18.000 km around China in 2 months

Hi. I'm planning a good bye China trip in May or at least good bye for some time. (900PM pollution? crazy and this winter... I can't take it any more) I've been here over 2 years and I didn't see anything, so I have a plan to see everything at once. I'm not very experienced rider so I hope for your advice about all: where to go, what to buy, how to prepare etc. I know there is a lot ride reports in MCM, I will try to read all of them, but it's a long ride and it will take ages to precise where to go. I've read about Carl Parkers trips. It will be very useful. The trip should be something like Beijing- Lop Nur - Urumqi-Kashgar-Yunnan (not Tibet) - Hainan Island - Guilin - Beijing.
I'm working on my map, I just have some points so far. I hope to get more, maybe with your help and connect them in to final trip route.
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid...c0a8f2f2&msa=0
It's in Polish.
My longest trip so far was 1800km in 3 days. I'm not even sure if it's possible to spend 2 months on a motorcycle. I will quit my job, I have a visa until october or something, I have some money saved so it should be ok. I will try to find a sponsor, if I will maybe I will take it easy, make more stops and spend up to 6 months travelling. I would be happy to meet fellow MCM members on the way.

I'm most excited to go and check outh those:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...esert-patterns
I wonder if this is part of illegal mapping that Fahni mentioned and if I can get in trouble for that.
And there is Sattelite launch base on the way that is probably also closed to foreigners that I would also like to visit.
My motorcycle is Jialing 150ccm :wheelchair: :)
Cheers
Filip

Wow - best wishes Filip on your forthcoming adventure. Very exciting. Pat (same user ID name) also did something similar on his Qingqi, but going from Beijing to Yunnan. Lots of experience on this site, and lots of MCM members spread around the country.

Yeah, the pollution is unbelievable ... I need a break from it and may head somewhere warmer and cleaner for a week or so. Give the lungs a break - I have a constant headache these days.

Filip,

Best of luck to you. After many chats with lots of MCM'ers and other travellers, I will make a huge oversimplification. Draw a line (North to South) from Beijing to Hainan and forget about everything to the east. Focus your effort on things in the west, and spend HUGE amounts of time on Google Maps and Google Earth. Don't fall victim to the usual routine of covering massive distances just to say you've been there. It's better to spend a few weeks in special places like western Sichuan, Yunnan or Xinjiang than to brag about covering umpteen thousand kilometres through boring concrete and cookie cutter tiled cities.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Hi Flip,

That's some serious riding.

18,000 km in 60 days.

300km a day,

Ouch, I get a sore ass just thinking of it.

Gra.

@LaoJiaHou: Hey thanks, how is your motorcycle shop/ club going? I didn't really ride my motorcycle since July, but it still starts. Could you tell me how bad is it to leave it outside for so long? Is week or so long enough brake out from beijing? I feel like I need a year, I recently wonder that there are so many beautiful palces, where you can live in a beautiful old building, summer all year long with a view to the seaside and I live in this grey city;)


@ChinaV I had to read more carefully I thought you wrote west is not worth going and for me the way to Kashgar, all the deserted areas, Inner Mongolia is much more exciting than the south. It seems like there are not so many roads to choose from. I'm doing the south more just to go there and the west seems to be the real adventure for me. Kind of Chinese Dakar ;) I need a brake. I work in Korean office over timing like crazy since a year. This is kind of reset. East is not worth going? I thought it would be nice to ride along the coast but I can imagine it's not anything like riding along Mediterranean coast. China is usually disappointing. Anyway the route looks like I won't do much coast so maybe I'll do the straight line from Hainan to Beijing. Thanks for advice. Google earth is my only hobby recently. I'm planning to avoid cities.


@Graham Hey, maybe it will be 3 months, or 6 or I will give up after the first one haha. I think 300km a day is doable. If you ride curves in mountains 350 per day is ok and all the west part should be straight roads so I think I can do much more there. Yes the ass will hurt at the beginning




I was also thinking not to make a route, just choose some points and go from one to another without any real plan. Would that work?

Hi Filip,

I think we might have a little language/communication issue. I'm not suggesting you go south. I'm suggesting Xinjiang, Qing Hai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and Yunnan. Don't waste your time driving from Beijing to Hainan. The west is the best, but Yunnan and Sichuan is also mind blowing.

http://www.contactdi.com/2012/china_simple.jpg

Cheers!
ChinaV

Haha, nice and simple. I like. This could be the first page of your guide for bikers about China. The points on the east I have so far is Huangshen mountain that looks cool, the 1000 island lake and maybe the Tulou buildings. Not worth going there?

