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  1. #1 Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
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    First, I wanted to thank Crazy Carl and everyone for all of their contributions to this forum - I'm a new rider and have learned a lot through this site. I also want to especially thank Lao Jia Huo - who took me around to bike shops, helped me pick out a bike, and introduced me to the Beijing riding community - his help has helped make all this all possible!

    This is my first post, so by way of introduction, I've been in Beijing since August of 2009 studying Chinese full time. I crossed the year mark this past summer and wanted to do a bit of traveling before reentering the world of work, vacation days, etc. So, earlier this summer I went through the process of getting a Chinese driver's license, buying a bike, and taking day trips in areas near Beijing.

    I had been hoping to take a trip over the October break - but passport and visa delays forced me to postpone and a cold-snap made me worry that Postpone would slide into Cancel. Last year's November 1st snow left quite an impression. But late October brought a string of clear days and got me thinking: maybe it's not too late.

    I initially thought I'd have to flee the cold and head south, but on a whim I checked the 10 day forecast in the north and saw temperatures over 10 with no rain - so, north it was.

    I took the weekend to get my gear in order (wiring the GPS into the battery, attaching a case, etc.) and on Monday morning headed for the mountains.

    Before leaving, my Chinese teacher asked me "what happens if you get lost" and I said "If I don't have a destination, I can't get lost!"

    Day 1 Beijing - Wubeikou

    Here goes nothing! - Getting ready to head off.
    IMG_1494.jpg

    Given that I had only made the final decision to make the trip twelve hours before, I shouldn't have been surprised that Day One got off to a slow start. By the time I got my gear packed, said my goodbyes, and headed out of the city it was already after noon.

    I plugged in Chengde as my first destination on the GPS and headed north. Beijing is remarkably flat, and from within the city, it can be hard to imagine how mountainous it is just north of city. After riding out of the city I branched north east and the road snaked through the mountains towards the Hebei border. The road was beautiful - well paved and lightly trafficked - and I quickly learned that a leading threat to was going to be oncoming traffic and cars passing into me. While I'm used to cars waiting until the oncoming lane is empty before crossing over and passing - apparently motorcycles don't count - so I quickly added this to the list of things to be watching for on the road (just after cars making right turns into traffic without slowing down or looking).

    I packed light - no tent or sleeping bag - and wanted to avoid riding at night - so as I made my way north I kept out an eye for upcoming cities and potential hotels. As I approached the Hebei border I hit a small village in the hills under the Great Wall. The sun was starting to drop, Chengde was still over 100 km away, and I saw what looked like a police checkpoint ahead, so I decided to call it a day.

    The view in Gubeikou:
    IMG_1511.jpg


    I pulled into the hotel and was immediately greeted by an older gentleman - I asked for a room and he waved me around to the back and I parked the bike in a little shed behind the hotel. I unpacked, wandered around the village for a bit, found a general store that, miraculously, had long underwear (it had been a cold day), watched the sun set over the Great Wall, and sat down to dinner at dusk.

    The sun setting in Gubeikou
    IMG_1497.jpg


    As I ate dinner, the older gentleman, Mr. Tian, sat down with me and struck up a conversation. "You're a foreign exchange student! I knew it! Do like Bai Jiu? You like Whiskey? I've had Whiskey before! It was a 12 Year Old!" After I finished eating he insisted I join him and his granddaughter for dinner. He asked where I was going and I told him "Dalian" (at this point I thought this was still feasible) he laughed and said "way too far!" I pulled out my maps and he hunted for Dalian. At this point the cook had come out and joined us and Mr. Tian kept saying "My eyes are no good! What's this city here? It's not Dalian? Hmm, Dalian must be around here somewhere." His finger traced the coast and eventually he made it to Dalian at which point he laughed again and said "Way too far!" And I had to admit, it was too far. I wasn't in a hurry and had no real reason to go to Dalian so I decided the next day to just go the 100 km to Chengde and spend some time there. Mr. Tian finished his glass of Baijiu, I finished my beer, Mr. Tian got another beer for us to split ("This one's on me!") and I headed up to bed.

    Dinner with Mr. Tian:
    IMG_1501.jpg


    All in all, a successful first day - even if I hadn't made it far, I was out of the city and in a hotel.
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  2. #2 Re: Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
    Life Is Good! ChinaV's Avatar
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    Welcome to the forum Pat.

    Nice bike and nice to see you will be feeding our need for ride reports

    Hanging in there for more.

