Moonfest 08 - Dongguan to Yangshuo China

The Mid-Autumn Festival / Moon Festival is a 3000 year old Chinese holiday..... OK, straight to the point... Three day weekend!

Got home Friday night and asked my girlfriend (Jenny) if we should hit the road. A big smile, a "yes", and I'm off packing up the bike and getting everything ready for the morning. Yangshuo will be our destination, one day to ride there, one day to chill there, one day to ride home.

The Yangshuo (Guilin) area of Guangxi Province is surrounded by karst peaks made of limestone and is famous for it's scenery along the Li River. So famous, it's depicted on the Chinese currency 20 Yuan note.

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The worldly view of the area we covered in Southeast China.

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The GPS track overlay. Click to download a .kmz file for Google Earth. Click on the map below for a little bigger version.

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Saturday - Dongguan to Yangshuo

We're up at 6:00 with hopes that early morning riding will get us through the worst of the cities before the midday heat. Forecast looks sunny, but the temperature is already 30°c (86°f). Gonna be a hot one today, really hot, humid, and hazy. We get suited up and roll out the bike, I'm sweating buckets.

The first 200 kilometers (125 miles) are the usual mix of diesel exhaust, stoplights, buses and container trucks. There is no "good way" to get out of the city, just grin and bear it. We take G107 out of Dongguan, skip along the Guangzhou ring road and finally hit G321. We will be on this road for the rest of the day, outside the cities, it's not that bad.

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After Wuzhou, G321 gets pretty twisty and unpredictable. Just as you get comfortable with a good stretch of pavement, along comes the gravel or construction. Something, or nothing, lurks around every corner.

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Lots of dust and 37°c (99°f), no reason to stop, we just power on. The last 150 kilometers (93 miles) are the best that G321 has to offer, the road is good, and the Wee-Strom rips right through it. To our surprise we make Yangshuo by 5:30.

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We head to the MorningSun Hotel, decent rooms for 230 Yuan (USD 34.00) per night. Very friendly staff and a good location just off West St.

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Indoor Courtyard Parking... Sweet!

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After a big dinner and some cold beers we called it a day... a very good one.
Distance 636 Kilometers (395 Miles)
Total Time (Hours) 10:00
Moving Time (Hours) 08:20
Max Elevation 428 Meters (1,400 feet)

Sunday - Yangshou

The next morning we're up after a rereshing sleep and ready to play tourists. The bike is going to stay inside and we're off to poke around town and then hit the river.

Wandering around the souvenir shops.

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A great variety of restaurants and bars around every corner.

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Down to the river to find a boat for our little cruise.

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Cormorant birds are used by the local fishermen. A string is tied near the base of the bird's throat, which allows the bird only to swallow small fish. When the bird captures and tries to swallow a large fish the fisherman pulls it out.

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The famous karst peaks.

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Local river traffic.

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A fisherman repairing his net.

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Water Buffalo are everywhere. They seem to be pretty good swimmers.

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Small caves along the waters edge.

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Jenny exploring one of the caves.

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Outside the main town their are several big cave systems with thousands of stalactites and stalagmites. They set up lights to make it more interesting for people, feels a little cheesy to me, but looks good in photos.

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After our little rafting and cave excursion, we headed back into town. It was getting late and Jenny was hungry (as all Chinese girls are at most times). One more stop along the river to check out some bikes being washed.

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Beer fish is a local specialty, I'm not big on fish, but beer is cool. Jenny thought it was great.

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Liu Sanjie Light Show
If you saw the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, you have seen the work of Zhang Yi Mou. He directed several blockbuster movies and has produced cultural shows throughout China. The show is set on the Li river with different minorities from this region singing and dancing. Over 500 people participate and it's quite an interesting spectacle. Tickets are 150 RMB ($22 USD), a little steep, but actually worth it.

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Another great day and we're ready for a good nights rest. I'm anticipating a longer ride home, so we call it an early night.

