Chongqing to Hohhot

15th August

Bike trip started as badly as it could have. I narrowly avoided being seriously molested by the rampantly gay cabbie that took me to guangzhou airport. As it was he stroked me a couple of times then was content enough throwing me strange glances and grunting under his breath. It was horrible, I just felt like a piece of meat, he didn't care about my mind or what I had to offer intellectually at all.

Arrived late and pissed in Chongqing and the guys took me out for dinner and beers. Left the factory at 10 this morning and headed north. As far as google maps was concerned I was a pedestrian so ended up doing 50 kms of nice enough dirt with decent scenery but wasted a lot of time. Also went the scenic route through tiny alleys in most towns which was interesting but a waste of more time. The rear exhaust bolt vibrated out again, every trip the same.

My phone did its usual trick first thing and refused to connect to edge. Luckily I had the first 1000 kms worth of maps downloaded so was able to continue as normal. Phoned China mobile in shenzhen and they sorted it, not sure how but great service from them.

Fairly nice roads towards wanyuan but a bit polished. Met a load of local bikers by the side of the road, all jap bikes. Gsxr, zzr a great big BMW etc. Still, they were impressed by the length of my journey if not by my engine capacity.

The bike is going great, smooth as silk after an extensive 20,000 km service. Had to put new front shocks on as they'd been slightly damaged in the crash on the last trip. I hadn't actually noticed but the new ones are great and now match the paint scheme!

Pulled into wanyuan at about 7.40, 430 kms today. Xian tomorrow and hopefully a few beers with Felix.

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Dirt detour due to pedestrian setting

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Not a bad spot to reattach exhaust


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Local bikers

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ZZR

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BMW - ugly or what?

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hayabusa - suicide in China

16th / 17th

Set off at 8 aiming to ride the 300 kms to Foping to meet Felix at 1. Unfortunately I hit about 100 kms of road under construction so Felix rode out a bit further to meet me. We then rode 200 kms of the fantastic G108 into Xian. I was kindly invited to stay chez Felix and Panda's along with with their friend Andy from shanghai, who'd hitchhiked all the way there. We all hit the beers hard at a rooftop barbecue then moved on to a couple of bars where Panda made us go home before we got into some serious trouble. Panda also offered me some travel advice, namely "hua mountain is gay, don't bother going". So the next day I tagged along with them to a local mountainside resort. After a brief dip in the pool we got on it again and perhaps even exceeded the excesses of the previous night, thanks in particular to Andy!

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Believe or not, this was taken before things got a little crazy!

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You can see the rock pool where we spent much of the afternoon

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Andy the morning after the night before

18th

Left the campsite at 9 and rode through boring and often beat up roads towards the hukou waterfall, where the roads improved. The waterfall itself was pretty impressive, not high at all but an abosulute shite load of water going over a hundred metres or so of falls. No-one stopped me or asked me to buy a ticket so it was a freebie. continued on to a nearby village, Jixian and stopped for the night, found a hotel by 7.30. 510 kms today, 1540 total, gonna get a move on now and try to get to hohhot early to make sure I can sort out bike storage.

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The scenery started to change into loess mountains - note my new top box (gay) and awesome saddlebags, sent by Fahni for me to test. They were excellent by the way, waterproof and crash proof!

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Hukou waterfall

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The main falls are obscured by the mist

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Stuffed highway? Any Ideas?

19 th

Left jixian at 9. Rode on some fairly nice and pretty roads before spotting some houses cut into the rock by the side of the road. They were quite stylishly carved into the mountain, which I think is called loess. Whatever it's called its crumbly stuff and looks like the whole lot will be washed away by the next downpour. I then pressed on to Pingyao, which proudly boasts of being a world heritage site. The main tourist entrance at the south gate was charging 150 a ticket. I thought its probably all modern tacky replicas anyway so went round the outside to have a butcher's. The east gate was open so I rode right in and saw the inside after all. Tacktastic! In fact some of the old looking hutong were quite cool but the garish modern replicas next to them spoiled it.