Maybe you could put your bike on a train heading west.I agree with ChinaV.West is best.If you go to Xinjiang make sure you keep going past Urumqi west.I am biased though.

I'm not saying there aren't some things worth visiting in the east, but if you have limited time or budget, the west has more to offer. For instance, Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), do you know about the fees?

¥100: Shuttle bus half way up the mountain to the cable car
¥230: Entrance fee
¥80: Cable car up the mountain
¥80: Cable car down the mountain
¥80: To get the bus back to the shuttle station

Almost ¥600 just in entrance and transportation fees. You won't be able to ride your motorcycle near the place. The hotels nearby also are very expensive. All that time, money, and standing around in line (over 15 million tourists per year), and there's a 50% chance you won't see anything because of the haze from pollution. :eek2:

If you live within a days ride of places like this, they are probably worth seeing, but if you create a trip through eastern China visiting popular places, you're going to rack up huge fees and probably be very disappointed with how little of it you get to experience on your motorcycle.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChinaV

Draw a line (North to South) from Beijing to Hainan and forget about everything to the east.

Cheers!
ChinaV

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Do that and you miss so much, crazy in my humble opinion.
Attachment 9866

What a waste to consider missing so many great places.

Gra.

@bigdamo: I don't like the train idea, I'll try to ride all around. What do you mean by Urumqi west? West side of the city?

@China V: I got on my bike to Wutai mountain area without paying last year with Lobotomus, I'm kind of proud of that. By the Huangshan do you mean just the mountain? It would be enough for me just to pass by the area. The view should be good enough, same with Guilin. I don't know if it's possible as I've never been there but I don't need to get to the top.

@Graham: Can you tell me some of those places please?

Qinghai province is kind of a mystery for me so far. Has anyone been there? I havn't even heard about it before.
"Yulshul Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, commonly known as Yushu, is an autonomous prefecture of southwestern Qinghai province, Western China."
Can I go there? Or is it like Tibet?

-T- Plateau, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang would be on top of my personal riding list, OK, I am biased as I have been several times in the regions.
Might do a Shanghai - Sanya ride in 2013 with a Guangzhou / Dongguan stop-over but it's different for me as I run a business on Hainan Island and Southern China and that gives me a few reasons and excuses…...

I'm checking out Qinghai now. looks amazing. There are no Tbetan kind of restrictions there?

Hey Filipu,

it seems like Pat came through Qinghai on his commute to work: http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...t=commute+work

Same for Roadrunner in his Around China in 100 days: http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/sh...t=commute+work

Both ride reports say that Yunshu is still a huge tent town after the city was basically razed during an earthquake.

Everything outside Tibet and some far-western parts of Xinjiang should be OK for foreigners. Then again, a friend of mine was just denied travelling to Xiahe (tibetan populated) in Linxia (Gansu). So you never know.

Pick places you want to see and screen ride reports here for especially scenic rides but don't plan to much in advance. You will not be able and willing to stick to a fixed roadbook for 3 months.

Just my two cents.

I posted my plans for Easter this year. Your in?

Hey! thanks for the links and advice. I'd liek to go with you but I've handed my notice, I will finish my job in 2 months and I don't think I will get any holidays before that especially there is no holidays in my Korean office;) It should be warm soon, so maybe some one day trip some day?

Do you think it's possible to get something like trip approval? Is there some tourism office, ministry where I could go and show my plan? I'm still working on the route and there are some suspicious places. On my polish paper map, with little detail I've found a road going east from the Karakoram highway. It would be good to take it that I don't need to go twice the same road, but on the baidu.map the road doesn't exist. What is more, the Karakoram highway itself, also doesn't exist. So there is a chance that there are some secrets, you never know. I know it's less adventure to check that, but having an interrogation somewhere in the mountains near Pakistan border... well it's kind of big adventure ;)

So this is the my plan. 20800km. Maybe too many. Qinghai lake would probably already satisfy me.
Attachment 10322


This is link to my blog with main points in polish.
http://www.iloveyourmici.pl/chinski-...-plan-wyjazdu/

Anyone who would like to join?

Im going around China and possibly to Mongolia too starting around May from Zhejiang province. Going north first. I got 2 months off work so got kinda the same plan as you ;) Maybe we can meet somewhere on the road or ride together a while.