Monday - Yangshou to Donguan

Going back the way you came is kind of dull, so I planned on taking a more easterly route to get home. Based on my initial estimate, it would be longer than G321, but probably less prone to heavy traffic. On the road by 8:30 and we breeze out of town on S305. The traffic on G322, G323 and G207 sucks with road conditions that aren't much better.

We stop for a little break around HuiJi.

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Back on the road and we're making decent time. S349 and S263 don't offer much in the way of scenery, but the road is good with pretty light traffic. Smooth sailing all the way to SiHui, but we both know the worst part, getting around Guangzhou, is yet to come.

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Plodding along G321 we get closer to the big city, traffic and heat continue to increase. We slip through the ring road and notice an unusually high police presence (Guangzhou is not biker friendly). They're everywhere, at every intersection. I'm getting a lot of mean looks, but nobody's stopping us. Finally we hit a long red light and I can see them making the decision. The bus driver next to us can see it too. The light goes green and my new friend the bus driver heads straight for the cops. We slip by and blend in with the other trucks and buses. Thank you Mr. bus driver.

About one more hour and we're home safe and sound. Much to my surprise the easterly route was actually shorter. Another great trip and probably the last time it will ever cross Guangzhou city.

Distance 560 Kilometers (348 Miles)
Total Time (Hours) 08:40
Moving Time (Hours) 07:45
Max Elevation 278 Meters (912 feet)

Wish we had more time to explore some of the roads in Guangxi, but there's always next time.

Best of luck out there my friends.

Cheers!
ChinaV

Right on bro! That's some sweet pics and a good ride! Looks like you lucked out on some great weather too. :thumbsup:

Did you take all the photos? You mentioned Jenny (who looks radiant BTW) took a couple as well.

CC

Nice trip you had there - and cool pics. I like the cave pics best.

The only PITA seems to be the getting out and back into Dongguan.

Cheers

Andy

ChinaV,

Excellent Trip. Looks like you did almost exactly what we did when we were there. Except ZangYi Mou's show was a bust for us. The heaven's opened up that evening and got drowned out. It looks like you went to the same exact caves that we did also.

Here's a link to some of my photos from that trip.

They're not nearly as good as yours though. Excellent job on the photography.

So my big question is: How legal is your bike and/or driving license? The little riding I've done there has been essentially, completely, illegal and I still can't find a completely legal way to do it. I've been searching for a job over there so I could get a residency permit. Hopefully that makes it easier.

Cheers,

Dan K. Black Hawk, CO

Dan,

After looking at your pics, yes indeed, we did see a lot of the same stuff. Guess that would make us tourists.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DanKearney

So my big question is: How legal is your bike and/or driving license? The little riding I've done there has been essentially, completely, illegal and I still can't find a completely legal way to do it. I've been searching for a job over there so I could get a residency permit. Hopefully that makes it easier.

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I was fortunate enough to get my residency and drivers license back in 2004, before the bike bans started in the big cities. I had a USA and International license, both with motorcycle endorsements. I showed them this when I applied and they issued me a C1E, basically the Chinese equivalent. My bike registration is fine for now, but I will have to transfer it next year because Dongguan is not renewing or issuing any more motorcycle registrations.

I think you may be able to find some agencies that can help if you don't have a residency permit, but they are very expensive.

Good luck!
ChinaV

I'd never seen this report, thanks for linking to it in your more recent post! Have the roads changed much in 3 years?

Thanks of the good report and great pics.

But sup with the ugly noob motherfuckah bike? :mwink:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by felix

I'd never seen this report, thanks for linking to it in your more recent post! Have the roads changed much in 3 years?

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Glad you enjoyed it Felix, we never took the south-western route again after this trip, but we have done the northern route several times. The roads are pretty flat and straight, good if you have a bigger bike. It's 610 kilometers, and we've made it in a little over 7 hours before, but with the heavier traffic these days it's not much fun. There's a beautiful expressway that would cut the time down to 5 hours, but we're not allowed on it. :frump: Sad, because we both really like Yangshuo.

Cheers!
ChinaV

seems like a great route to take from Dongguan. Do you know if the routes are still accessible by motorcycles as laws have become much more strict in terms of motorcycles on highways?