Zhejiang is the shit

Seriously. Having only ridden in a few of China's many provinces, i think i can say without fear of contradiction that Zhejiang has the best roads. Go on google maps, pick one that looks twisty, you can pretty much be guaranteed that those industrious little geniuses will have paved it beautifully and then proceeded to reroute all the traffic via some other road.

Please direct your attention to my saturday ride, from Suzhou to Qiandaohu (1000 islands lake). In particular the last 100km:
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This is a tiny tiny local road across some mountains, there are only a few economically insignificant villages along it, probably only a couple of hundred people ever use it. Anywhere else in china it would be destroyed with no plans to ever repair it, but not in Zhejiang! The surface is immanculate, lovely smooth grippy tarmac, and not a straight line for 100km. And no traffic. Heaven.

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Good one mate. Nice trip and a well found road. If it is anything like this pure, uncorrupted western democracy the deluded folk live in, called Australia, there will be a politician's weekend palace at the end of that road with half his tribe working the gardens and the other half keeping the place pretty for his visits!

I'm sure there are at least a few of those palaces along the road, each complete with 100 virgins. Now if only i could find a way in...

Tssst! Read the folk lore, you just dress up as a washerwoman! Getting in is one thing, getting out is another, especially if it is really a grand dragon's lair ...

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Originally Posted by felix

Seriously. Having only ridden in a few of China's many provinces, i think i can say without fear of contradiction that Zhejiang has the best roads. Go on google maps, pick one that looks twisty, you can pretty much be guaranteed that those industrious little geniuses will have paved it beautifully and then proceeded to reroute all the traffic via some other road...

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Yep, couldn't agree more...Zhejiang is full of awesome roads. That's a fact. Spoilt for choice with just so many mountain rides to choose from. This past weekend while you were riding down to QianDaoHu from Suzhou, myself with 5 other large bikes (4 Dragstar Classic 1100's, 1 Roadstar 1300 and 1 Harley Davidson V-Rod) rode from Ningbo through Xikou down a back mountain route to Xinchang and down via mountain roads to Panan. Stayed overnight in Panan, with complementary hotel rooms (and all 6 bikes parked in the lobby overnight), dinner with the mayor and Tax Bureau director and other local city officials (actually was a nice well-behaved dinner) then rode out the next day via Dapanshan alternative route...
This coming weekend we'll ride via ferry to Taohua dao where we'll stay at pebble beach lodge (converted village home) right on the water front and do some island riding. The following weekend we plan to do a ride to Qiandaohu covering a favourite scenic mountain route that leads into Yiwu then travel west via a pass into Jiande, as the overnight stay. One hotel there has a basement garage which is perfect for bike parking, and rooms that overlook the Nongfu river (where Nongfu 'spring' water is bottled). Will post up some photos of Panan ride shortly.

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Originally Posted by jape

Good one mate. Nice trip and a well found road. If it is anything like this pure, uncorrupted western democracy the deluded folk live in, called Australia, there will be a politician's weekend palace at the end of that road with half his tribe working the gardens and the other half keeping the place pretty for his visits!

