Introduction

[DanKearney]

Greetings All,

Just a quick note to introduce myself to the forum. I'm deeply interested in China MC travel. I've been to China 4 times now. On one occasion I "rented" a Jialing 125cc from a guy on the street and spent a day riding around the LiJiang area.

My wife is from China and we have an apartment in PanYu Qu, Guangzhou. I've also done a couple of semi-legal car trips around the country and am looking forward to do a lot more (hopefully more legal also) road trips.

I came across this site accidentally while reading about another rider's trip through China to Russia. Looks like it'll be a good source of information. I've been a rider since 1983 when I learned to ride while living in Germany.

Cheers,

Dan K.
Black Hawk, Colorado

[ZMC888]

Nice to meet you.This forum is a great place to ask for advice and find out what is going on as relates to riding in China and Chinese motorcycles.

[DanKearney]

Thanks for the welcome.

I'll probably be coming over again in late Spring or early Summer 2009. I'm hoping to arrange some sort of bike trip during that time. I'll only be over for about 2 or 3 weeks this time. Gotta spend some of that time visiting family and playing standard tourist also (I still haven't been to the Great Wall!)

My wife is telling me that the gov't has changed some of the driving laws for tourists and it's now possible to legally use the International Driving Permit (For autos) over there. I can't seem to corroborate this anywhere however. Would you know anything about this?

Cheers,

Dan K.

[ZMC888]

I can't corroborate a thing! One Chinese policeman I know insists that foreigners can legally drive on their own license. Others say an international driving permit is fine, and others that any foreigner must absolutely have a Chinese driving license, and obtaining this is very hard unless you have a resident permit. What's worse the beliefs about the laws change according to what area you are in, and finding out what the laws actually are is very tricky if you can't read Chinese!

[DanKearney]

Ha! So things haven't changed since my last visit! It's good to know one can depend upon certain things. Guess my next foray will again be "gray market".

Cheers,

Dan K.

[CrazyCarl]

Dan,

Howdy Hey! I think you'll be okay riding in China as long as they see you're genuinely trying to obtain the correct documentation like vehicle registration and some kind of translated license. The best license to have is of course an O-fficial Chinese one but more than a couple of riders have gotten along without it on a temporary travel basis.

Where and what would you like to ride in China?

CC