More gorgeous loess landscape was to follow as I headed towards the zhaozhou bridge. The roads around pingyao were filthy, then things improved and I hit some more solid looking mountains. Just when it was going really well the road was closed, they'd blocked it off with a dirt mound due to repairs being made ahead. It was either go back 50 km or ride over it. I went over it and was treated to a gorgeous view as Shaanxi changed into Hebei and had the road all to myself. Stopped for a drink and drew quite a crowd, who I took a picture of. I joked I'd take it back to England to show my mum, and one old lady said "ahhh they have mothers too", she may have thought I was too old to have a mother or perhaps she was unsure how foreigners reproduce, maybe they just appear on boats.

Finally made it to near the zhaozhou bridge then dropped the bike in the dark on a dirt track, no damage just feel like a twat. Gave up on finding the bridge tonight and checked into a hotel at about 8. Did 630 kms today, 2170 total. Tomorrow will have a quick look at the bridge then its north all the way to hohhot.


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Great street food in the north. I usually had breakfast and bought enough for lunch by the side of the road somewhere

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House carved into the mountainside

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Pingyao from the outside

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Pingyao's interior, same old stuff you see everywhere

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Another shot of the loess house

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A temple inside Pingyao - I'm pretty much templed out after 8 years

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The inside of the wall actually looked pretty old

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I thought this eagle was cool as

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A nice place for lunch

20th

Left the hotel just after 7 and arrived at the real Zhaozhou bridge shortly after. The gates were not open yet and I tried to persuade the guard to let me in for a quick peek but no joy. I rode round the back (they've built a huge wall round the whole area) and just when it was looking like a dead loss I found a gap in the wall and went through. I rode straight through the gardens (on the footpath) right up to the bridge. It was a pretty nice one, as bridges go, so I took a couple of snaps and was off.

The roads were busy and boring up to and beyond Shijiazhuang, which is a fairly big non motorbike city. I rode straight through the middle nae bother save a few shocked looks. The roads and scenery improved as I went into the mountains south of wutai, even did a couple of river crossings! I had mapped a route next to wutai mountain thinking I could decide whether or not to buy a ticket and continue on my route. In fact, there is probably a 25 km2 area that you have to pay to enter, 268 quai! My hand was forced as going round would have meant doubling back a ways and also I'd escaped a couple of tickets so I thought why not. I didn't really know what to expect (having done no research!) but disappointingly the scenery wasnt anywhere near as nice as the previous (free) 100 kms. However, if you like temples this was the place to be, unfortunately most of them were modern replicas, even the giant stupor looked brand new. The place was also full of cranes building new versions of China's glorious past. On the positive side though it's the most motorbike friendly tourist attraction I've been to, you hardly need to get off the bike to see most of the sights, perfect! God (Buddha?) knows what the monks make of it all.

The roads were great after wutai, nice tight mountain sweepers mainly and I made it to Hunyuan, just south of Datong and the Mongolian border. It's a pretty interesting place, small but with posh hotels, (I found a pikey one though) lots of tiny alley ways with newish brick hutong type buildings everywhere, and its surrounded by decent size mountains. Just had noodles and rou jia muo, am on my way to getting pissed. Did about 600 today, 2670 total.


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More loess scenery

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This guy had the cutest little ass

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I had no idea what this was for, it was in the middle of nowhere but looked important

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No more bike trips for me, next time I'm travelling by ass


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These mountains are near the Shanxi Hebei border

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Thou shalt not pass! (unless you're on a bike)

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The deserted road on the border between Shanxi and Hebei after the road block

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The group of locals who were unclear how/if foreigner's reproduced

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Zhaozhou bridge - it actually is very old!

Brilliant, classic and callous. No no no, you got it all wrong, they don't think! we just appear on boats (or planes) they know we materialise from aboard a Martian mother ship from Mars, and consequently need to peer at us Martians as we navigate our way through their world. Glad to see you are bucking the trend and doing it your way, boots and all, cheers!!! . - scribed!
:popcorn:

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More of the mountains near the Hebei border

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Large selection of street food in Pingshan

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The next 3 pics were taken in the mountains north of Shijiazhuang

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keep it coming man. I didn't have time to take pics on my recent trip so let me see the sights through yours!

