Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017

Beijing- Qingdao- Shanghai

June 21st-29th 2017

My plan was to fly to Beijing, pick up the bike I had purchased and hen ride it to Shanghai by way of coastal Shandong. I took 9 days of leave to achieve this.


Day 1

Crazy day, up at 6am didn’t sleep a lot, off to do a sidecar tour in Shanghai. By 10:30 it seemed I and the CJ750 I was driving was not needed. So I took the bike around with my friend.. first time navigating alone, so got somewhat lost and the heavens opened. Realised it was getting late and I had a 3 o’clock flight to catch, stuck in a one way system, I was able to see the destination but kept zipping past it, so I decided to take the only route in front of me that took me to my destination, a twenty meter section of Yanán road stood between me and the end point. Although I saw the no motorcycles sign, I went for it and was immediately pulled over by a motorcycle policeman and given a ticket in barking orders. Thankfully no points (edit three points- freaking distaster tbh). Got the bike back, in the rain and took a taxi home in heavy traffic then rushed to Hongqiao. Got my flight in the nick of time.

Got to Beijing, tried to avoid taxi touts at the airport but became frustrated with them, eventfully got to the seller’s house in the evening and packed up the back. Thought to myself upon inspection "the petcock is closed" and then did nothing about it. Finally set off and the bike conked out down the road. Pushed it back. Confirmed with previous owner that yes, the petcock was closed. Took off again, dropped the biked a couple of kilometers away. Previous owner came and told me I’d killed the battery. We push started it.. Something learned.


Found a hotel after a fair amount of time and phone running out of battery. Just a back drop to the real journey. More to come..


Failures (learning points)
- Got ticket in Shanghai I need plenty of time for driving in Shanghai and a map with the no-go roads on
- trust your gut (and open the blooming fuel valve)
- My new bike's carburetor is easily flooded when dropped
- The electric start on the new bike will drain the battery quickly if over-used (get a kick starter in future- qingqi gy200? and /or be very careful with the electric start.)

Basic stuff, you might say.. but I'm at stage basic:)

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Packing- everything I took- 30 kgs!

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She's ready (in Beijing)

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The original plan for my route ( to take in Yantai)

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My actual route (minus the first day out of Beijing)

Neat packing. Please do take your time and take some pictures :deal: I am dying to get on the road myself. Take care and travel safe!

You're on the road is the main thing now?
Ride safe and take an account of how many times you fall off.
Maybe we can open a betting book on MCM? lol
I go for 21 times.
Nice round number.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moilami

Neat packing. Please do take your time and take some pictures :deal: I am dying to get on the road myself. Take care and travel safe!

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Finished this journey the week before last.. just trying to find the time and working computer apparatus to complete a report and upload pictures. I also had a go-pro, so am editing a video of the trip.
]
In fact, as ZMC888 has said before, Shandong is largely flat and densely populated. This made the journey more of a road trip. In future I'm hoping to take the enduro off the road. Any route ideas are welcome... I've travelled to places western and northern Sichuan, and western and southern Gansu, but not by bike... Yunnan- did a bit last year on a motorcycle (see my introduction post on here)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by prince666

You're on the road is the main thing now?
Ride safe and take an account of how many times you fall off.
Maybe we can open a betting book on MCM? lol
I go for 21 times.
Nice round number.

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Can close bets cos the journey is finished:) actually, the number was four- once just standing up getting ready for the off on the morning of one of the days- the number of questions from curious bystanders and requests for selfies plus a sleep addled head lead to dropping it in the car park outside a hotel. Result= a busted lip, as the handle bar caught me in the mouth on the way down. Interesting start to the day:))

Oh, plus, the tread title has a typo- it's Qingdao, not Qinghai (obviously)

I am happy to hear it was only 4 times, well-done home safely is the main thing.
Shandong, yes not that interesting riding will leave next week and move down near you around the 1000s island area. (jiandle)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Metalmonkey

Finished this journey the week before last.. just trying to find the time and working computer apparatus to complete a report and upload pictures. I also had a go-pro, so am editing a video of the trip.
]
In fact, as ZMC888 has said before, Shandong is largely flat and densely populated. This made the journey more of a road trip. In future I'm hoping to take the enduro off the road. Any route ideas are welcome... I've travelled to places western and northern Sichuan, and western and southern Gansu, but not by bike... Yunnan- did a bit last year on a motorcycle (see my introduction post on here)