Im also Polish!!! hah

Siema! Sounds great. Tell me more details about your plan. When will you leave? You have a precise date? I'll be back from Poland on15th of may, I need two days to get over jetlag or sth and I'm ready to go. It would be great if we could go some of the road together. Whats your bike? Where do you want to get in 2 months? What do you do in Jiaojiang?
Filip

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TB-Racing

-T- Plateau, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang would be on top of my personal riding list, OK, I am biased as I have been several times in the regions.
Might do a Shanghai - Sanya ride in 2013 with a Guangzhou / Dongguan stop-over but it's different for me as I run a business on Hainan Island and Southern China and that gives me a few reasons and excuses…...

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when will you be going to Sanya? maybe we can meet up in GZ!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by filipu

Siema! Sounds great. Tell me more details about your plan. When will you leave? You have a precise date? I'll be back from Poland on15th of may, I need two days to get over jetlag or sth and I'm ready to go. It would be great if we could go some of the road together. Whats your bike? Where do you want to get in 2 months? What do you do in Jiaojiang?
Filip

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sent you pm
and im getting ybr250!!!! im so excited!!! and i just cant hide it!!!!!:goodtime:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by filipu

So this is the my plan. 20800km. Maybe too many. Qinghai lake would probably already satisfy me.
Attachment 10322


This is link to my blog with main points in polish.
http://www.iloveyourmici.pl/chinski-...-plan-wyjazdu/

Anyone who would like to join?

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Nice Route! I don't think that travel permits from BJ will help you down in XJ. Just get your paperwork in order and play it by ear once you are there.

Someone wrote on my blog that it might be hard to go a distance of half of the 'circumference of the earth' (google translate) on cheap Chinese bike ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by filipu

Someone wrote on my blog that it might be hard to go a distance of half of the 'circumference of the earth' (google translate) on cheap Chinese bike ;)

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I remember watching the video...dont remember the name....many here do...two guys who went across europe russian mongolia etc..on BMW's and the camera man cracked up his BMW not watching carefully and he replaced his BMW with a super cheap local chinese motorcycle and it did well enough to keep up in the rough stuff.....
keep your chin up...and you helmet on and you will be fine...if something happens you can replace the whole bike part by part along the way...cheap and available

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kikikillercat

I remember watching the video...dont remember the name....many here do...two guys who went across europe russian mongolia etc..on BMW's and the camera man cracked up his BMW not watching carefully and he replaced his BMW with a super cheap local chinese motorcycle and it did well enough to keep up in the rough stuff.....
keep your chin up...and you helmet on and you will be fine...if something happens you can replace the whole bike part by part along the way...cheap and available

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Thank You Kikikillercat, thats exactly what I need to hear :)

maybe we could meet if I get as far as Guilin. It's on my map. I would desperately need someone who can speak English after that far ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kikikillercat

I remember watching the video...dont remember the name....many here do...two guys who went across europe russian mongolia etc..on BMW's and the camera man cracked up his BMW not watching carefully and he replaced his BMW with a super cheap local chinese motorcycle and it did well enough to keep up in the rough stuff.....
keep your chin up...and you helmet on and you will be fine...if something happens you can replace the whole bike part by part along the way...cheap and available

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Long Way Round.
Episode 5
Day 4 in Mongolia
Claudio the camera man snapped the frame on the GS 1150 BMW
When they welded the frame up, they blew the brakes controller which were ABS, just fried the module.

So I think it was an "HH" that they bought for $1000


Gra.

Hey, does anyone have a contact to someone from Jialing? Like someone more important or dealing with promotion? I'm thinking to write to them, tell them about my trip and maybe they would give me some support, free service or sth as I'm a foreigner doing 21000km on their cheap bike and they could make a story where I would say how much I love my JiaLing. Do you think there is a chance it could work or foreigners are not so attractive anymore?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by filipu

Hey, does anyone have a contact to someone from Jialing? Like someone more important or dealing with promotion? I'm thinking to write to them, tell them about my trip and maybe they would give me some support, free service or sth as I'm a foreigner doing 21000km on their cheap bike and they could make a story where I would say how much I love my JiaLing. Do you think there is a chance it could work or foreigners are not so attractive anymore?

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Dear Filipu,

Sending you a PM.

cheers

Thank You very Much Euphonius! I will try.

BTW 'euphonius has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space.'

Thanks, just dumped my inbox.

Cheers!