How can I ride China????

**Vrroom** · 03-14-2011, 12:23 AM

Ni hao and greetings to all,

My name is Vrroom and I live near Greenville South Carolina. At home, I drive a 2008 Kawasaki Versys and a Yamaha TW200.

I visit China (on business) on the order of twice a year for about 16-18 days at a time. I usually enter the country through Beijing or Shanghai, and I travel to Chengdu, Yichang and Hangzhou.

I joined this forum in search of information on how I can go on a 2 or 3 day motorcycle trip during one of my upcoming business trips. Can anyone tell me if that is even possible? ... Am I too much of a dreamer, or do you think that there's some way to do this.

My next trip to China will be in Mid April. I will be in Beijing the first weekend and probably in Shanghai the following weekend. If any of you riders in either of those cities has some ideas on how I can accomplish my goal, I'd like to talk to you during this visit so that I can make out a plan for my next visit, which will probably be sometime in October 2011.

Let me know what you think guys .... I'd really like to do some exploring off the beaten path.

Xie xie,
Vrroom

**Fred** · 03-14-2011, 01:11 AM

Hello Vrroom, welcome to MCM forums !

Unfortunately, in order to drive or ride in China, you must have a Chinese driving license, as China doesn't recognize the international DL. The problem is that Chinese DL is only available if you get a visa for a long stay in China (at least 6 months). If you always get a visa for several weeks at best, you won't qualify to try to get the DL.
Moreover, even if you get a 6 month visa or more, if you have a US motorcycle DL, you may get the chinese one only with a theory test (no test on bikes), but the whole process is quite long, so once again it's not really practical for short stays...

You can still ride as a pillion, but that would be frustrating I guess ! ;-))

**jape** · 03-14-2011, 04:18 AM

I have been looking at all options myself. This is what I have found so far. You can in fact get permission for some short-term registered trips and tour operators. Ask your travel agent and that is not a joke, a good one has this sort of information, it is what they do. But although then legal, they are 'organised', however I was told I could purchase some latitude in that, maybe an extension in time and a personal itinerary! There is always a way and it is best to do it in this sort of manner rather than flout the law of a foreign country, because if nothing else it can become very problematic. At the extreme of incidents you could even be jailed, deported and lose future entry rights.

Otherwise you are forced to be illegal, relying on 'mates' and acquaintances to arrange something. Beyond anything else that has real issues with Insurance and so on, not just for you but anyone or anything you harm or injure.

**euphonius** · 03-14-2011, 07:01 AM

Dear Vrroom,

Welcome to MCM, and interesting puzzle you've posed. This may sound crazy, but if you are working with a company that has a permanent presence in China, you could ask them to sponsor you for a (fictitious) permanent position (i.e., six months or longer) so you could qualify for a residence permit as opposed to a short-term visa. Then you'd have to do more pretending with the police, showing them evidence of a legal residence (like a rental contract). This way you'd establish "resident" status in China, but of course -- like thousands of expat residents -- you could spend a whole lot of your time "on the road" outside of China (back at your real home). Not sure if your employer/company would see any benefit in this, but if you are a frequent visitor it would mean you can enter China as often as you like without fussing with visas except once a year.

This then would allow you to have a Chinese license, and ride legally in China. You could rent bikes here, or, if you are a frequent visitor to, say, Beijing, you could buy a bike there, register it outside the the 4th Ring, and be able to ride it whenever you visit. That does not limit you to Beijing. You roll your bike onto a train and a couple of days later it pitches up in Lanzhou or Urumqi or Chengdu or Kunming or Guiyang or Xining, and you fly in to meet it. If it were me I'd probably register and park it in Chengdu!

We have one member in MCM who has bikes stashed all over the world this way, including Fuzhou, Seoul, Beaverton, Hong Kong, Pirmasens, Saigon.... Come to think of it there are quite a few of us who have bikes in different countries. Even I've got a bike stashed in California!

Good luck!

**moilami** · 03-14-2011, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by jape

I have been looking at all options myself. This is what I have found so far. You can in fact get permission for some short-term registered trips and tour operators. Ask your travel agent and that is not a joke, a good one has this sort of information, it is what they do. But although then legal, they are 'organised', however I was told I could purchase some latitude in that, maybe an extension in time and a personal itinerary! There is always a way and it is best to do it in this sort of manner rather than flout the law of a foreign country, because if nothing else it can become very problematic. At the extreme of incidents you could even be jailed, deported and lose future entry rights.

Otherwise you are forced to be illegal, relying on 'mates' and acquaintances to arrange something. Beyond anything else that has real issues with Insurance and so on, not just for you but anyone or anything you harm or injure.

Urgh, countries are like forums. If you get banned from one you go to next one.

Hell, countries are like women for that matter

**Vrroom** · 03-14-2011, 11:54 PM

Originally Posted by euphonius

Dear Vrroom,

Welcome to MCM, and interesting puzzle you've posed. This may sound crazy, but if you are working with a company that has a permanent presence in China, you could ask them to sponsor you for a (fictitious) permanent position (i.e., six months or longer) so you could qualify for a residence permit as opposed to a short-term visa. Then you'd have to do more pretending with the police, showing them evidence of a legal residence (like a rental contract). This way you'd establish "resident" status in China, but of course -- like thousands of expat residents -- you could spend a whole lot of your time "on the road" outside of China (back at your real home). Not sure if your employer/company would see any benefit in this, but if you are a frequent visitor it would mean you can enter China as often as you like without fussing with visas except once a year.

This then would allow you to have a Chinese license, and ride legally in China. You could rent bikes here, or, if you are a frequent visitor to, say, Beijing, you could buy a bike there, register it outside the the 4th Ring, and be able to ride it whenever you visit. That does not limit you to Beijing. You roll your bike onto a train and a couple of days later it pitches up in Lanzhou or Urumqi or Chengdu or Kunming or Guiyang or Xining, and you fly in to meet it. If it were me I'd probably register and park it in Chengdu!

We have one member in MCM who has bikes stashed all over the world this way, including Fuzhou, Seoul, Beaverton, Hong Kong, Pirmasens, Saigon.... Come to think of it there are quite a few of us who have bikes in different countries. Even I've got a bike stashed in California!

Good luck!

I work for GE, which has a huge permanent presence in China. I currently have a 24 month visa that, I think, allows me to have unlimited entrances of up to 60 days per visit. It's doubtful I could get a manager at my company to say that I have an "in country" full time job.

I might be trying to do the impossible, but I'm still going to keep seeking options. I'm making my flight arrangments today. Looks like I'll be spending 2 weekends in Shanghai. Is there someplace I can go shopping for motorcycle accessories in Shanghai? ... I'd really like to pick up a nice "light weight" riding jacket.

.... and who on this forum can show me some fun things to do in Shanghai. I've shopped at the market under the museum, I've been up to the top of the Shanghai world financial center, I've walked the Bund and I've experienced the girlie bars .... what else is fun to do?

Vrroom

**euphonius** · 03-15-2011, 03:49 AM

Given that you have 24-month unlimited entry visa and make frequent working trips into China, you might make a strong case to a vehicle management bureau that you qualify for a license. Just be sure you have a valid US motorcycle endorsement. I've never heard of a visa with duration of more than 1 year, so you may have to get someone from GE to explore this with the bureau. GE of course has considerable clout in China.

Once over that hurdle, you should have no problems. In fact, you could buy a bike and register it with a Chinese friend/colleague/GF.

This may not be as hard as you think.

good luck.

**CantDecide** · 03-15-2011, 04:26 AM

Hi Vrroom,

I'm in Beijing until November with a similar situation. You might be in a slightly better position with your Visa, I only have an 'L' (tourist) visa. At this point my only hope is to find someone willing to "hire" me for a Z visa, and then take the written test and get a license, but I'm considering that a long shot.

As for tours, like Jape suggested, I found this, which sounds awesome, but I don't have enough riding experience to take that on yet. The tour operator does arrange a license for you though:

http://www.edelweissbike.com/en/allT...silk-road.html

Actually, looking for a similar tour local to Beijing is something I've never thought of... I'll do that and post back if I come up with anything... If it doesn't exist, someone should start that company!

**CantDecide** · 03-15-2011, 04:31 AM

Well, its not quite what I had in mind, but does anyone know about this guy? It looks like he offers tours from the side and back of a CJ750:

http://www.beijingsideways.com/flyer_ENG.html

Edit: Yikes! Kinda expensive!

**ChinaV** · 03-15-2011, 07:39 AM

Originally Posted by euphonius

Given that you have 24-month unlimited entry visa and make frequent working trips into China, you might make a strong case to a vehicle management bureau that you qualify for a license.

But his duration of stay is only 60 days, so it's a no go. "Making a case" is impossible with someone in a government position here. GE may have some "guanxi", and that could be possible, but I doubt people want to use those kind of favors for a license.

There's always the old fashion way... cha ching $$$

Cheers!
ChinaV