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Ok, nice, congratulations, I was just yesterday thinking what you are doing with the trip :) Good you went on with it :)

Day 1 of riding

Woke up early. Found the staff had kindly covered the bike in bin bags as there had been a deluge during the night. In fact, I was warned that Beijing was forecast heavy rains and thunder storms for two days..nice. Set off and the rain started. I hadn’t set up the phone holder on the bike yet for the phone (to use as GPS)., So decided I’d travel south and east by turns, took an excruciatingly long time to exit Beijing this way and , trying to avoid ‘G’ roads, I was constantly changing roads (not necessary, I found out later in the trip). Heavy rain meant I was soaked early in the day.
Ended up going into the countryside with. The road disappeared and I found myself in tree planted farmland with a slick, muddy and rutted path. The inevitable spill happened and I decked it. I was fine, but the bike had fallen on the right handlebar and, after pushing it onto flat road, I found the throttle didn’t turn. I examined the throttle cable and found nicks in it, maybe a problem - I hoped not as I thought I didn’t have spares (in fact later found two spare cable were stashed on the bike ). I got the tools out and took of the hand protector to see if it freed up the throttle.. to no avail. Ended up pushing the bike back up the track to the nearest inhabited place, got directions to a mechanic and pushed the bike up the main road 2-3 kilometers in the rain.
The mechanic fixed it quite easily (taking off the brake lever holder) and I came back from an awesome lunch to find him fannying around with some sort of tippex and a hairdryer, trying to fill in the cosmetic scratches on the hand protectors. (I thought, “he wants to make dome cash”) Fair enough, after him taking the bike round the block (the locals joking that he’d nicked my bike –Lol) – in sandals!! and then I tested the bike. He suggested 200- I offered 100 and he said fine. A lovely lady gave me a plastic wallet for my passport which had become wet in the downpour. Swings and roundabouts.

Finally got free of Beijing. But soaked at the end of an eventful day.

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Where the bike went down


Pushing the bike

lunch


tipping it down

Wow, kind of rough start I would say :lol8: But you managed it like a pro and were not a quitter, well done! it can only become better after all that. What were your feelings and thoughts during the day?

My feelings? Don't like riding in rain.. at all. Sure people can identify with this although t may be that I'm fairly new to motorcycling, but I tend to imagine the things that could happen while riding. The visibility was reduced and so was my speed. Soaked at the end of this day but... The best thing I did was to attach the holder for my phone at the end of the first day, made navigation WAY easier.

Note to self- buy some proper rain gear- had one of those blue tourist macs that I bought going up Huangshan the other month...ripped and flapping about, but like to think it kept me drier than I would have otherwise been. Rain- also soaked my leather gloves- hands were died blue!

I worried about you every day and was really relieved after knowing you made it.
Anyway you should have made a steep leading curve 😁

Sent from my GN8003 using Tapatalk

Well done Monkey
I am still learning ShuBen lol.

With the correct wet riding gear no problems .

What me and bikerdoc uses are them bike warmer mits you see all the Chinese have even when it's 38C.
FInd your self a pair off XXL waterproof ones and you hands will keep 98% dry.

Day2
Set up the phone holder today, so navigation was a bit better but battery kept running out.
Started out the day in a hotel in Dacheng, like a small truck stop town on a main road in Hebei province collecting the bike from security, I had a lot of people asking me questions, sort of hovering around me. One young guy persisted and wanted a photo, I thought alright. I got outside and I was sitting on the bike and was a bit distracted by all this so had the thought to put my go-pro on my helmet. I let the bike go and it went over, the left handle bar hitting me in the mouth and busting my lip open. I was frustrated and got a bit pissed off that these people would hover around and seem so interested but wouldn’t help me catch the bike or even lift it up. It wouldn’t start after this , so I pushed it around the corner to a mechanic who said it was short on oil, which he added for a paltry sum- like 35yuan. Bit worrying if the bike was burning oil but. What did I learn? focus and concentrate again- this is not the only time I had a problem in the morning when still sleep addled- on the last day, leaving the hotel car park, I slipped the clutch and my left leg jerked and spun by turning to the left to correct myself left me with groin strain- painful when changing gears- so – careful in the mornings!
and also the importance of oil checks…

