Xingjiang - Kazakstan - Xingjiang. Border crossing out and back in on chinese bikes?

Last year I did some enduro riding in Xingjiang itself. But when coming about 50km close to the Mongolian border there is a restricted border area where foreigners could not go and local authorities could not even point us to some permit procedure to ride in this area. I didnt expect to be the Mongolian border to be so sensitive.
For that matter it didnt even play a role that we were on bikes. Even on bicycles or as a passenger in a car, foreigners were restricted from the border area. Even though I hold a working visa and should be able to get in and out of china as I like. But Xingjiang is a bit special (as Tibet).

Anyway, this year the idea is to ride from Xingjiang to Kazakstan and back. It should be a two week trip and we want to be riding. Not looking forward to last minute border procedure adventures.

So does anybody have information on that topic? Is there a restricted area on the China side to consider? What would be the procedure to ride/bring the bike out of China and a week later back in? Obviously assuming my standard China licenses are in place. If anybody could point out what authorities to contact or knows anything about the procedure, this would be highly appreciated. Not just for the bikes, but also for me as a foreigner.

Also any info on the Kazakstan side if there is any.

Hi Snakeeater,

I'm a non-Chinese citizen with no conneciton to/involvement in China, trying to plan to ride my also foreign motorbike from Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan, through Xingjiang.
So, my situation's different enough to yours that I'm can't advise on it, but I found all the information I needed about the border crossings and visas on caravanistan.com, whereas horizonsunlimited.com has much more motorbike specific info.. Both sites also have forums.

http://caravanistan.com/border-crossings/kazakhstan/
http://caravanistan.com/visa/kazakhstan/

Best of luck!
Robert :)

Thanks Robert, that's definitely a good point to start.

You need a ATA carnet to cross the border and come back again. In theory you can get ATA in every ATA office across China but prolly will have to get it either in some tier 1 city or at the border. I tried to get one for Mongolia and it didn't work out in the end cos they tried to rip me off. If you get an agency involved you will be fine. I did not have time to do that after my pitiful experience. Agency will charge you between 300 and 1000 kuai.
ATA itself varies from country to country. Mongolia is 40% value of your bike when new. It's a deposit tho.
You also need an invoice to prove the value of your bike

If you don't have the ATA you might succeed in leaving China but your bike will never come back

Thanks Modron, that sounds realistic. We now came to the conclusion to stay in China and not mess with border crossings, too much trouble. Anyway, good to know how it should work in theory, I was always wondering.