Greets China Riders!

**CrazyCarl** · 02-03-2011, 10:01 PM

Originally Posted by MeowZeDong

Happy year of the Rabbit all!

I was told I could pick up China road maps in Hong Kong when I'm there in a few days? Does anyone else have experience with picking up a good map before actually setting foot in the country? Do they have suggestions on what was the best map? Or do some use GPS? Interested in hearing the experiences. But can also do a search on the forum. *sorry*

Reading each and every posting (chuckling here and there... :) ...it's a lot...but a lot of good stuff! Hope to meet some of you along our way!

Cheers!

Meow,

Regarding maps, let just say China does not share the same cartographic history as the western world. Maps are definitely available (and are probably improving some) but I found I needed to have 3 or 4 different types of maps in order to get the info I need.

Example, one may a lot of roads but no terrain detail. Another may have terrain detail, but not a lot of roads. Another will have an easier to read layout, or in a scale you want but lack both terrain and updated roads or names in pinyin. etc.etc. Best to plan to spend a couple hours in a book store smelling around.

You can also bring some in... I think the "Outdoor Life" store in Singapore on Thomson Road has "Nelles" Maps of the Tibet/Qinghai region which are not bad.

Regarding GPS, some other guys on here can comment in more details, but a basic international map will also suffice when your out in the mountains since the roads are limited anyway. Around town, is a different story which I'm sure the other MCM hoodlums can comment on.

CC

**bigdamo** · 02-03-2011, 11:11 PM

Here is an example of a good map of part of Xinjiang

**euphonius** · 02-04-2011, 12:20 AM

There are certain forces housed in very large ministries in Beijing that still regard China's interior geography as a st*te s*cret. This is why GPS maps have a deliberate offest of several hundred meters so that evil foreigners who want to b*mb a certain sensitive bridge and are stupid enough to use a commercial GPS for their targeting systems will miss the bridge by, um, several hundred meters. Good strategy!

As a result, every Little Red Riding Hood in China misses Grandmother's house by an equivalent distance. It's sad.

I'm only making part of this up.

If you do your homework you'll find there are ways to recalibrate a GPS so that you arrive at Grandmother's safely and accurately. Unless the road has been moved, and Grandmother has been 拆迁'd to a high-rise outside the Fifth Ring. Yes, entire roads have been known to move.

cheers

**Maux** · 02-06-2011, 02:02 PM

Well hey, I'm glad your interested in doing approximately what I'm wanting to try, because for some reason this outpouring of info is quite helpful.

Hey whats wrong guys, I bet if we were in a bar you would be buying her drinks instead of me, ehh? LOL I can't blame you honestly.

As far as hitting animals, something the size of a small dog is not too bad. I think the real danger is wrecking because you've tried to dodge it and either run into something bigger (car, rocks, trees, etc.). I've ran over an armadillo and a raccoon myself and a hair in death valley while I was two up.

In regard to which bike, IMHO the most important issue with the bike is the seat height. I would consider the appropriate height bike to be one you can get heals down and stand over by an inch or so, clearing the seat easily. In your case I don't think the weight of the bike is such an issue, I'm sure you could pick up a larger bike, my sister can pick up any of the bikes my dad or she own and shes about 115 pounds, shes also about 5'2" and I've seen her drop larger bikes and not due to being a poor rider, shes fine, she just has trouble finding a larger bike that lets much other than her toes hit the ground. That said, it would be better if you were able to keep it from falling because of an adequate foot hold. You could get a 125cc or 450cc as long as it fit right. Because the truth is that sure motorcycles have two wheels but they also have two feet, your feet.

Well good luck, keep us posted.

-Paul

**MeowZeDong** · 02-06-2011, 05:59 PM

Um. Yeah! I won't be riding in Australia anytime soon......
Wow. How much fun is it when you have to keep watch of a man-hungry zoo in your way? That's insane. As well as the flooding that is sadly happening\. It seems you all have been in the news tons lately, I'm sorry to hear it.

I'm not so concerned with the answer to the question on whether I'd go down from a small animal. I posted it a while ago on the forum. Thanks for sharing your stories though...they were incredibly...graphic! :D

Originally Posted by jape

Even a rabbit can throw you off your bike, I nearly came off yesterday when I hit a fox carcass and skidded in all the rotting flesh and guts and so on but it was my fault, I was avoiding it Ok as I rode along, saw it fine but looked at it and all riders know if you look at something you will ride into it. So ride with your eyes shut and you will be fine.

Knobbly dual sport tyres help a lot in such situations but you need to hose the bike and your legs down later or you smell a bit from the rancid spray. A bit more than usual after a few days on the road anyway.

Don't come to Australia either, the 'rabbits' here are kangaroos up to 2 meters high. They sit on the side of the road munching the long grass then without fail they jump INTO your path. They prefer to do it at dawn and dusk when you are sleepy and cannot see very well.

The worst is snakes, they are two meters long as well and fall asleep on the warmth of the tarmac, it is just a big long rock to their senses; unlike 'roos they do try to escape when you wake them up by riding over them at a 100 kph but are angry at being disturbed and do get wrapped round your wheel and legs and inject you with deadly venom.

The crocodiles are only a problem in the Northern parts of Australia, as are the 'drop bears' in Queensland. ....

**MeowZeDong** · 02-07-2011, 03:56 AM

bigdamo - I love the example of the map..luckily, Szu-Ting reads Chinese. What does the red splatter signify? My imagination is reading all sorts of things.

**MeowZeDong** · 02-07-2011, 04:06 AM

Thank you CC! (those are my initials as well so feel like I'm writing to myself)...

The kebabs, etc all sound amazing as I love those types of food and I'm sure after long days of riding and eating very little, we may be starving by each destination.

I'm actually in Hong Kong now...so if you have a place to suggest to look for maps in HK, that would be great! I had planned on buying a few maps to compare.
Sorry for my slow reply, I have been having problems logging into the site and posting for some reason. At times, I'm unable to view the forum. Maybe my connect.

Cheers!

Originally Posted by CrazyCarl

Meow,

Regarding maps, let just say China does not share the same cartographic history as the western world. Maps are definitely available (and are probably improving some) but I found I needed to have 3 or 4 different types of maps in order to get the info I need.

Example, one may a lot of roads but no terrain detail. Another may have terrain detail, but not a lot of roads. Another will have an easier to read layout, or in a scale you want but lack both terrain and updated roads or names in pinyin. etc.etc. Best to plan to spend a couple hours in a book store smelling around.

You can also bring some in... I think the "Outdoor Life" store in Singapore on Thomson Road has "Nelles" Maps of the Tibet/Qinghai region which are not bad.

Regarding GPS, some other guys on here can comment in more details, but a basic international map will also suffice when your out in the mountains since the roads are limited anyway. Around town, is a different story which I'm sure the other MCM hoodlums can comment on.

CC