This day was quite peaceful and, with the phone in place, I could stop and check the map with GPS ( I recommend MotionX GPS download from apple store – about $30 but worth it- only problem is that the map is about 200m off, the Chinese government apparently do this for security reasons- meant I missed my junction a few times and rode up to 20 km in the wrong direction, but , what can you do? )
I was managing to follow main roads now, and the one I got on terminated in a small town where there was a mosque, good place for lunch- actually one table of guys sent over two bottles of beer to my table which I refused (riding) so I got coke bought for me. After chatting to another patron, a guy on business here, he bought my meal unexpectedly. Reminds me of the hospitality of Chinese people (that I used to see a lot when living in a small town in Hunan province but had kinda forgotten).
The first two days were slower going than I had reckoned. The second day I managed 142.2 miles and I was only just inside Shandong province.. Actually probably the highlights for today were the gradually increasing amount of sunny spells and dry riding conditions and entering Shandong province over a small bridge. This took me into a scarcely populated area of farms, which was, in contrast to Hebei with it’s long roads, massive trucks and greasy truck stop towns, quite peaceful.
The other highlight for me was the little town of Wudi in Shandong where I stopped for the night. The food was excellent and the town was charming with many locals being very friendly and above all curious. I asked for rice in a restaurant for dinner and they said they didn’t serve rice but I could choose from mantou (steamed bun) dumplings (which three of them were preparing en-mass there in front of me) or noodles. I went for mantou and it reminded me that I was definitely in the North. The other thing about this restaurant, apart from being run by Hui Muslim minority people, a lot in those parts, was the enormous barbecue grill- like the one the Uighurs use to do the 羊肉串 but longer, about twenty feet long and covered.

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Interesting read, well done.
You are leaning the how things happen now.
When to many people make there selfs busey around me,then it's time to leave.
Yes,,Chinese people are very friendly,but remember we are just like a puppy dogs to them.?
There need to have a picture of this puppy dog to show there mates.?

Looking forward to you next post.
Thank you for the time and effort to post.

So I tend to be selective on who I allow to take pictures with me.

:lol8::lol8::lol8: The bike beated you :lol8::lol8::lol8:

I swear if I ever get troubles in my journeys I will remember yours and think ok, this is nothing :lol8::lol8::lol8:

Thank you very much of the report, it is among the best reports I have read :) You are the man seriously :)

Anyway, what is your next plan? Hope you don't quit touring :)

Day 3

I’d been keeping to 70-80 km/h for the trip so far , especially given that the first day was spent in heavy rain. I’m a fairly new rider, so I was hanging back in traffic and assumed that the cars were faster than me. It was coming up to midday when I approached Binzhou (awesome name) in Shandong. I entered a gas station and the attendants made were shouting at me to push my bike away from the pumps before starting it up and then again to not use my phone.. fair

enough but they made a big show of it. I decided to fill up and the attendant poured most of it over the outside of my tank- she was quite a nervous sort. She mentioned “it’s started raining” just before I pulled out. I thought nothing of it and pulled out, but on the way, a Chinese biker rolled up alongside and exchanged pleasantries a few minutes later, I found myself in driving rain I thought “oh no, rain again”. I dread rain and wet roads. I pulled over for a rest and the biker from a few minutes ago motioned for me to pull over, he said he’d guide me in the direction of Qingdao, as I had intended to take a long loop north of the town…

I followed him as he zipped through traffic, initially thinking my bike could way outdo his until he started regularly hitting 100+km/ph . I actually had problems keeping up , giving my previous granny pace. I smiled to myself thinking I’d thought my bike would be faster. He had a 250 Suzuki with road tires and metal side cases. This guy was my mentor, showing me how to ride above my comfort speed and how to act in Chinese traffic. Probably have picked up some bad habits from him, but certainly works in China. I wish I’d filmed this because this was an awesome part of the trip- having company and tutelage ( he was clearly a more experienced rider) He said goodbye and said I should “follow the road over something something river”.. It turns out this was the Yellow river, some say the border between North and South China.. again wish I’d filmed this, as it was a handsome steel bridge.


After this , I managed to make real ground with my new found speed.

( The following written upon arising at the hotel on the morning of day 4 of riding in the morning)

My body is getting a bit worn out after three days on the road. An example is the bags under my bloodshot eyes- this much riding kinda keys you up. I wake up early every day with the sun and ride all day until it goes down again. This was a weird feeling but the grip, power and articulation in my fingers has gone from riding and clasping the handle bars hands are like lumps:) the upshot is that last night I couldn't use chopsticks- I had to employ the other hand to help scoop stuff into my mouth. Kind of a good thing, the food in this town (Jiozhou) was terrible.:))

Skin on the legs sort of bubbling up -itchy and inflamed like mass sweat rash. Also left boot further wearing into my shin (started the first wet day out of Beijing).. painful shifting gears at times.


It's been hell, but the memories in retrospect are pretty intense. Kind a wish I'd filmed more.

The tree-lined roads are really nice-two straight rows for miles.


Wish I'd recorded meeting my "mentor" . Racing to catch up with him and then crossing the wide Yellow river on an old steel frame bridge.


I could have filmed the after effects of a car crash today but thought it maudlin.. didn't even feel like taking a picture. I tried to get through the debris between the two wrecked and mangled cars but decided against it in the end as there was a lot of broken glass on the road.

I thought of the trip so far that the little towns are ace. It also reminded me that China still really has a long way to go on the development ladder before its at western levels regarding comfort and cleanliness. The development is kinda surface.

Heck, British cities have muck and grime too, but this city, Jiozhou has shattered glass all over the pavement outside MacDonald's from a construction project. I ate outside last night -thought it would be nice having barbecue next to the canal until I sat down and got a waft of the fetid, rotting water... Oh well. This town gave me the best hotel of the trip. It was 228 yuan and a had living room area, high up in the building with a view and the most awesome buffet breakfast imaginable. Luxury.

Day 3 pictures to come..

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Thank you of the pics and report, very good writing. Wish you had a better first trip, now it was the worst I know as first trip, but do you know what? You got experience, and hopefully touring fly bit you, next time you know more how to make your journey :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moilami

Thank you of the pics and report, very good writing. Wish you had a better first trip, now it was the worst I know as first trip, but do you know what? You got experience, and hopefully touring fly bit you, next time you know more how to make your journey :)

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Thanks man.. hope people can suffer several more posts. Haha. Got more. I'll also chuck them up on a website as a blog. I need to edit the go-pro footage and put a video together. This is not the most adventurous trip by far or even filled with natural beauty, but testing and adventurous for someone of my level. Future trips should include riding partners. Would make it way better as an experience- I rode with a Chinese guy for about an hour on the third day out of Beijing and it was totally different. I imagined having a buddy up ahead or following quite a bit- chatting on the blue tooth- sob. haha

I am planning on taking the bike on other trips. Need to improve my offroad skills..
Again, another call for off-road trip idea- Qinghai? Guizhou....Will follow Bikerdoc's idea for Zhejiang and around Ningbo particularly.

Want to do ChinaV- esque trips:)))

Day4

Short day here, but , none the less, eventful. Rode to Qingdao and made for the nature park peninsula east of the city to check it out before going to the city itself. As it turned out, this day had a lot of go-pro cock ups. I filmed the epic mountains rising from the right of the road, with the sea on the left, only to find that I hadn't filmed it.. The mode was wrong. Went to the entrance of Mount Laoshan and decided it was a tourist swarm, didn't fancy trekking in my motorcycle boots anyway. Then stood on the beach and watched people in there tents having a day out. Has a great snack of friend fish and a baked sort of sweet potato, afforded me a rest in the sunshine, then got back on the road , filmed the mountain and made my way to the city proper. I found myself wing up a really pretty mountain road, glad that I was filming it ( this also didn't come out). On the way down, it stated to rain. My aversion to riding in the rain came back in full effect I thought I was filming and thought all the way down the slick, winding road that the viewers of my video would chastise me for riding at such a slow pace (no danger of that, as it happens, because –again-I'd selected the wrong mode on the go-pro and this part of the journey will remain only in my head)

