bringing foreign friends for 3 week cycle tour of china

[justashooter]

having lived in luoyang from 2004-2009, and ridden various bikes throughout henan province with an old pennsylvania car tag screwed to the back, i cannot say that i have always been within the letter of the law while riding in china, but hey, it's china, right?

this time i think i should go legit: i am looking to come back to china (qinhuangdao - 250Km east of beijing) on a job assignment this summer and into next year, and have been asked by a group of 5 experienced international riders to host a self tour, hitting the interesting points of "back country" china. they could fly into beijing, see the great wall and forbidden city, then bus/train to qinhuangdao to start the trip.

i wanted to buy local bikes in the typical honda copy 250 class in qhd, fit them out with back alley steel shop riding racks, ride the coast and across the peninsula south to shandong (qingdao), then train west to kaifeng, ride to luoyang and xian, then train south to chengdu, ride south to kunming in yunan, then train east to nanning, and ride south onto hainan island, then sell the bikes between there and hong kong, where we fly out.

i want to keep this under 21 days, need to get the riders (who all have M class liscenses) temporary permits, hoped to hire a translator/co-rider out of the motorcycle district in qinhuangdao, travel without a formal guide, burn some gas, and show the guys a good time, in all respects.

i will be working quality auditing in qhd at an SOE on an export bridge manufacturing project, so will have some good guanxie there, still have pull in luoyang, and could do this with a single translator, but am concerned with the permit issues, and a freewheeling itinerary. i have some friends in the travel and tourism industry, and could title the bikes to the seller's shop and allow him share in proceeds at end of trip, maybe riding or training back with 2 of the projected 7 bikes.

looked thru this forum about training bikes in cargo and found mixed answers, but this is prolly guanxie related. thinking that this is doable with enuf hershey's chocolate bars, american smokes, real zippo lighters (only one way to know the chinese fakes from the pennsylvania originals) and sambuca. your thoughts requested in the hope that china is still the freewheeling wild west i knew it as a few years ago.

specifically, what is the cycle street price on a 250 honda copy in china now? last luoyang price i recall was around 9500 RMB? where to best get temporary permits and how long in process?

[humanbeing]

bike powered by 223 md33 clone can bought ~5k via some Chongqing dealer. http://www.motorfans.com.cn/bbs/view...uthorid=409283

[ChinaV]

Welcome aboard / back to China.

your thoughts requested in the hope that china is still the freewheeling wild west i knew it as a few years ago.

It's not, and there seems to be a particular vendetta against foreigners achieving motorcycle licenses and having a good time. It's been beaten to death here time after time after time. There are NO LICENSES / PERMITS without involving official tour agencies and official guides through official channels. There are still a few un-official things going on as always, but they cost a lot of time, money, and/or guanxi (connections). 6 foreigners travelling through China is definitely going to raise a few eyebrows somewhere, and you will get checked for documentation. I'm sure 5 experienced international riders wouldn't want to sully the reputation of the motorcycle community by breaking the law, so I think you should look for a tour agency that can get you guys sorted legally. As for you, apply for your C1E motorcycle license the day you get your residence permit and visa, shouldn't be too hard.

21 Days is going to be tight. 6 people on Chinese bikes, something is bound to go wrong somewhere and tie you up a couple days.

I don't think you will have any issues with the train arrangements. Kunming to Nanning... just ride it, can be done in about the same time as the train option.

Tough to sell the bikes near Hong Kong, Shenzhen - Dongguan - Guangzhou areas are all bike banned and there's a glut of bikes for sale. Getting the six bikes in a Chinese nationals names shouldn't be that hard and will probably make it much easier to re-sell, but you may want to try and strike up a deal with the seller to buy them back for half what you paid, or some other arrangement.

Cheers!
ChinaV

[justashooter]

thanks for the replies. guess i will have to reach out to chinese friends in tourism to see if i can pull this off. trouble is the tour agencies seem to be 6-9K USD per rider and with escort car, with rented bikes, on their route. not what i had in mind. when i lived in luoyang there were only 25 resident lao wai in 6 million chinese, so everything was wild west, chinese rules. the crap you guys are getting may be just a big coastal city "we hate the meiguo gui zu that make us rich" kind of thing. hostile dependency is rampant in chinese culture, anyway.

the CB223? is that 5K USD or 5K RMB? seem to recall around 9500 RMB for a zhong zhen, or yang jing chinese bike. total honda rip-offs, take honda parts, etc. can get fixed on any street corner in henan. looking for minimalist bikes like this for precisely that reason.

would prolly be best to arrange it FTF when i get there...

[bigdamo]

"the crap you guys are getting may be just a big coastal city "we hate the meiguo gui zu that make us rich" kind of thing. hostile dependency is rampant in chinese culture, anyway."

Not in my experience .The attitude has changed out the far north west .

[lightend]

you wont need to get license plates if you plan to get rid of the bikes before 1 month from time of purchase (if i remember correctly, either that or I rode one of my new bikes illegally through 3 provinces. getting license plates in the country is a matter of a few mins waiting around then going back the next day once the insurance has been sorted (either that I we just missed the guy and had to come back the next day, I think it was the latter).

As for your bikes, I may be interested in buying them all from you (depending on the state of them), I would them ship them all up north and get them registered.
If they have plates already, then I wouldnt be interested (its very hard to drive any real distance on unknown roads and not get any speeding fines).
gtg daughters crying.

[lightend]

side note: if your friends are arriving in Beijing, they can get temp driving license there quite easily (or so im told) in the actual airport.

[Lao Jia Hou]

side note: if your friends are arriving in Beijing, they can get temp driving license there quite easily (or so im told) in the actual airport.

That is true, but the temp DL is only for small passenger cars, and only cars which are rented from approved rental agencies in Beijing (or, strangely, a car which is somehow owned by the temp DL holder). I also think the rental agency restricts the car to the Beijing area.

Sadly, one cannot get a temp motorcycle DL via this route.

Nevertheless, I have had several visiting friends acquire one of those temp DLs as a unique souvenir ... it is only 10 rmb (plus 10 rmb for the "medical", and 15 rmb for the pictures), if I remember correctly, and the whole process takes about 15 minutes. The Traffic Police office is on the lower level, where the express city buses stop.