Around China in 100 days

[Roadrunner]

Hey guys,

On the 9th of March 2011 a friend and I will start our 20,000 kilometer motorcycle journey around China. It’s going to take us 100 days to travel from Chongqing anti-clockwise around the 3rd largest country in the world toChina arrive back in Chonqing in Mid-June. We’ll be driving Chinese-made Lifan motorcycles. I’m on an LF150-3K and Lulu is on an LF100-2V. Both are the kinds of bikes commonly seen on Chinese streets and they’re no exactly specialized for touring, so we’ll see how this goes. I was planning to do it on a Shineray 200GY-7, but recently my friend was adamant that she come along and talked to Lifan who kindly decided to let us borrow two of their new bikes. The Lifan is not nearly as smooth over the roads at the Shineray, but it vibrates a hell of a lot less, so my arms don’t feel like jelly after several hours riding any more. I will have an iron butt after a couple of weeks though.

Us on motos and with the Chongqing motorcycle club


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Trip route





Along the way we hope to raise USD$20,000 for the Half the Sky Foundation, a non-governmental organization that works with orphans all over China. Half the Sky is one of only 6 NGOs registered with the government of the People’s Republic of China, and they’ve been awarded a four star rating, the highest possible, on www.charitynavigator.com.

We will be fundraising for the Infant Nurture Program at the Half the Sky Centre in Urumqi, Xinjiang. They work with government run orphanage to recruit and train unemployed women from the community to become full-time nannies for the 150 young children at the center. Each of these nannies provide 3-5 orphaned babies the stimulation, bonding and affection that are essential to a healthy start.

Right now, we don’t have the registration for the bikes, but we hope to get that tomorrow, otherwise we’ll have to push back the starting date (again!!). After planning this for so many months it seems absurd that the start should be delayed so significantly much, but this is China and anything can happen.


We have a long way to go to reach our goal and it would be great to have some donations coming in from the generous guys and girls on MCM. If you would like to donate (or are just curious) check out www.aroundchina.org, or if you would like find out more about Half the Sky’s other programs their site is www.halfthesky.org

I’ll be doing my best to post here on the forum as often as possible.

Cheers

Jeremy