Heading from Beijing to Shanghai for the National Holiday

Not much to report yet as my girlfriend and I are hitting the road tomorrow! We're planning on taking about 4 days down to get to Shanghai. The first day will be the longest and most boring, about 425km mostly on the expressway since they let motorcycles on in Beijing (but nowhere else, so once we're off, we're off for good). Then after that it's three days on provincial roads with stops in Zibo, Lian Yun Gang, and Jingjiang before entering Shanghai. If anyone has any suggestions or tips for the road, please share! In the meantime, I'll be trying to post daily updates on my blog. You can read the first post here. I'll also try and post a summary after the fact on My China Moto when I'm all done. I just got myself a DRIFT HD camera too that can mount on my helmet, so I'll hopefully get some good footage from the road that I can put together once I'm back.

Safe riding! Keep the paint side up and the rubber on the road!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bucko

Not much to report yet as my girlfriend and I are hitting the road tomorrow! We're planning on taking about 4 days down to get to Shanghai. The first day will be the longest and most boring, about 425km mostly on the expressway since they let motorcycles on in Beijing (but nowhere else, so once we're off, we're off for good). Then after that it's three days on provincial roads with stops in Zibo, Lian Yun Gang, and Jingjiang before entering Shanghai. If anyone has any suggestions or tips for the road, please share! In the meantime, I'll be trying to post daily updates on my blog. You can read the first post here. I'll also try and post a summary after the fact on My China Moto when I'm all done. I just got myself a DRIFT HD camera too that can mount on my helmet, so I'll hopefully get some good footage from the road that I can put together once I'm back.

Safe riding! Keep the paint side up and the rubber on the road!

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Good luck Bucko and have a safe trip i understand the expressway are free this holiday ??? so have a safe trip and watch out for the pot holes

Thanks very much prince! Not sure if it was fortunate or unfortunate because I've seen on the news that the traffic has been quite a mess but we missed the free entrance by a day. Hardly any traffic onthe expressway or otherwise leaving on Saturday!

Just got back from my ride to Shanghai, a total of 3,066km round trip. Great trip and a great experience through the Chinese countryside. Mostly smooth sailing on the way down to Shanghai, but ran into quite a bit of trouble, mainly with my electrical system plus an accident on my second to last day. I kept a daily journal of the trip on my blog, Day 1 is here and the last two days are here.

Finally, when I ran into major trouble with the electrical system in Shandong (specifically Zoucheng, 20km from the hometown of Confucius), I managed to find a help in this very unlikely place in a group of amazingly kind motorcycle riders part of the 蓝博万Motorcycle Club (The characters being 'lan bo wan', which when said quickly sounds like 'Number One') a local group of motorcycle enthusiasts. If you're in the area, try and get in touch with them and tell them 'Xiao Pei' sent you: phone: 13465470555; QQ: 307021496

Now, some pictures:
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Packing up the bike the morning of leaving Beijing.

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Lots of places along the road outside of the major cities won't let motorcycles fill up at the pump for some reason, so this is the alternative.
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Driving by some lakes and pagodas. Thank god it was a clear day!

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Lunch spots along the road.

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Entering the Yangtze Delta Region, crossing dozens of bridges this day.

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Abandoned rest stops along the road.

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Getting my chain tightened, the first of two times on the trip.

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Waiting for the ferry to cross the Yangtze river right next to a giant ship being built.

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Loaded up like sardines next to all the trucks on the ferry.

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The GPS screen shot while we're crossing the river

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Skyscrapers in Shanghai


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Canals in Nanjing


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Posing after climbing up to the tallest point in Suzhou, Tiger Hill


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Eating some authentic Xiao Long Bao in Wuxi

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A giant 80m tall Buddha statue in Wuxi. You could see it from the road 2km away, however...

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This was the entrance fee, for a statue that was built in 1996. I was satisfied with the view from the road.

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A massive street market in Zhenjiang, still bustling at 9pm on a Sunday.


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Visiting the Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen in Nanjing. A quick coffee break on the road!


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Needed to get my horn replaced as it broke down after getting my bike washed before leaving Shanghai

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First break down of my battery. Found a local guy (after pushing the bike down a bridge and down the street for about 1km) to take a look at the bike.

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I smelled rotten eggs from my bike which meant that the battery had burst and was seeping battery fluid. The smell was sulphur from the battery.

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Had to stay the night in that town (Wuhe, 五河). I had dinner in this lovely little local place where you pick out the ingredients of what you want to eat from their wall and fridge of food.

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Driving by the fields of Anhui as the sun is coming up in the morning. This was about 1 hour before I got in my accident with one of those three wheeled motorcycle trailers.

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Another lunch spot.

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Motorcycle ran out of juice again as a result of a broken rectifier. The only fix I could get was to pick up a car battery, put it in my saddlebag and wire it to the old battery to get enough power to the other new battery I picked up the day before.

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All these fixes though and I ran out of money. I had to get a ride to a bank where of course I was asked to pose for pictures which I was happy to oblige.

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I got picked up by a member of the local motorcycle club who said they had a great mechanic that could help me out.

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And here's my fried rectifier!

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Arriving at the clubhouse with all the bikes parked outside.

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Taking pictures with some of the members that had took me in and helped me out so much.

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Dinner with the club!

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And it was a feast!

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Escorting me down the expressway on my last day to Beijing.

And here's the video of the last day, hosted on Youku:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDYwNjg2NjI0.html

And that's the trip! Hope you enjoyed and again if you want to see the posts, you can follow them from Day 1 to Day 12.

i am glad to got back ok and had agreat time as to tiger hill you forgot to mention it is about to fall down??? i see you went the rivers side and market but did you go back of a night ?? it turns into a diffance place of a night with all the boat rides up and down the rivers its a bit like disneyland ??

Oh no! I hadn't heard that it was going to fall down. That's too bad. It's a very nice park. Unfortunately, things were a bit rushed so I was only in Suzhou for a day and didn't have the time to go see the sights at night. Hopefully next time!