

Agata and Thomas
http://www.300kg.eu

the advice I offer up is simple... do a search using the search engine on this website, and you will find your answer...
the question you ask, has been asked multiple times before.. since I'm not about to repeat myself...

Thank you for your advice!

I went through some of the older threads, you were right: some of them were really helpful.
This: http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...torcycle/page2
And especially this: http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...7032#post37032
but I'm still puzzled... could you please help me again?
(please consider, I'm a woman and we need things to be told more than once to understand them for real.....)

So here is what I figured...

We can get inside China paying a big load of money and riding trough it with a guide.

What if I want to stop in China to improve my chinese, which I speak, but not good enough. Would that be possible? A school will give me the residence permit, but will I be able to register my bike in China even with that?
Or, what if I ship my bike to China after I've already obtained the Residence Permit? would that make things easier?

Bikerdoc, I saw you imported a Yamaha, how did you manage to do that? Could you do it only because the bike was new?


I've been dreaming about riding in Xishuangbanna for over 2 years now.... I really hope they'll become true....

Virtually impossible, especially if its to be done legally - better sell the bike outside of China.

Enter the country without bike --> get job & residence permit --> get driving license --> buy (new/used) bike in China --> explore China --> leave China on Chinese registered bike, no problem to explore the world with that one (no Transalps thought).

7 People went to Yunnan and it was $680 USD per person for them to cover that one province. The guide rode on one of the bikes, so they saved a ton of money because they didn't have to pay for a private vehicle for him. Unless you have a lot of cash, forget about bringing your bike in, it's better to buy something local and then sell it after touring the country. I wouldn't recommend a "world tour" on a Chinese bike, they are not well made.

Hope you don't dissapear from the forum like the other 200 people that came here and asked how to ride China.

Cheers!
ChinaV

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Originally Posted by ChinaV

Hope you don't dissapear from the forum like the other 200 people that came here and asked how to ride China.

Cheers!
ChinaV

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Only 200 people I thought it was more than that.

I especially liked this guys determination to ride China.

''Visa. OK, than I will try to get a residency visa, I saw there is also a marriage residency visa .... but I dont plan on using this if there is another way. Will read up on the working and student residency visa later. Where is the best place to get the visa? Europe?''

I thought someone would of mentioned that Chinese women are no longer interested in foreign men unless you have lots of money and a BMW.

"I'd rather cry in the back of a BMW than ride a bike" is the mentality now.

Rant over back to the original question yeah go the student/study route get your license off you go or just do it illegally but fraught with problems.Oh don't tell anyone I said that.


Bikerdoc has lived here a long time he probably knows the system still going to probably cost him alot of money but if he is staying here for a while it is probably worth it.For you forget it.Get a crappy Chinese bike.

What would you do if you did get your bike in.Do you want to take it out with you even more money and paperwork?

Funny how we always end up discussing the thing that's been discussed 200 times before but usually everyone coming in has a different story. And it's always nice to read of dream trips like yours', in the making. 30kg of stuff for both of you, impressive, do you share a toothbrush ? :lol8:

Like others have said, it's not impossible, just expensive get into China on your own bike.
Here's tiffany with a group of brits/aussies coming into to China >> http://www.advrider.com/forums/showp...1&postcount=29

It seems to get cheaper if the group was big enough, then they can afford to hire a guide. in your case, maybe try to tag along with other groups coming into china ? Worth a look over at ADVrider and http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb
China:: Everything is possible, everything is difficult.

If you are truly free spirits and ready to sink your teeth into China, get yourselves signed on to teach English in Xishuangbanna or Kunming, choose a route that gets you from wherever you are to northern Thailand or Burma and find a place to park the Transalp for 6-12 months (yes, easier said than done). Then use your teacher visas to cross into Yunnan (carrying only your 30kg of gear and that toothbrush) to take up your teaching chores and start working on your motorcycle license, bike and plates. There's lots of bikes to choose from and tons of great riding in Yunnan while you get your technicalities sorted out.

