Milton & Motokai Ride The Silk Road 2012 (Changsha to Ürümqi)

[MotoKai]

Silk Road Ride 2012 (Changsha to Ürümqi)


This past May four Jialing JH600s came together to plan a trip starting in Changsha and riding thru Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan and up to Shanxi finishing in Xi'an. And on a rainy June Monday morning Milton and Motokai found themselves at the Shanghai South Train Station shipping their bikes off to Changsha (as planned), but after a few speedbumps there would only be two Jialings making the trip..... and the weather forecast was calling for some nasty weather in southwest China.

With the bikes bound for Changsha, they were both wondering - what next??

They spent the next 3 days in Shanghai exchanging email while busy finishing up the work that they were planning to leave for the next 17 days.
The emails included some route alternatives....and next thing you know it was Thursday evening and they were on board a train with a new plan: Changhsha to Ürümqi via the Silk Road!

"I love it when a plan comes together!"

The Ride
- 17 day journey covering a distance of over 5,000km (15 days of riding + 1 day rest in Turpan + 1 day in Urumqi to ship the bikes/fly back to Shanghai).
- Changhsa to Urumqi thru 7 provinces: Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Shanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang
- The highlights of the ride are of course the changing cultures and people, languages, food and landscapes as you move west across China, specifically:

*Zhangjiajie
*Riding with Tom & the Enshi Grand Canyon (where 2 RRs intersect: 7 Provinces in 7 days)
*Celebrating Milton's Birthday
*Qingling Mountains and the watershed of the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers
*The Gansu Loess Plateau and the Rapeseed Blossoms
*Tibetan Villages and Labrang Temple
*Qinghai Grasslands, Deserts and Qinghai Lake
*The Snow-capped and Glacier Mountain Range of Qilian where we rode at altitude of over 4,300m with plenty of dirt and mud.
*Jiayuguan and the end of The Great Wall
*Passing through the southern part of the Gobi Desert into Xinjiang
*Crisscrossing a range of Tian Shan called the Barkol Mountains with lots more stretches of off-road: Hami to Barkol to Turpan (including riding at an altitude of -94m in a desert basin - China's lowest spot and the 3rd lowest on earth!) before crossing back though the mountains one last time to Urumqi.


Maps
Map-1: Changsha-Xining (9 Days)
Map-2: Xining-Urumqi (7 Days), includes one rest day in Turpan for relaxing/sightseeing
* These maps represent the route we took with the exception of some dirt roads/tracks and mountain passes which were ridden but cannot be found on Google Maps.

Along with a full RR from Milton & Motokai, we'll also share with you video highlights from our ride.

The videos will be delivered in 4 installations:
Part I (Videos 1 & 2)
Part II (Videos 3 & 4)

They are delivered to you for your viewing pleasure via Viddler. And I know some of you may bitch that you can't see these videos behind the *******wall, but don't fret, just PM me if you can't see the video and I'll give you a solution .

Silk Road Ride Video-1: Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Shanxi, Gansu


Links to the other videos can be found here:
2: http://www.viddler.com/v/be8f8160
3: http://www.viddler.com/v/b34eedd9
4: http://www.viddler.com/v/eb98decc