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River crossing #1

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Mountains south of Wutai

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Same place

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Pretty nice spot for a holiday house!

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River crossing #2


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Just inside the south gate of Wutai moountain


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A very new looking stupor. Forgive me if I'm talking crap here but it just looked to crisp to be old


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An older looking temple


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Prayer wheels within old temple

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I always identify with Buddha, maybe it's a beer belly thing


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The lake of serenity - if you take away the tourists


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New ancient marvels being constructed before your eyes


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Same stuff being sold in Yangshuo and Dali etc but with a pneumatic drill to buid the atmos

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Just beyond the northern gate of Wutai


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Half way to Hunyuan

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Alleyway in Hunyuan


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Brick houses in Hunyuan - a nice bit of character I thought


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These groups of people were having a great time gambling (or watching) in various different games (Hunyuan)


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By this time I had developed a full on ass fetish


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Lamp posts in Datong. Remind anyone of war of the worlds? I was expecting death rays!

21st

Left Hunyuan at 9.30, nice enough roads and pretty scenery until Datong. Had an oil change over breakfast and then stumbled upon an old city wall, explored further and got slightly stuck inside. Whilst finding a way out saw a new looking section under construction, not sure if the whole thing's modern or refurbished, either way a nice discovery. The roads between Datong and Hohhot were absolutely clusterfucked with trucks and the surface was pretty potholed for that reason. I took the route that followed the northern shore of the large lake, maybe called Daihai, and rode the bike through the marsh to the shore. I'm not sure what I'd have done if I'd got stuck but luckily I didn't. The lake itself was gorgeous, as were the surrounding mountains.

Made it into hohhot by 3 pm then drove around for ages looking for the yingang bike shop. I thought I'd ask them personally if storage was an option even the the Chongqing office had failed to contact them. Eventually found the bike street and stopped at the only shop with big bikes (125s) in the window. All the other shops were selling ebikes, scooters and 25cc mopeds. Hohhot has a no motorbike rule in the city centre but there are loads of ebikes etc and the cops didn't bother me. Anyway, the suzuki shop said they were affiliated with yingang and would happily look after my bike for a month. Seems like they're gonna leave it in the showroom with the others. They seemed like decent blokes so I feel pretty safe leaving the bike with them, fingers crossed!

Google helped me to find a golden hans German bbq/buffet/beer restaurant. I'll be there every night for sure, 10 quai a pint for proper beer! Will explore the area to the north of hohhot tomorrow.

Covered 320 today, 2990 total.



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Nice and pikey oil change


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It was a game of two asses Gary


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Surprise wall in Datong


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Same


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Ancient or modern - who can tell...

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This guy must be the local MacDaddy, an ass and a cow together? Niu.


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The track to the lake started off OK, then ended


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Lakeside mountains


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Daihai lake just south of Hohhot


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Me

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Hello boys!


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I didn't ask why they were strapped to the bike but I had a feeling there wasn't going to be a happy ending for these gals


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Insert your own ass related joke here ".............."

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Coil problems


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Monument to the horde


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Think your hard mate? Do ya? Do ya? Ok, maybe you are...


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There be Mongolian hobbits

22nd

Woke up with a stinking hangover after a few to many at golden hans. Got down to the suzuki dealership at 9.30 and the bike wouldn't start, no spark. We improved the earth connection on the coil and it seemed to be ok, so off I went. About 1 km up the road it cut out so I scraped off some paint and redid the earth and headed north towards wuchuan and the steppe. Finally got to the grasslands and the bike cut out again, this time it had spark but it wasn't working with the HT cap on. I rigged up the lead to be close enough to the spark plug to work without the cap by linking cable ties together around the whole block. It failed a couple of times but got me back to wuchuan. I assumed the HT cap had gone kaput so put on a new one and rode off about 10 metres before it cut out. We looked at the earth again but it seemed ok and changed the spark plug, confusingly the bike was fine when it was stationary but cut out on the move. The mechanic initially refused to change the coil saying it was fine but I insisted and its running fine now.

After all that I couldn't be arsed riding any more so headed back to town to be there at five on the dot when golden hans opens its doors. They're gonna have to wheel me out at 10 tonight!


