China- Laos-China

Starting on Feb 8th I began a road trip into the country of Laos from Li Jiang, Yunnan. In total some 2000+kms. Our chosen steed for this ride was the venerable CJ 750 Sidecar, the bikes were provided by Sidecar Rally China a tour/rental company based in Shanghai with bike all over China. We chose to start in Li Jiang a city Yunnan because of it beauty and for being a UNESCO world heritage site!

This is the town of Li Jiang at dusk, all the photos were taken using an Iphone 4s so the quality can vary quite a bit.
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This is our guest house in Li Jiang which costs on 100rmb for a room (single or Double).
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Li Jiang is such an amazing little town that has really sucessfully embrace its heritage while allowing for a modern flare to exist happily within is city wall and alley ways. Many small cool and trendy coffee houses and cafes can be found hidden in these hundered year old buildings and really create a backpackers paradise. But as usual the China machine is slowly cutting into the rich life in Li Jiang in another couple of years much of the Charm will be lost as is the case in the next city we visited Dali.

When in Li Jiang have search around for the open air food market and try some local goodies. Be fore warned, wandering Li Jiang Old Town can lead to hours of being lost. Old Town is huge and maze like with its alleys, but getting lost is one of the best parts

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Then it was on to Dali!

We picked up our bikes from SRC's "bike farm" which is in a secret location near Li Jiang. There SRC has 10 bikes all Changs.
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We are five riding buddies and my wife! So we pack the 5 Changs and head out towards Da Li which is south of us in Yunnan. Da Li just over 150km from Li Jiang and is a great warm up for both the bikes and the riders. Its important to note that in northern Yunnan around February and March, that it is still cold in the mornings and on days that are cloudy. The average temp. during the overnight hours is hovering around 0 deg. C. In the morning temps. are around 5-10 degs C and by midday then can reach 15-17 Deg. C but then rapid cooling back down in the evening. So we all still had winter riding gear on most of the day. Many riders even wore long underwear to keep the moist cold air out.

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The roads in Northern Yunnan are good, real good.... They are wide, smooth and well maintained. Not to mention then snake through some of the most magnificent scenery China has to offer. The route from Li Jiang to Da Li is uneventful, it makes its way through some pretty big mountain passes and so you have a good mix of gradual climbs and long sweeping decents. The roads here mostly follow the contours of the Earth so there is very little in way of straight boring sections. For the Chang's these roads are great, because they are challanging enough to put smiles on our faces, at the same time not destroying the bikes spokes, bearings or over heating the engine in the climbs.

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One word of caution, keep an eye out for falling rocks, during our time in Yunnan we came across evidence on new landslides and even had to wait on the road for 40 mins while a fresh slide was removed by the PLA.
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We drove all day till dusk and arrived some 280km south at a town of LinCang, the travel guide lists LinCang as the least visited city in Yunnan. Even though it bosts having over 3000 medicinal plants growing wildly, over 3000 species of trees, wild Elephants, Tigers, and Gibons to name a few things. However looking around the newly built city still in full expansion mode you see the typical China model at work.
It was early to bed as another long day awaited tomorrow....

From Lin Cang we ride 300+ km to a really small town literally on the edge of Xishuangbanna which is the name of the region in Southern Yunnan that borders Myanmar, Laos and in part Vietnam. Again the roads into this little hamlet are beautiful winding mountainous roads... The town is called MengHai and it is the type of town that if you blink while driving you will miss it. If you stop however you immediately have your scenes overwhelmed by the sweet smells of the near by jungle and sounds of the diversity of the birds and animals that only Southern Yunnan came provide.

On the road from Lin Cang south towards Lan Cang, all of a sudden you will be stopped by Uniformed Chinese Army, make sure you have your best, friendliest face on as well as all travel documents and vehicle documents. This is the closest to Myanmar you can get in China. AT just over 50km from the border with the much contested Myanmar border the PLA take no risks. While most of the PLA were curious about us in a friendly manner don't, I repeat don't take any photos of the soldiers or the emplacements their mood changes very fast after that... At this check point the road splits left and right. Right goes to Myanmar and left south to Meng Hai.
The coolest part is that its old school with red and white road blocks and razor wire covered fences, the only thing missing is the sequecial search lights and elevate guard towers or sand bagged machine gun posts (thats the Myanmar side)
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Be aware though unwanted guest in your hotel (the 8 legged kind) are common. In the morning in our hotel room running across the celling was this huge brown spider... (sorry no picture, to busy freaking out) Later I find out that it is one of the worlds largest "Huntsman" Spiders usually living in caves all over Southern Yunnan.

