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  1. #1 Guangdong, the nooks and crannies 
    Life Is Good! ChinaV's Avatar
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    nooks and crannies - something remote - every part of a place

    I wouldn't put Guangdong as a destination of choice for epic motorcycle rides in China, but it's home, and over the last six years I've found some special places worth sharing. I'm not really good about posting ride reports, but I promised a few people that 2009 would be better, so here goes.

    We all dream of fantastic adventures through restricted provinces, but the reality of life is that most of us living here do our riding on weekends, two or three days at a time. It can be exciting and frustrating. On one hand, you end up covering a lot of the same roads over and over, on the other, you become willing to try anything that looks like a cow trail on google earth.

    Chinese new year makes for good riding. Half the population has gone home, container trucks and work crews no longer clog the roads. Weather is mild with temps between 10º-25ºC, no rain for three months, so it's a great time to hit mountain roads that get wiped during the heavy rains of the monsoon season.

    The first area that I wanted to hit was the Xinfeng reservoir (WanLu lake / Evergreen lake / give it another name next year lake), 150 kilometers north-east of home (Dongguan). One of the four largest reservoirs in China, the lake (whatever it's called) holds about 13.9 billion cubic meters of water. An immaculate road borders the south and west sides. I spent four years trying to find it, but like so many other good roads, it was built from the inside out. The south and north entrances are very difficult to access, so nobody goes there . The road is so good, I made two trips just so I could ride it from each direction . Here are the two rides.

    Starting down south in Dongguan, I headed for Y880 between Xichang and Heyuan each day.



    A closer view of the good stuff.



    I took the usual route out of town and won't bore you with the details. The first day I headed to Matou so I could enter from the north. I picked a little smudge that looked like a road on google earth and found X220. Not such a great road



    Hope they don't catch me on those speed cameras



    OK, so much for X220, blast up past Matou and grab X192 and X311. Nice roads with very little traffic as I cross the mountains that feed the reservoir.







    I finally hit Y880 and it's awesome, smooth, clean, new, empty....MINE Stop, take picture...yeah, whatever, I can't believe this goes on for eighty kilometers





    After two hours and a bunch of side excursions, I had only reached the half way point at Xinhuilong. Heading home was the safe bet, the second half of Y880 would have to wait until next time. I continued south on a crappy section of road that led to an even crappier section of road. Behold X224, twenty kilometers of kidney crunching misery, almost one hour wasted.



    Back to some familiar roads, but it looks like I'm still going to enjoy a little night riding as I push to get home. Finally arrive at about 8:00 pm, two hours past beer o'clock, what a day. Here's more data than anyone wants know....

    Day 1: 22-January-2009
    Start Time: 9:32 AM End Time: 7:53 PM
    Total Time: 10 Hours 21 Minutes
    Moving Time: 9 Hours 46 Minutes
    Distance: 526 Kilometers / 327 Miles
    Average Speed: 51 kph / 32 mph
    Average Moving Speed: 62 kph / 38 mph
    Maximum Speed: Really really fast
    Maximum Elevation: 469 Meters / 1539 Feet
    Fuel Unit Cost (93 octane): 5.42 RMB Per Liter / 3.00 USD Per Gallon
    Fuel Total Cost: 150 RMB / 21.96 USD
    Fuel Consumption: 19 Kilometers Per Liter / 44.69 Miles Per Gallon

    If you want to download a kmz file of day one for Google Earth, please click here.

    Thanks for coming along, tomorrow I will post the second half of the Xinfeng reservoir rides.

    Cheers!
    ChinaV
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  2. #2  
    Motorcycle Addict chinabiker's Avatar
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    Thanks for the pics and the vid. How do you deal with the soundtrack btw?

    Quote Originally Posted by ChinaV View Post
    ... On one hand, you end up covering a lot of the same roads over and over, on the other, you become willing to try anything that looks like a cow trail on google earth. ...
    Nicely said and very true - we should try to change that once a year for 2 - 3 weeks

    As it seems, you have some good stuff down there too
    I like the X224 and Y880

    Andy
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  3. #3  
    Administrator-tron CrazyCarl's Avatar
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    Well written with good photos, video and masterful map work!

    All that's missing is food!

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  4. #4  
    Motorcycle Addict chinabiker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CrazyCarl View Post
    ... All that's missing is food! CC
    Quote Originally Posted by ChinaV View Post
    Total Time: 10 Hours 21 Minutes
    Moving Time: 9 Hours 46 Minutes
    He had only 35 minutes

    Andy
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  5. #5  
    Senior C-Moto Guru ZMC888's Avatar
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    Great report!

