Baihuashan, Beijing

[chinabiker]

It's very difficult for us the keep our hands off the handlebars, so we decided to go for a short ride on November 4th.
Destination: Baihuashan 百花山 (100 flour mountain)

We left at 7 in the morning under blue skies and at single digit C temperatures.

The first stretch, along the 5th ring road of Beijing, was pretty boring and it
became very bad on the G108 afterwords. Very bumpy road surface and very chilly in the gorges between the Western mountains, where the sun shines
in for only 2 hours per day during the winter. From G108 (at km 74) we turned off to North into a small valley.
There is coal mining going on everywhere and black is the dominating color.
After 130 kms and 2 hours of riding we finally arrived at the bottom of the
mountain road we came for, having a short break to warm up on the sunny side of the slope.


Short break on a pile of coal dust


Meanwhile we reached 1000 m asl and the road to Baihuashan will climb for almost another 1000 m within 12 kms.


In the distance - the road to Baihuashan


Mid way up the mountain


Looking south


Andy on his way up


The final hairpins


We reached the top - altitude almost 2000 m and only 60 km West of the center of Beijing


View to the South from the summit


West


North


East


Little monastery


A look into the black valley we came trough


After a good hour of enjoying the views we started our way home, passing through another black valley.



Imagine to live there!


A nice one again - the road to Baihuashan


Coal pot


A rare sight in this area

We returned the same bad and boring route back home with some mixed emotions.



The map (click to enlarge)



More pictures


Andy & Robert

[Lago888]

hi Andy, awesome PIC's & report ,
and as you said "Only 60 KM's from the center of Beijing"
it is a really great riding area,
I hope to be there with you on the next one
all the best
TIM L

[ZMC888]

WOW

2000 meters! Must have been cold up there! That's just the kind of road I love.

[kingmarty45]

They certainly don't have anything like that here in Australia. Nice report and thanks for the pics!

[colourblind]

BEAUTIFUL photos!!! Please clarify this: I read somewhere that 'big bikes' were not allowed in China, things must have changed!!??
Colourblind

[chinabiker]

BEAUTIFUL photos!!! Please clarify this: I read somewhere that 'big bikes' were not allowed in China, things must have changed!!??
Colourblind

To the best of my knowledge:

Every 2 wheeled, combustion engine powered vehicle is a motorcycle (I don't know how all the different 3 wheelers are defined).

Every motorcycle has to fulfill certain standards (god knows which) and go through the CCC (product safety standard) process. Additionally, emission standards have to be fulfilled, which are obviously different, depending on the city or province.
Further, it seems that emission standards are depending on engine size.
Smaller than 50cc (I think this is also the max for 2 strokers), 50 to 200cc (250cc ?) and above.

Some cities and regions ban bikes completly (e.g. Guangzhou), while other places limit the number of licenses or have different ones. In Beijing for example, there are "A" and "B" plates. The A's cost 15,000 RMB and allow you to ride in the whole city, while the B's are not allowed into downtown but cost only 1,000 and are not issued to foreigners.

All this is valid for domestic as well as imported .

Since there are only max 250cc domestic bikes, except the Jialing JH600 and the CJs (the experts may correct me), all others are imported.

Not many foreign bike manufacturers are willing to spend the efforts to obtain all necessary certificates, so there is only a small number of foreign manufactured bikes around (the legal ones). To my knowledge these are BMW, Ducati, HD, Honda and Yamaha.

Since import and other duties sum up to approx 180% of the overseas EXW price, the retail prices here are extremely high.

Notes
- Everything is possible in , nothing is easy and patience is the root for all success.
- Every village has different rules



Andy