CIMA 2013 Chongqing

[flyingtiger]

Against my better judgement I had decided to ask my wife to join me at CIMA. We hadn't been anywhere in a year together and I thought it might be good to get away for a few days. Even so, bringing my wife to a motorcycle show was risky business. After all, as anyone knows, no one in China likes motorcycles. No one in China rides motorcycles. Motorcycles are very dangerous (but flying helicopters in Afghanistan is not). You will never be able to sell a motorcycle in China. And last but not least I have no resident visa and therefore no license.

Usually I can book a flight around the world in :30 on Expedia but when she gets involved she takes over and the flight booking process lasted 8 hours and included the guy upstairs. I had the hotels all scoped out, had read the reviews on booking.com and checked locations. I had the best deals until she sat down and pulled out a discount hotel card. As it turned out when we got to the hotel the window view was no good and we needed to change hotels the next day.

Now what do you think the chances are of having two international trade exhibition centers in the same town? Apparently in a city of 10,000,000, they are pretty good. Our hotel was a :15 walk to the centre but when we showed up all we saw was housing signs. There was a home show on. 1:30 later on the subways we show up outside the city at the correct place.

Chongqing has 4 modern subways and they are jammed full of people all day long. We met two guys on their way to the show and stuck with them all the way. Upon reaching the show we got in free for pre-registering but the other two had to pay. Inside, the noise was crazy. Every booth had a stereo turned up to max trying to outdo the booth next to them. This was the worst thing about the show. I blame the organizers for allowing it. I had come to ask a lot of technical questions but it was impossible. It would be like asking technical questions at a rock concert.

Another strange thing was that Shineray was not in appearance. They are from that town and they don't appear at the show? I am convinced that the company doesn't exist. I have never seen a Shineray motorcycle. I don't know anyone who has ever seen a Shineray motorcycle. They have never answered any email I ever sent them. I think the pictures we have seen on the Internet are either cardboard cut-outs or life size silicon models. Its likely a stock market scam to drive the prices up and then sell before people find out they don't exist.

The most interesting bike I saw was the Zongshen RX3 250 adventure bike. As it turned my wife even entered me in an obstacle course race outside, which I was told I couldn't win because they didn't have safety gear big enough for me. The winner took home a new motorcycle. It was a chance to ride the bike anyway. Seemed like a good bike for tall riders like me. I knew there would be a good reason to bring her.

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