    Nice videos, we have loads of twisty mountain roads like that in this area too (makes you happy you bought a small capacity bike, not much in the way of any choice though ) except they don't put tar in the cracks of concrete roads. Looks like it could get a bit slippy in the wet or very hot weather.
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  6. #6  
    Life Is Good! ChinaV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chinabiker View Post
    Thanks for the pics and the vid. How do you deal with the soundtrack btw?
    I was trying to avoid video editing, it takes such a long time to make a good video with music and voice over like Carl and Sabine do. I just open the clip in Quicktime and extract the video track to a new file without audio. I finally started working with Final Cut again, so the upcoming videos in my next installment will be a little better.

    Quote Originally Posted by ZMC888 View Post
    except they don't put tar in the cracks of concrete roads. Looks like it could get a bit slippy in the wet or very hot weather.
    I think they call those "tar snakes". Very unpredictable when it gets wet. I think they do it to some of the older roads to keep the water from eroding between the sections of concrete, Sure wish there was more "blacktop", the concrete really chows through tires.

    Quote Originally Posted by CrazyCarl View Post
    All that's missing is food!
    Power Lunch!



    Cheers!
    ChinaV
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  7. #7  
    Life Is Good! ChinaV's Avatar
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    moving along, ride number two...

    The weather changed and I had to wait a few days until heading out again. This time I decided to blast straight to Heyuan on the main roads so I could enjoy more time riding around the lake. The chill and haze of the early morning were replaced with beautiful sunshine and a high of 24ºC. Not bad for riding in January.



    I rolled along the lakeside for about and hour and stopped where some locals had set up a net for fishing.



    The road wanders back into the mountains through a few small villages. The rivers are practically dry after three months without rain.



    I reached the end of Y880 at the northern tip of the reservoir, 84 kilometers of perfect road with almost no other traffic the entire two and half hours. This is a very special ride indeed, still working on the video editing skills.



    I looked at my options for heading back home. There was one of those cow trails on google earth, but I couldn't see where the entrance could possibly be. After circling a few times, I finally found this little road going up the side of a mountain. Wonder if it comes out anywhere or if it's just a dead end? Only one way to find out.



    This road is very narrow and very unforgiving if you happen to misjudge a corner.



    I reached the summit and could see a small village bellow.



    About one kilometer outside the village, it looked like the road was going to end but I decided to keep going.



    According to google earth, I was about half way to connecting with a known road. I figured it would be about ten kilometers of dirt and gravel which was very enjoyable given the scenery.





    Eventually met up with X192 and was quite happy with how everything had worked out. I knew this road was crap, but it seems like such a small price to pay for the last three hours of nirvana.



    Final stop of the day and time to make tracks for home.



    The rest of the ride was uneventful, I arrived home just after six, only twenty minutes late for beer o'clock . And once again, more data than anyone wants know....

    Day 2: 31-January-2009
    Start Time: 8:41 AM End Time: 6:21 PM
    Total: 9 Hours 39 Minutes - Moving: 7 Hours 36 Minutes - Stopped: 2 Hours 2 Minutes
    Distance: 493 Kilometers / 306 Miles
    Average Speed: 51 kph / 32 mph
    Average Moving Speed: 65 kph / 40 mph
    Maximum Speed: Really really fast
    Maximum Elevation: 512 Meters / 1679 Feet
    Fuel Unit Cost: 5.42 RMB Per Liter / 3.00 USD Per Gallon
    Fuel Total Cost: 129 RMB / 18.82 USD
    Fuel Consumption: 20.77 Kilometers Per Liter / 48.86 Miles Per Gallon

    So that's the end of the first section, hope you enjoyed the Xinfeng reservoir. Coming up.... heading northwest to discover the "Grand Canyon" of Guangdong and the tallest mountain in the province.

    Cheers!
    ChinaV
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  8. #8  
    C-Moto Not-so-Noob
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    Great trip... I want to go somewhere further away from home but had no guts until I learn the bike and gather some ridding experience. I'm still novice. Thanks for getting me trough winter time, all those trip reports from all you guys are so fun to read. Lol last month i dared to ride on a bike just few times, and only when it was warm and dry enough... Just can't wait summer and spare time will happen to meet together :) Keep more reports coming.
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  9. #9  
    Motorcycle Addict chinabiker's Avatar
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    Thanks for the pics, ChinaV. Good to know that there are some good placs to ride down South. I have to change my profile for the headhunters and add one more city as "acceptable" job location

    Quote Originally Posted by ChinaV View Post
    There was one of those cow trails on google earth, but I couldn't see where the entrance could possibly be. After circling a few times, I finally found this little road going up the side of a mountain. Wonder if it comes out anywhere or if it's just a dead end? Only one way to find out.

    I love this kind of roads and the fact that you have to ride them to find out where they go.

    Thanks Google for Earth

    Andy

    P.S. Any nice camping spots in this area?
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  10. #10  
    Life Is Good! ChinaV's Avatar
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    Another week of plotting and planning, I was ready for an overnight trip. A one day ride will only get you so far and most of the "good stuff" in Guangdong lies way up in the North. I picked the Ruyuan Yao Nationality Autonomous County as a destination, this area is to the west of Shaoguan and boasts all kinds of interesting scenery and tourist attractions.

    A map of the entire ride:



    I headed out in the early morning through thick fog and traffic, after eighty kilometers, things loosen up and the roads start to get fun. This is X404 outside of Timian in the early morning mist.



    I picked up S114 North out of QingYuan and stopped for a little break. The road was not in particularly good shape and I gazed across the river at the beautiful expressway with envy.



    As I stood there watching the cars zip by, I noticed a motorcycle . How did he get on there? Wait, another one! Could this be a motorcycle friendly expressway, in China? I turned around , headed for the entrance, and was surprised to find no toll booth. Just a big sign that said QingLian Expressway / Toll Road. Sweet This is gonna be fun. 144 Kilometers of pure joy from Qingyuan to Yanshan with a couple of toll booths along the way that were all smiles. I won't go into the details about what kind of speeds were involved, but it's the only time I wanted to swap my V-Strom for a Hayabusa.



    After making great time on the expressway, I decided I could take a less direct route to Ruyuan and enjoyed some nice mountain roads.



    Occasionally going through little pockets of industry, here is where they make iPods



    I connected with S258 North to head towards the Grand Canyon of Guangdong in Dabu. The road was fantastic with a few bad spots to keep it interesting. Remember, it hasn't rained in three months, can't imagine this mess during the rainy season.



    Starting to see sections of the canyon, unfortunately it's a bit hazy so the pictures don't really do it justice.



    Interesting foliage for February.



    Arriving at the tourist trap for the canyon, I decided to take a little single track into the woods instead of following the heard. This is the mouth of the canyon, and that big wire you see......



    Meet "The Dude". I don't know how much he gets paid to ride across that wire, but it's not enough. Respect.



    Pre flight check before heading out. It's about 300 meters from the wire to the ground. The opposing wall has 1386 steps and the people you see are about half way down.



    Always bring a friend when you're riding the high wire.



    Looking down into the canyon.



    Just another day at the office.



    Goodbye to the canyon, great show high wire dudes.



    Late afternoon cruising S258. In the background is Tian Jing Shan (Tian Jing mountain), home of the Shen Ren Chao (fairy bridge).



    A closer look with the zoom at 200mm.



    I was getting close to my destination for the day and decided on a little detour. According to many local maps, there is a road bordering the west side of Nanshui lake. I have made several attempts to find this road over the last six years without success and it looks like my luck is no better today. I stopped at this little hydro station and asked about the road, one of the locals said it does exist but won't be accessible for another year. He had been working at this hydro station for years and was surprised that I even knew about the road. I told him I would be back next year to check and he just smiled.



    With the sun starting to go down, it's was time to hit Ruyuan and find a home for the night. Last shot of the day.... another great ride.



    Arrive at the hotel 10 minutes early for beer o'clock And once again, more data than anyone wants know....

    Day 3: 7-February-2009
    Start Time: 8:10 AM End Time: 5:48 PM
    Total Time: 9 Hours 46 Minutes Moving: 6 Hours 50 Minutes Stopped: 2 Hours 55 Minutes
    Distance: 464 Kilometers / 288 Miles
    Average Speed: 47 kph / 29 mph
    Average Moving Speed: 68 kph / 42 mph
    Maximum Speed: Very very fast
    Maximum Elevation: 752 Meters / 2467 Feet

    Thanks for coming along, tune in later for some more.

    Cheers!
    ChinaV
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