    Cheers!
    ChinaV
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  3. #3 Re: Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
    SabineHartmann SabineHartmann's Avatar
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    welcome Pat!

    and a very "warm" welcome, because I love reading about another guy who rides his bike through this great mountains! when you`re back, send a PM and we can sit together at Frank`s and tell one story or another!
    Sabine
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  4. #4 Re: Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
    Senior C-Moto Guru euphonius's Avatar
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    Nice Day 1 write-up, Pat, and welcome to the board. I very much like your style of planning -- basically none. That's my style too. Live in the moment, enjoy the ride. You'll wind up somewhere, and in China it'll always be interesting, as your buddy Mr Tian proved.

    Looking forward Day 2 and more.

    cheers
    jkp
    jkp
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    2010 JH600 "Merkin Muffley" (in Shanghai)
    2000 KLR650 "Feezer Ablanalp" (in California)
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  5. #5 Re: Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
    Motorcycle Addict chinabiker's Avatar
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    Hi Pat and welcome!

    I don't know when you started, but I hope you are already back as it is getting really uncomfortable in Northern Hebei - believe me I know about recent temperatures

    Hope you have (had?) a nice trip and looking forward to see more.
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    Andy
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  6. #6 Re: Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
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    Thanks everybody for reading! I got back into Beijing this past Saturday - and am writing this from the warmth of a coffee shop near Dongzhimen .

    And I don't know how I forgot this detail, but I'm riding a Qingqi 200 GY 3rd Generation.

    Day 2 Gubeikou -> Chengde

    Breakfast of Champions:
    IMG_1568.jpg

    In the morning I ate a can of Zhou, drank a bottle of water, packed up, got my bike out of the shed, and checked out. As I was checking out one of Mr. Tian's friends walked up, a short, wiry older man. "How much did you pay for the bike? 13,000! My bracelet is worth more than that!" He rolled up his sleeve and showed me a gold band. I asked if he wanted to trade and he laughed and said "No way! I'd be losing money!" and then asked "Where are you from? America? Didn't you guys invade Iraq? Why aren't you over there now?" I confirmed that it was indeed America that invaded Iraq (I don't know how to say "Coalition of the Willing" in Chinese) and told him we had a volunteer army. He nodded and said "In America you have human rights. But China is good, now foreigners can go anywhere, it wasn't like that before. Now lots of foreigners come here and start businesses and make money." By this time the cook and another of Mr. Tian's friends had walked over. They poked and prodded the bike and after a thorough inspection sent me on my way.

    What I had thought the night before was a police checkpoint was simply the border crossing into Hebei. I crossed through, stopped to take a few more pictures of the Great Wall, and then set off in earnest. The road continued to weave through the mountains and passed through several industrial areas and the ubiquitous construction sights.

    One of many coal burning power plants I saw on the trip:
    IMG_1516.jpg

    On the way I stopped off at a small store to rest for a few minutes and pick up a Coke. It wasn't until I walked out of the store that I realized I had actually bought a "Future Cola" (or in Chinese a 非常可乐 "Very Cola"). I'm no cola connoisseur, but to my palate, it tasted just like a Coke.

    "The Future Will Be Better!"
    IMG_1600.jpg

    I made it into Chengde around noon, found a hotel, and walked over to Bishu Shanzhuang - the Imperial Summer Villa where Emperors came to retreat from the heat of summer. As I walked around the enormous park, I couldn't help but think: This would be a great place to ride a motorcycle! And here I am hoofing it around on my own two feet! It is a remarkably peaceful place though - I wandered past boaters singing on the lake, people practicing Tai Qi, and groups of students learning about how foreign invaders had burned down large parts of the park.

    The lake in Bishu Shanzhuang:
    IMG_1528.jpg

    This creeped me out - a kid with wire for an arm in front of an abandoned, grown over building - straight out of a horror movie:
    IMG_1546.jpg

    As the sun started to drop, I decided to find a restaurant for dinner. Walking out of the park I saw a European staring at a paper in his hand and surrounded by a group of taxi drivers. I heard the drivers laughing and saying "It's too far! We can't take you there!" while the European, oblivious to what the problem could be, continued to just stare at his little paper. I asked one of the driver's what was wrong and the driver said "He wants to go to Sichuan! It's 3000 km away!" I asked the European if he could speak English and he blankly shook his head handed me his piece of paper. It was in English and for a hotel in Chengdu. One of the other passengers in the car jumped out and, thankfully, could speak English. I told him this was the wrong hotel - and he rummaged around and found another paper - this time with a hotel in Chengde. The taxi driver recognized the name and off they went. And off I went to dinner and then to bed.
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  7. #7 Re: Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
    Senior C-Moto Guru euphonius's Avatar
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    Chengdu, Chengde, what's the difference! A Coalition of Blithering Idiots. 白痴的自愿联盟.

    keep it coming!
    jkp
    Shanghai
    2010 JH600 "Merkin Muffley" (in Shanghai)
    2000 KLR650 "Feezer Ablanalp" (in California)
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  8. #8 Re: Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    Hi and welcome. Good report, I like your relaxed style and humour, thanks.
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  9. #9 Re: Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
    Duct tape savant felix's Avatar
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    Welcome Pat and thanks for this very entertaining report, i'm eager to read on!

    That poor lost guy trying to get a taxi to chengdu made me laugh quite hard, haven't we all been there...
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  10. #10 Re: Six Days in Hebei (and Beijing) 
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    Day 3 - Chengde -> ??

    After a couple shorter days on the bike, I was eager to rack up some mileage on Day Three. I was up early, had a Breakfast of Champions and set a course for Shanhaiguan, where the Great Wall crashes into the ocean. Under clear skies and slightly chilly weather, I turned south.

    The route from Chengde to the coast is mountainous and rural. The road out of the city followed a river through the mountains passing villages, farm land, factories, and construction sights. Factories could be spotted from kilometers away by their plumes of smoke and at one point were dense enough to turn the blue sky into the familiar gray haze.

    Where blue meets gray:
    IMG_1583.jpg

    Around noon I found myself in a village packed full of construction workers. I saw a small restaurant with motorcycles parked out front and, feeling kinship, I stopped for lunch. As I ate, a small crowd formed and we discussed the intricacies of learning Chinese (One character has so many meanings! There are so many proverbs and idioms! Tones!), Iraq (again!), and the route I was taking. They were baffled as to how I ended up on this road and in this place - and unanimously agreed I had taken a wrong turn somewhere. Apparently there was another road a ways back that would have been faster. After finishing lunch, the crowd moved outside to see me off. I jumped on the bike and, putting my trust in the GPS, continued south.

    Lunch:
    IMG_1591.jpg

    And within ten minutes the road turned from concrete to dirt.

    So this was what they were talking about in the restaurant:
    IMG_1592.jpg

    It was slow going - the road was all dirt and rocks and wound up a mountain. And, for the first time ever, I was reassured to have the occasional two-stroke blue truck come barreling down in the opposite direction - at least the road was going *somewhere*. And, when I was passed by a lady on a scooter, I was more than happy to let her lead the way.

    I'll follow you!
    IMG_1596.jpg

    The road passed through villages tucked in on the mountainside and the views were spectacular. Eventually it crested over the mountain and gradually began the slow transformation back to a paved road - from dirt to rocks to broken concrete to concrete. The descent was much easier as the road had basically reformed with only occasional lapses back to its natural, dirt state. Finally, I made it back to the bottom of the mountain and continued on a larger, though still not large, road.

    The dirt mountain pass had taken awhile to cross and I was now starting to race against the sun. I hit a town with hotel, but as it was "only" three thirty or so, I thought I could continue on to the next town.

    If I had thought this through a bit more it may have occurred to me that I probably only had another hour or so of daylight, I was still in the mountains, the roads weren't lit, it was entirely possible the next hotel would be several hours away, the GPS could lead me through another dirt road, the temperature was going to drop once the sun set, and probably another half dozen reasons why I should just stop.

    But, none of that occurred to me until the sun started to drop behind the mountains. And then I couldn't think of anything else as dusk turned into pitch black. I flipped on the brights, slowed down, and vowed to never be so stupid again. The occasional truck blew past, but mercifully at this point, most of them had pulled off to the side of the road and turned on their hazard lights.

    It wasn't quite this dark, but it felt like it!
    IMG_1756.jpg

    It was freezing. I kept my eyes glued to the road and watched for anything resembling a hotel. It crossed my mind to stop in one of the villages that I was occasionally passing - but instead I watched the GPS click down the number of kilometers left before hitting the next big city along the coast. 110 km slowly dropped to 90 and then to 70 and around 60 I finally saw the glow of a town in the distance. Arriving I saw a sign for what I thought said "hotel" (酒店) so I gratefully pulled over, went in, and asked for a room. "This isn't a hotel, it's a restuarant!" It turns out "酒店“ *can* mean hotel, but it can also mean: wine shop, bar, or restaurant. I actually would have been fine with wine shop or bar.. but restaurant? "But, there's one down the street. We'll take you!" These were the best words I'd heard all day.

    They walked me down to the hotel and I handed the girl at the counter my passport. She was thoroughly baffled. She flipped through for awhile before finally finding the page with my picture and name. She squinted, looked up at me, and said: "I can't read this, do you have anything else?" Picturing myself back on the motorcycle searching for the coast in the dead of night, I nervously said: "Driver's license?" She looked at the license and said "You've got a Chinese name? Good enough!" Relieved, I unpacked and went back to the 酒店 for a hot dinner and a cold beer before calling a night.
    Last edited by Pat; 11-11-2010 at 03:42 PM.
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