Hi!

[Charlieharp]

Hi,

My name is Charlie, I just moved to Liuzhou in Guangxi Provence. It is a larger city (about 3 mil) between Guilin and Nanning.

In Brief: Took a motorcycle taxi once, loved it.

I have a bunch of friends in Guilin, took trains and buses there, disliked it.

My girlfriend, who is currently in the US just got hired to work in Nanning.

So I'm planning on getting a bike to be able to take me to Guilin and Nanning on my own terms. Please don't think that I dislike China's public transportation, it's not the only reason I want a bike. I just want to be able to move between the 3 cities on my own terms.

(For the record; I've lived in Beijing for a year so my Chinese isn't terrible, but my Beijing-hua really confuses the locals.)

I want to get a bike. I want to get a bike in my first month's pay range (call me impulsive), and when I checked out the used bike market I saw some cleaner looking Haojue's for about 3000. I also don't feel like waiting forever for a set of plates.

Would it be too much for you all to splash some wisdom on this green green rider? I plan on spending the rest of my 20s here in China and I'm going to make this a hobby come hell or high water.

Also, the S and G national Highways. Can motorcycles travel on those?

Thanks,

Charlie

[Nuhaus]

Hi Charlie,
A friend of mine here in Shanghai just got a used Haojue that he is very much enjoying. I wouldn't recommend them for longer trips though, as these small motors tend to wear out at higher speeds (70+ km/hr). Perfectly good for short distances around the city. How far are you planning to travel? Yes the main highways in China ban motorcycles. For good reason too, if you've been here you should know about the horrible driving practices and the even worse accidents that you will see on them. Anyways, getting there is the fun. Use Google maps and ask around for routes between the cities.

Do you have a license? Highly recommended.

Good luck and please keep us posted as to your progress.

[felix]

Just to clarify, motorbikes aren't allowed on the expressways in china. On the roads they are marked by green direction signs. The G and S roads, however, are allowed.

[Charlieharp]

Hey thanks for the replies, I really appreciate the advice.

I just got my residence permit today, so I figure I'll try and spend tomorrow morning working through the red tape to get a licence.

I was at the used bike market today and saw some nice HaoJue's and Suzukis for about 2500-4000 kuai. As I thought about it more and more I realized that It'd probably be stupid to take an expressway and risk being pulverized by some gargantuan truck hauling tractors or something.

These are starter bikes for me. My future is in China and I don't want to go/can't afford to go balls-to-the-wall with a monster hog. I'm not planning on making it out to Urumqi or anything like that...yet.

I guess for now the trips I want to take are to the cities all around Gaungxi: Guilin, Hezhou, Nanning, Yulin. Could you guys reccommend a good GPS system? (Or maybe I better just let my improving Chinese suffice).

If anyone lives in the area please drop me a line. I promise I'm not crazy.

EDIT: Given that all goes well with the license application I plan on picking my bike up sometime around the 20th, I promise I'll have pictures all over the place for your scrutiny.