Yes, it's farfetched but you could accomplish the same thing anywhere else on China's border -- Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Mongolia -- as long as you've made arrangements in advance. Frankly, where you leave the Transalp is immaterial, as is where you do your teaching; as long as you've got a safe place to park your bike and have made preparations to enter China and work, you can arrange to procure a Chinabike and ride in China.

(Having read what's happening right now in Burma, that might just be my choice....)

Then ride your Chinabike to your hearts' content in China, and when you are finished, unload your Chinabike, try to remember where you left the Transalp, go there, and get on with your journey. Make stickers for your Chinabike and calling cards saying, "Our other bike is a Transalp".

cheers!

Thank you guys for your replies!

The idea of selling our Transalp is out of the question (I think my boyfriend would sell me before of the bike..).
Luckily we didn't get to the point of considering the marriage visa, but we are still in time...

I think then the only way is, how you said, to park our bike outside of China (maybe in its motherland, Japan), come on a tourist visa and get a bike to ride around. Just to make it more fun we could then consider an electric scooter or a Piaggio Ciao (do you guys know what a Ciao is? ..Italian history..).
Ok, I'm joking, just trying to look on the bright side..

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Originally Posted by bigdamo

What would you do if you did get your bike in.Do you want to take it out with you even more money and paperwork?

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You've really got a point here..

塞翁失马 would say the Old Wise...

I would be wary of the get a teach English job.Do you have the necessary certificates to teach English ?Generally it is a one year gig and you may have to go back to your home country to get the Z visa might be lucky and go to Hong Kong but that depends which way the wind is blowing at the time.You generally have to ask the school for permission to help you get the paper work for your license.If you take off straight after you get your license and bike rego they will not look favorably at you and will be extremely wary on foreigners who follows after you.Why wouldn't they.

I think Tiffany's tour cost an obscene amount something like $23000.00 per person supply your own bike.They did travel across eastern Europe and the stans but I bet most of that $23000.00 was covering Chinese expenses.Ain't cheap to get a large group like that into China and through t be t.I'm betting some palms where greased there.

China:: Everything is possible, everything is difficult.

I'll add to that

China:: Everything is possible, everything is difficult. Money talks.It is not what you know but who you know.

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Originally Posted by bigdamo

.Do you have the necessary certificates to teach English ?.

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requirements to teach engrish in chinar

a pulse and the ability to talk while standing up

Thank you all again for your advices!

@euphonius I know that everything is possible in the Spring City, even teaching English without any certificate and the worst accent ever, that is why I wanna go back there!

@slabo After 3 months that we were living in the south of Turkey we decided to hit the road again. Today I closed all the bags and I checked: we do have 2 toothbrush, the book of the I Ching and even 2 hammocks. It's also true that the bags are about to explode..

I wish you "buona strada"!

Ah, and Happy New Year!

"requirements to teach engrish in chinar

a pulse and the ability to talk while standing up"

aaahhahahahahahaaaa! ahhhhh,... had a great laugh at that one. I might add being caucasian or black. You can even be from Jamaica and teach English in China apparently....

Also, most schools have some kind of option in the contacts to gain release from the contract with a months notice or something like that. I wouldn't worry about it. With both of you teaching you could also probably both get 6 month contracts and have plenty of cash saved to have a real nice trip around China.

Are you US citizens, I'll assume so? If so, after you finish working I would switch back to a tourist visa. A tourist visa is good for three months and you can renew it when you like without going to HK or god forbid back to the states.

I think euphonious has the best suggestions so far. Leave the Honda at the border, get some money saved and buy a bike here, (hopefully a decent used one) ride around China for a while and leave it here, preferably selling it to an MCM member for a song.... ;p

I might also add that you might find it easier to leave China with the bike, in which case you could have your own bike for the rest of your adventures.

ha... What a huge commitment that teaching English for entry of riding motorcycle. Or Job and woman, anyway.:naughty: