Harbin to Kashgar, and wherever else theres time for

Hey Everybody,

So last year I was planning to do this ride to Xinjiang, but after going through all the crap to get my license/bike etc... I didn't have time, so I had to wait until this year. Anyhow, I have suffered through a Harbin winter and another 2 semesters of teaching oral English, and now have 3 months of vacation to wander around China via motorcycle.

The vague plan is to go to Beijing first, then head west through Inner Mongolia, make a loop all around Xinjiang, then head back a little further south, through Qinghai and possible stop by Xian on the way back to Harbin.

I'll be riding two up+camping stuff+tools and spare parts on my lifan 125, so I don't expect to average more than 2 or 3 hundred k's in a day, if that. We'll be leaving on Friday, and thats about the only plan we have. So if anybody in between Harbin and Kashgar wants to meet up for a beer or ride together for a while, feel free to contact me. Steveinharbin@gmail.com.

I'm not bringing my computer, so I probably won't be able to get my photos up till I get back, but I'll try get an update up once in a while while I'm on the road.

Best of luck to you both! Hit me up if your route takes you through xi'an...

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Originally Posted by HarbinSteve

The vague plan is to go to Beijing first...

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TUESDAY 19:30hrs. onwards BIKE-NIGHT at Frost / Back Alley Bistro Beijing....
Good luck and post pictures of your cruise! Ride safe....

Tb-racing, If I'm in Beijing on a Thursday I'll do my best to stop by, it would be cool to meet some people from MCM.

Felix-Thanks for the response, I'll get in touch again when I'm nearing Xian, and see if your around.

I took the bike out for a test ride with all of my junk loaded up. Leaving tomorrow morning.

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Though we'd love to see you here in Shanghai, I highly recommend NOT adding the endless city to your itinerary.

Have a great ride and hope you can post pix from your phone from time to time. Will Tapatalk work for that? And of course you can post in real time in Wechat/Weixin.

cheers
euphonius

Hey Steve,

Im riding from Hohhot to Mohe from the 25th June, I will then ride south to Harbin and will fly back from there on July 5th. I reckon we will probably be heading in different directions but may be around Hohhot at the same time...

Just a quick update from my phone while I have wifi. We made it to kashgar via Beijing, shanxi, Inner Mongolia, ningxia, gansu, qinghai, and then xinjiang. I'm gonna rest here for about a week then head to northern xinjiang. From there I'm thinking of heading down to Sichuan yunnan and guangxi. Who knows. Ill post the whole story and pics when I get back home.

Drive safe i bet its just nice to get out of Harbin i could not wait to leave after we had that drink
not leave you ??? just Harbin .....

Quick update. I'm in Qinghe, a small town near the Mongolian border. I was thinking about going south to Sichuan and Yunnan to hang out for a while before going back to work, but since it has been raining so much that way I decided I would try to go back to Harbin a little earlier, and get some rest. Harbin is directly east from where I am now, so I'm going to try to ride back through Mongolia, since that would be quicker and more interesting than riding back the way I came. The border is closed for the weekend, so I'm going to hang out for 2 days and try on Monday morning.

I've got about 2000 pics so far, so when I get back to Harbin I'll make this ride report a lot more interesting...

Qinghe... So you are in north east Xinjiang... Well man, if you want to make a detour, you're welcome to visit Shihezi...

Back in Harbin now. I made it through Mongolia and back into China, although it was not easy, fun, or at all enjoyable. Anyhow, I'll get to work getting the real ride report up.

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Qinghe... So you are in north east Xinjiang... Well man, if you want to make a detour, you're welcome to visit Shihezi...

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Were you in Qinghe recently? I ran into some police there that were saying a foreigner from shihezi was there on a motorcycle a few weeks before I was. Next time I'm in Xinjiang I'll stop by. If your ever in Dongbei feel free to drop me a line.

I'm still working on getting everything uploaded to flickr, and then I'l start writing the report, but in the mean time here's a few photos

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2845/9...ec9ea8d3_c.jpg
a

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2888/9...76f2bb12_c.jpg
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http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3768/9...5558aac4_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3768/9...5558aac4_c.jpg


Great pictures steve you have a talent with a camera just a shame about your riding skills lol

Ho and thanks for finding my old dog "ROVER " been looking for him for years did you give him a better place of rest .....

cant wait to read you RR

Here is the route I took. In total it took around 50 days, and was about 15000k. (In this ride report you'll notice I'm not much of a note taker while traveling, most of my figures/routes are pretty vague)

I went from Harbin through Jilin, Liaoning, and Hebei to Beijing, then Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai to Xinjiang, where I went in a big circle, then from Qinghe went to Mongolia "outer Mongolia". I entered China at Erlian, Inner mongolia, then back through Jilin to Harbin.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2885/9...46c964fe_z.jpg

Favorite road goes to G217 in Xinjiang, The surface is smooth, and it definitely has the most amazing views of any road I've been on in China.

Least favorite road- Any road in Mongolia.

Favorite place goes to 伊犁 yili. The city has a really cool vibe, delicious food, good weather, and the different ethnicities seem to be more relaxed around each other than other places.

Man, that's a huge ride! Very keen to see that R, S, T, U, V, W stretch!

euphonius

Days 1-5

I set out with a good friend riding on the back. We took the G102 from Harbin straight to Beijing. It was nice riding, although that road is quite crowded, not very relaxing.