We then Headed out to Meng Hai our next to last stop before the border, My wife needed to be on a plane on the 15th from Jing Hong, Yunnan. Laos and all its snakes and spiders, and lack of hot showers did not appeal to her so she opted to end her journey early, but even she got some driving in....
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G'Day,

Brings back memories from a 12 day ride (May 2003) with big bore bike: Chengdu - Leshan - ShangriLa - Lijiang - Dali - Kunming.
Great riding and awesome landscape, we had quite a few challenges due to SARS checkpoints along the route in Sichuan / Yunnan provinces.

Was back in Lijiang for business in April 2011 and shocked what they have done to the old part of town and the ridiculous new town calle Shuhe Village -New Old Town-.

Yeah the "new town" is slowly creeping closer to the Old town square... the noise from the clothing shops almost ruins the atmosphere... almost

From Meng Hai to Jing Hong then to the border town of Meng La is pretty much as one would expect: pretty view, nice roads and lots of crazy trucks. The interesting part comes at the border town of Mengla:

Approaching the end of the Chinese Highway
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See the language change, which actually starts when you officially enter XishuangBanna outside the city limits of Meng Hai
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The China/Laos border
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After about half a day of talking, negotiating and proccedures we finally gain access to the border on our bikes. Even though someone for got his Chinese drivers license.

Next stop the no mans land to the Lao border!

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Now entering the "No mans land"
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The actual border marker on the China side
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The Lao Border marking just on the other side of the stone from the Chinese side
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Sorry for the delay..... My computer took a dump on me the other day... When comes back i will continue!

i could not be free during that period... now i see what i missed... too bad! ;-0 hopefully next time!

Hey guys,
I am very interested in getting hold of a cj750 and touring around the Yunnan province in Jan 2013.
Just after any information regarding hiring them?
do i have to do a tour or can you hire one for yourself?
rough idea of the cost?
any info would be muchly appreciated!!
cheers Kurt

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Beezmyer

I am very interested in getting hold of a cj750 and touring around the Yunnan province in Jan 2013.

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Stay away from CJ's for a trouble free ride!

Check this bike rental & tour website: http://www.ridechina.com
-found the website a few weeks ago doing some research about JL sidecar bikes-

Wow, great site! These guys are doing it right!

cheers!

whats the crack with licences?
will i need a full Australian bike licence to obtain a Chinese one?
ive riden dirt bikes a few times on farms and what not and aint planning on being in any rush or going anywhere outrageously adventurous.
Reckon ill cope?
anyone else keen on doing a trip around this time?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Beezmyer

Hey guys,
I am very interested in getting hold of a cj750 and touring around the Yunnan province in Jan 2013.
Just after any information regarding hiring them?
do i have to do a tour or can you hire one for yourself?
rough idea of the cost?
any info would be muchly appreciated!!
cheers Kurt

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Go ahead and look at Sidecarrallychina.com, Peter does tours on CJ's in and out of Laos starting in Yunnan.

You might also wan to get in touch with Sideways Escape, they organise CJ750 tours around yunnan:

http://sidewaysescape.com/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Beezmyer

Hey guys,
I am very interested in getting hold of a cj750 and touring around the Yunnan province in Jan 2013.
Just after any information regarding hiring them?
do i have to do a tour or can you hire one for yourself?
rough idea of the cost?
any info would be muchly appreciated!!
cheers Kurt

---

Hi I'm Yangtsepete aka Sidecar Rally China, I can rent you a Sidecar in Lijiang and you can drive around yourself. Knowing about the CJ, means the little Tricks always helps. You also can Join a Tour or hire our local Guide. Do you have Sidecar Experiance ?