It's then that something divine happened. I saw a father and son on a small motorbike and pitied them riding in this rain but also felt well, they are sharing something.. as I went past, the father steered the bike to the edge of the road, pointing out to the left, showing his son the construction of a new flyover highway. A little moment.
It's right after this that the heavens truly opened. This reminded me of the first day of riding in the driving rain, except now I was going uphill. I experienced a very strange sensation as the water was running down the hill towards me, still beaten by the raindrops, that I was actually not moving. I had to check the lines moving next to me to prove that I actually was indeed moving. The rain became far to heavy and I felt it was unsafe, so pulled off the road, under the new fly over which was being built and pushed the bike up the hill to wait it out. Two construction workers were sat on the ground, chatting and smoking. I thought to myself, amazing, the timing of this downpour… a few minutes earlier and I'd have been on the narrow twisty mountain road and scared witless in this rain. I entertained the thought that I'm connected with all of this, then I let the thought go. After a couple of minutes, a lady on a small displacement bike also came from the rain pelted road into the shelter of the overpass and took a seat off her little bike, sitting with the construction workers. I chatted with her a bit too. After about twenty minutes, the rain eased and I went on to Qingdao.

I arrived and found my way to a marina with a lot of yachts and had a Starbucks in a kind of befuddled mood. Around me, commercialism was still ticking along, with young girls shopping in groups, makeup on, taking selfies. I felt at this point quite removed from city life having been alone on the road for the past four days. The trip, as I said before, was taking a physical toll.. sapping energy as it required concentration for hours on end. The first two slow days of the trip had left an indelible mark on me and I had , at that point, comforted myself with the thought that "never mind, I'll just get to Qingdao, relax and "get the bike delivered back to Shanghai".

This thought kind of faded as I sat there tired and removed from this cosmopolitan scene. I thought "I'll get up early tomorrow and leave Qingdao". The thing is, as usual I didn't have a hotel. I actually asked several people, even ( comically) a guy that was trying to beg some money from me, where I could find a youth hostel. The first foreigners I asked were two Russian guys who said they'd lead me to a hotel near their office. They were parked in the same underground parking lot as me and said they'd wait outside the entrance. I went down, collected the bike and, coming up the ramp, saw a silver car with the Russian guys in. They led me through the rush hour traffic to the inner city. The hotel was awesome, and I was even allowed to ride the bike right in to the foyer to park- always gives me peace of mind knowing the bike is really safe.

BTW, I'll go back to Qingdao, as it seemed nice and relaxed with cool bars and leafy avenues.

Thank you of the report again. I think various MC clubs tend to ride in packs, maybe look for one?

It can take a few days before your mind and body gets used to newly acquired freedom :naughty: Also it helps when you get more experience in riding so that your body and mind will be much more relaxed.

Very glad to hear you are not giving up but getting hang on things. You have experienced the worst things, the best are left to be experienced.

Great post. I find that riding alone is an incredible meditation. Be safe.

Pictures day 4

The first pic is the rain coming down- afterwards, it became torrential and I pushed the bike up under the flyover.

Upon going down to the car park in the morning, I found the hotel staff in Jiaozhou had wrapped my bike up like a present

The mountain is Laoshan- on the peninsula East of Qingdao.

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Day5
Left the hotel at about ten thirty- a really late start for me. headed towards the tunnel that connects the peninsula with the southern part of Shandong. Asked directions and found that the tunnel didn't allow motorbikes, so elected for the passenger ferry, not before a zip up the seafront to record the building, again nice leafy avenues and colonial buildings but strong heat from the sun.
The ferry was something like 35 yuan and after getting off. There was a lovely quiet nature reserve including mountains at 大株山 (DaZhuShan- big pearl mountain)- very few people. Along this road, there was the smell of the sea. After this, I just headed south with a quick stop for a dumpling lunch.
When darkness came, I was filling up with a petrol and, as I'd decided to camp out that night, I looked for a natural spot to sleep.. I crossed a bridge and saw that the river had plenty of greenery and trees on the banks, so I took the path up the side of the river, past a small house and an orchard and then the path became single track and went through thick grass. The bike kinda konked out and I took this as the place to stop. I laid my ground sheet down and put the sleeping bag on top. Had a beer and boazi that I'd bought earlier and tried to get some sleep. Got about four hours sleep and was up at day break. The ground sheet and sleeping bag were both pretty damp and miraculously I had no mozzy bites, although the place was swarming with them.

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I've got a video up on youtube of this trip- Beijing- Qingdao- Shanghai

Let me know what you guys think, good and bad.

https://youtu.be/CQp5CvLNjg4

I'm also adding the rest of this blog to my website...

you can find it here. www.mychinablog.com

(no sideways pictures, I promise)