Setting off. The saddle bags and box on the back held 2 peoples clothes/supplies, camping gear, tools, and spare parts.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5516/9...2a516a5f_z.jpg

We ran into the first problem on the 2nd day. I had added some LED lights because the stock headlight is absolutely useless, and the guy who had wired them up had done bad job. When it rained, they started shorting. I didn't want them to cause any more problems along the way, so I just took them off.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3825/9...242a7c43_z.jpg

The typical truck driver dorm. 15RMB for a night out of the rain. Passport? Registration? Who needs that. Just give me my 15RMB.

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My bike's first trip to the beach. Qinghuangdao. Gotta go for the classic asian pose.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5447/9...e9edae62_z.jpg

No pics in Beijing. Driving there was too hectic. We stayed a few days to hang out with friends, then we headed west.

looks like a fantastic ride, looking forward to more!

More more more more more more more more more more!

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More more more more more more more more more more!

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For some reason my internet hasn't been letting me log onto MCM. Has anybody else had this problem? It just started for me last week. I'm writing it all offline, and will borrow a vpn to get it all posted. Hopefully within the next week.

Any problems with getting your bike in and out of Mongolia?

Sorry I have been away for so long. I've been having a lot of internet problems lately. Also, flickr seems to have changed their website, and I cant find the option to sign in through google like I always have, so I have to find out how to access my pictures before I can post more. Hopefully I can get this all straightened out soon, I've been way too slow on this RR.

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Originally Posted by modron

Any problems with getting your bike in and out of Mongolia?

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Yes. Lots of them. The Mongolia side of things is pretty straightforward (besides the fact that they couldn't really speak much Chinese or English) but the Chinese side was a real B****. To leave China you are supposed to have something they called a 行驶证. Nobody (including the police and the border guards) could tell me exactly what the process to get one was. I even went to the military base that was responsible for the border, and they didn't know either. Some people told me the nearest town, some told me the provincial capital and others told me Beijing, but nobody really knew anything about the process. Anyhow, I managed to get out of China without it, but getting back in was a nightmare.

Epic route mate!! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

looking forward to the report

Hey Guys,

I was having a lot of trouble with the internet in Harbin, (I don't have a vpn) but I'm back in the States for the Holidays, so I'm gonna revive this thread and finish it up. Should have it done within the next few days. Sorry about the wait!

Looking forward to more...

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Originally Posted by Hok

Looking forward to more...

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+1 :icon10:

So..... Its been a long time, way too long, since I worked on this. Hopefully I can remember most of the stuff that matters.

I stayed in Beijing visiting friends and stocking up on supplies for a few days. After that we headed west. We didn't really have any route planned, just the goal of getting to Kashgar, so on the way out of Beijing we just went west. The riding near Beijing was great. Winding mountain roads with beautiful scenery and not much traffic.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5520/1...a3dd22db_z.jpg
(1 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

We rode until it started to get dark than looked for a place to stay. Didn't see much in the way of trucker hotels and the like, I think because we were taking smaller roads, so we opted to stay behind an abandoned building. I hadn't done too much camping in China, so I wasn't sure what the rules are about it, but i figure the worst thing that could happen was some angry man would come yell at me to leave. Besides it didn't seem like there was anybody around anyway.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3678/1...502e007e_z.jpg
(2 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Behind the shack there was a old garden that was pretty sandy/soft so we pitched the tent there. Baxi was sad, I don't think she knew what she was in for when she wanted to go on a trip with me. haha.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5514/1...99bfe460_z.jpg
(3 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

We had ditched the sleeping pads before we left because they took up a lot of room, but that night we learned we would need them again.Turns out the tent floor wasn't really all that waterproof.

We slept well, (although a little cold-baxi had lost her sleeping bag in Beijing, so we put the one bag on top of us and just slept in our riding gear) and nobody had come to yell at us during the night. Camping success! We headed out to get some sketchy breakfast and continued on our way. The roads got pretty terrible and were under construction, but when we crossed into Shanxi, the road was all of a sudden perfect. It was a nice change. Little did I know later in the trip I would be spending a lot of time off-roading...

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2833/1...0a506da4_z.jpg
(4 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

It rained off and on, but in general the riding was decent. We rode by a pretty cool section of the great wall.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3790/1...d5a14f24_z.jpg
(5 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

After a while we passed a giant Ghengis Kahn, telling us we had made it to Inner Mongolia.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7334/1...f43172e9_z.jpg
(6 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

It was at this point that I learned not to rely on google maps too much. Turns out they can't always keep up with the pace of China's change. The G109 would have taken us exactly where we needed to go, but it turns out they had ripped that entire stretch up to turn it into a highway. The locals I asked all say you could still drive it all the way through, but it was all pretty rough dirt. Oh, and it was raining. Not a good combo for a 125 loaded down with two people and their gear. And plenty of Semi Trucks to make sure you died if you slipped in the mud.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5548/1...26ba0410_z.jpg
(7 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Baxi was a good sport and walked along the side while I tried to push the bike through the muck. At one point the water got deep and the bike stalled. Luckily it started right back up. At a certain point all of the Semi trucks got off of the dirt road onto a magical highway 高速 that just appeared out of nothing. Then it was just us trying to make it on the G109. After I while of pushing/walking we realized it was hopeless and we would never make it on that road unless it was dry. It was time to turn around. Unfortunately we would not be making it to Ordos that day.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3748/1...07505316_z.jpg
(8 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr