Beijing - Between Easter and Maydays Ride

[chinabiker]

Beijing's West has been neglected in the past, at least from my side. One reason for that was that access to the fun areas used to be well over an hour away, much more than to the North.
Things, roads in this case, changed and now the fun starts after less than 45 minutes. So it was time to go West again, this time together with my old riding buddy Robert
After a thorough GE research, I planned a route which contained 3 side roads of the G109, most of it on Beijing territory.

I am an early bird and usually get rewarded for my early morning take offs

We left at 06:00, therby avoided the morning rush hour and made it pretty fast to where national road G109 enters the mountains and real fun starts

After a short while on G109 we turned off to the North and followed a narrow, one and a half lane wide, perfectly paved and very twisty road uphill.
After about 15 kms we stopped for breakfast and meanwhile reached 800m asl. Another couple of kms later and in a spot where the road ended some years ago, we found ourselves on a new road with two lanes, well paved and probably only a year old. The road took us Southwards along an impressive mountain for a couple of kilometers before it crossed the crest. From there we rode down again an reached G109 after many more hairpins and turns
This loop is approximately 40 kilomerters long and we met less than a dozen other vehicles, probably because it was a weekday. Be prepared for traffic jams on the last kms down, which is the access road to Miao Feng Shan monastary and temple.




Breakfast in preparation


The narrow but perfect road


Built just for us


Incredible views





Too good to be true




View to BJ Western Suburbs

[chinabiker]

Back on G109 we headed West, crossed a pass with a tunnel atop before we reached the turn off to the second side road loop of the day.
Another one and a half lane, perfectly paved road without traffic and countless hairpins and turns before we reached a pretty village after 15kms of great fun. urface turned to concrete and road narrowed after the village as we kept on climbing through unpolpulated areas.








Peacfully united



We saw a bunch of abandoned hamlets as we moved along a steep slope with 200-300 meter drops to our right. We stopped in a spot with perfect sights and couldn't believe to experience all this 60 kms away from Beijing's city center. After we had our mood flooded with all this incredible sights and (no)sounds we continued down, and yet again the road provided an incredible ride. As we reached the bottom we found ourselves on a brand new, freshly paved two lane road which we followed across a smaller pass for about 25kms before we met G109 again, where we re-fueled the bikes and went on further West.


Abandoned


Not yet green up here


Narrow road, steep slopes but beautiful

[chinabiker]

Before we reached the ascent to the pass which leads out of Beijing into Hebei, we turned off G109, again North. Another perfectly paved road was awaiting our wheels and we reached the Beijing - Hebei border after an amazing 25km ride through more hairpins and turns. We rode trough a ski-resort shortly before we reached tha summit at 1700m asl. The road down into Hebei was once paved but now pretty destroyed and not maintained. However, more incredible sights made up for it. We reached Hebei S241 in no time and headed South just to meet G109 after another 25kms or so.





















Back on G109 we turned East towards Beijing, with another detour, this time to the South, in mind. Once we hit G109 and passed throught he village located at the crossroads, I felt like I suffered a flat rear in that village as the bike handled very starge in left as well as right turns. It took some more corners of the pass to find out that that it wasn't a flat but a freakin' slippery road, caused by coal dust which comes off all the overloaded trucks, headed for the capital.
We stopped on top to make sure our tirese were ok and took some pics of the construction site for a new expressway, making it easier for the f*@$i&^ coal trucks to reach the coast easier in the future.


Snow on top of a distant mountain - could be Small Wutaishan @2882m


Construction of a new expressway

[chinabiker]

It happend on the way down when Robert lost control at low speed in a slight lefthander as he came onto the gravel / coaldust mix. The bike slipped into a trench and Robert flew across to land in more coal dust. Luckily he went away with only some bruises and a few scratches to the biker ego. The bike's frame, fork and all other important things are unharmed. Many of the plastic parts as well as the headlight are destroyed and the tank has landing marks on both sides. We brought the bike back to the road, fixed some small things and rode off about an hour after the crash, directly headed for the bike clinic.


Google have changed their link formatting I guess. That's why I think gmap tags no longer work.
Take the kmz from here instead or copy the link address to the GM search bar.

[chinabiker]

Here is a Panorama shot. Click for the original - but be warned it's huge

[moilami]

Thanks of the great report. The video was especially good.

The scene reminded me a lot of Norway, but in Norway there are Fjords and either North Atlantic Ocean or Arctic Ocean, and no crap on the roads.

[Pfaelzer]

Thanks for the pictures, video and report Andy.

Wow , what a landscape - so different to the South. Really nice roads. Makes me want to go back on the road ASAP. The video gives really a very good impression of how is riding up there. Good that Robert didn't get hurt - material can be fixed or replaced... Strange things on the roads in China is always an issue. Good reminder to all.

Love to see the GSA. Looks like you got another windshield on it, Wunderlich? How is it?

Cheers and more rides,
AW.

[euphonius]

Envy, envy, envy! That one ride (almost) makes up for all the millions of daily indignities of life in Beijing.

Be honest now: How does this riding compare with your favorite rides in Austria?

A question: In you video, when you pan to the side to show that vast expanse -- and precipitous drop -- while still riding forward, did you swivel the camera on your head, or grow another set of eyes, or is there some way that you can turn your head while still looking generally forward? I've tried the latter, and can do it for up to 10 seconds, turning my head to the side by craning my eyes in their sockets in the other direction so I can still, approximately, see where I'm going. I do think it's a brilliant to use our heads as tripods, given the shock-absorption offered by our necks and torsos and our ability to use our own visual systems to aim the camera.

Thanks so much for posting this. I can tell I'm going to have to make another run up to Beijing -- soon!

cheers

[chinabiker]

Thanks for the pictures, video and report Andy.

Wow , what a landscape - so different to the South. Really nice roads. Makes me want to go back on the road ASAP. The video gives really a very good impression of how is riding up there.

Incredible scenery indeed up here. Interesting is that these places are at the doorsteps, an hour or even less from downtown

Good that Robert didn't get hurt - material can be fixed or replaced... Strange things on the roads in China is always an issue. Good reminder to all.

He was really lucky to walk away from this one pretty unharmed. Proper gear and a portion of luck I would say

Love to see the GSA. Looks like you got another windshield on it, Wunderlich? How is it?

It's the original windshield. I haven't made any mods to the bike - I trust German engineering

Cheers and more rides,
AW.

A few more rides in the next two weeks ...

[chinabiker]

Be honest now: How does this riding compare with your favorite rides in Austria?

Not to compare at all. In Austria I can
- go on any expressway
- fuel up at the gas station of my choice, wherever I want to
- be sure that a bike is accepted as regular road user
- ...
Sure, not the same rides in terms of scenery, but Romania is only half a day away

A question: In you video, when you pan to the side to show that vast expanse -- and precipitous drop -- while still riding forward, did you swivel the camera on your head, or grow another set of eyes, or is there some way that you can turn your head while still looking generally forward? I've tried the latter, and can do it for up to 10 seconds, turning my head to the side by craning my eyes in their sockets in the other direction so I can still, approximately, see where I'm going. I do think it's a brilliant to use our heads as tripods, given the shock-absorption offered by our necks and torsos and our ability to use our own visual systems to aim the camera.

I have used a Casio PnS and held it with my right hand. No gloves were used to take that video. I have a lever on the left hand side of the handlebar to increase engine idle for cold starts, which, to a certain extent, serves as "cruise control" I start to move and shift to 2nd gear, pull the lever and have my right hand free ...
I also use this method to drink or type e-mails while riding