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Haha, came across such a hotel in Jiangxi province last year. Me and a mate rode our Dragstar 1100's into Jiangxi after having spent a week riding with other bikers round Zhejiang. The other guys had to return to their digs for work and so forth, but me and my mate had some extra time, so we stayed the course. The roads in Jiangxi are shiet for the best part and it was easy to see just how far below the provinces GDP must be compared with the likes of Zhejiang. The roads were absolute shiet, and I'm being polite. Suffice to say that on one road that started out all nice and scenic and well in retrospect was as smooth as marble (not, but in comparison it was) twisty and turning it's way through some great mountains, before it gave way to gravel, then bigger rocks which went on for an agonising eternity (5+ hours non-stop just on that road alone -which by nights end snapped one of saddle bag [steel] brackets) before we passed a small village town where upon the villager's were out in full force with candles and cheap dragons. I do mean cheap dragon costumes. These were not the obligatory dragon costumes that one sees at most kinds of Chinese celebratory events, these were home made cardboard made heads, stuck on some bamboo poles with long red paper tails hosted aloft by the village men-folk. I'm sure the red tails were made from crepe paper. In any event there were around 3 or 4 of these cheap imitation dragons being raced through the small village/town main street, to the villages delight accompanied by the sound of crackers etc. Imagine to big burly laowais on big burbling motorcycles trying to ride through this chaos. Well about 70-100km beyond this small interlude, we happened upon a most wondrous sight. In the middle of the mountain darkness there appeared a round shaped building festooned by a canopy of spot lights that adorned the cylindrical rough line. Seriously the place just looked amazing there in the pitch black mountain. The round structure was two levels and completely wooden. I leaned over to my mate as we sat on our bike engines bub-bub-bub-bub-bub as vee twins do, and said, c'mon lets go take a look. The gates were wide open onto a bridge that crossed the river. As we contemplated such a move a male appeared and after some discussion with him and a few hastily arranged phone calls, we were met by another man who welcomed us to come inside. It was as it turned out a hotel, miles, absolutely miles from civilisation. It was big, grand, and all made of wood. It was truly amazing to see such a sight. The rooms were humongous, everything was made from wood, there were inbuilt display cases between each of the rooms, that had displayed large jade, or wooden carvings of dragons etc. but most impressive was that there was no central roof. This was a round cylindrical building with a large open air grass courtyard complete with some quintessential Asian featuers that opened to the heavens which put on a heavenly show that night, full of twinkling dazzling stars.

We enquired about the cost (I seem to recall around RMB600) to which we both replied, OK, lets stay... long story short though, it turned out it was a private 'government' hotel that was for the exclusive use of government officials and their "companions" outsiders were not welcome. My mates mandarin is fluent, and as he said as we strolled back to our bikes to continue our late night ride in this wilderness. It was a government owned and operated hotel where no-one knew or could be found, where mistresses and the like could be taken. Nudge-nudge, wink-wink.

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Originally Posted by jape

Tssst! Read the folk lore, you just dress up as a washerwoman! Getting in is one thing, getting out is another, especially if it is really a grand dragon's lair ...

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Lol this combined with what Bikerdoc wrote makes me think the metaphore of a dragon fits very well. In fantasy literature dragons are among the richest and most powerful beings around. The more I think of it I recal Chinese have much in common with the Romans in Asterix cartoons rofl. Especially those where governors hoarded tons of gold and shinies, which happened in real in Ancient Rome. I think the "development" what has happened in Western world since ancient Rome is that now the Governor class dragons manage to do everything legally. At least manage to make it look so.

Thanks of the nice report, next time try go look where the road leads. This 2000-century techno baby sitted "adventuring" is pussies job when compared to good old times without mobile phones and GPSes. No offense etc. meant, makes me just laugh, sorry. I will go Tech-No in my trips.


EDIT: It inspires me also to start-up a GPS business. Imagine having a GPS which would use windscreen and helmet visor as HUD, blinking and popping all kind of driving information on the screen real time. In addition to that the current movie star sex model would be wawing on the correct turn and her voice saying softly "gear down now and brake a little honey, turn the turning signal to the right as you aproach the crossroads sweetie. If you don't mind stopping I could show you some pictures of the next hotel, and possibly reserve you a dinner and naked massage girls in there, after all you deserve that after all this dangerous adventure riding you sweety have bravely managed to do today. Or if you feel like a real man and want to push it I could show all the pictures on the screen as you ride, mind you though that for your safety I must take control of the engine for that time and not let you go faster than 20km/h. Oh, and remember you can then feel safe watching the pictures, I will monitor traffic around you and warn in HUD of all approaching vehicles, and the interconnected safety systems will make that no collisions are possible, so relax and focus on stuff what matters chosing the dinner and naked massage girl from the selection. My systems tells me also that the chain must be lubed, don't worry about that, I will reserve a mechanic for it for you and give you clear riding information for it sweety. And remember that if you want to talk with locals, I can work as interpreter."

This current GPS computer tech madness is just the rudimentary beginnings.

Bikerdoc it sounds like you have some amazing stories! Please make a ride report with some pictures!:popcorn:

so roads are shxt?