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My pikey fix. You may laugh but it got me back into town!


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This lovely couple stopped to see if I needed any assisstance


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What's this? A lover's toilet? Dead romantic like...


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I introduced myself with the traditional greeting 'burka burka muhammad jihad' and was welcomed like a long lost brother


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These were in Siziwang, north east of Hohhot. I've not got a clue what they were but I really wanted one

23rd

I ate so much I nearly puked last night, walked back to the hotel slowly and carefully just managing to keep it down. Set off at 9.30 to get properly into the grasslands, there was a gap of about 20 kms between two x roads that I thought I could bridge. The bike spluttered a couple of times on the way there but I decided to press on :asshat: and found a dirt track that looked to be heading in the right direction. Off I went thinking I'd show those luvvies McGregor and Boorman how its done, unfortunately the spluttering got more and more frequent until finally the bike was dead in the water. I tried to mess around with the coil and it fired up momentarily but no long term joy, so I pushed it the final 4 kilometres to the tarmac road then 5 more to the nearest town, Siziwang. There, the first mechanic didn't have a new coil but gave me a used one and invited me in for a drink (I probably looked like I needed it), disappointingly I only made it a few hundred metres up the road before it konked out again, luckily near a bigger bike shop. I changed the coil for a new one and gave it a test ride but it spluttered to a halt pretty quickly. I forced a reluctant mechanic to try it and he came back saying a wire was being nipped while steering, he then came out with a meter and I knew then I had the right man for the job. He quickly found the problem and I now have no tachometer but I do have a running bike. I know the yingang so well now I don't really need the taco anyway. So mission accomplished, a Mongolian offroad adventure was certainly achieved, it was a bit of a ballache but at least the bike is ready for the return leg. Got back into town for a traditional meal of pot au sheep, I fly out tomorrow and will leave the bike with the good people at suzuki. Total kms 3410.


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Golden hans - a dangerous place for the weak willed

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Grasslands


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Start of track connecting the two x roads


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Nice wood amoung the steppe


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Reminded me of the south of France

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This where the bike started to get really bad, it broke down completely a kilometre down the road


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They also farm wind. It was absolutely enormous


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This was especially for Milton, mutton on the bone - the local speciality. A bit pricey at 70 quai though.




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You just gotta suck out that marrow, it's good for your healthy



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Tom woz 'ere

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How many asses is it gonna take to pull this bugger out?

Sorry couldn't resist one last one

great ride, enjoyed the report. When are you going to drive back?

Great writing and adventures as usual Tom. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Myself and Joe will be heading east from Hohhot on the 24/25 September. All are welcome to join us, we will then go south through Ningxia, then Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan before finishing in Chengdu. We plan to meet tombaxers and his new jialing sidecar in Gansu

Classic read sir, it was an honour getting messed up with a pro such as yourself.

Good to see you made it all the way there, some nice bits along the way it seems. Although 200+ kuai to ride through a crowded park full of fake old stuff is classic china rape. I'm so sick of anything touristy here, it's either overpriced brand new '1500 year old' temples or overpriced 'old town' that sells the same made-in-yiwu ethic shit as every other place in asia or overpriced park entry to see a big mountain sandwiched between giant advertising billboards to cover the piles of rubbish at the base. If its in a guidebook, don't bother. Really sorry for that, it's weird how fast a thought about china turns into a rant about china.

Anyway thanks for sharing man, and it wouldn't be a china bike trip if you didn't have to push.

Cheers!
tom

Felix - I think a good rant now and then is absolutely necessary to maintain our sanity! By the way, the sprockets my mate thought he'd found for the liger were the wrong size after all. it seems there's next to nothing in the way of after market parts for that bike.

Cracking report Tom!

Off to buy some decent maps of Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai tomorrow so I'm gonna have a gander at them and see where we can possibly meet up and head in convoy. The plan I am thinking now if it suited is to head North West out of Yinchuan straight into the desert and do a loop around through the dunes (road showed on Google Maps and photos shown on Google Earth look insane) coming out of the desert again at either Zhangye or Jiuquan, which hits the main road up to Dunhuang or probably for you and Joe back down to Lanzhou and South to Chongqing.