Hi Everyone, I've been lurking on MCM for about two years now. I moved to China about three months ago. (Yantai, Shandong) I'm in the process of getting my license and intend to be 100% legal. As far as experience goes, I've been riding for around 10 years, 1 of those years in Korea. According to some, this puts me within the minimum amount of required riding experience to handle Chinese driving. And God, is it scary. Anyway, Getting my license is taking some time and I don't have the money saved up yet. It should be here in the spring. But, I've been shopping around and am wondering what people think of some of my choices so far.

What I am looking for:
-a 250 CC dual purpose. 250 is important as I want to go into the Golden triangle and getting a 250+ bike into Laos gets tricky.
-a wide backseat. My wife is going to be riding with me and she is far from an iron-ass. So the seat must be more than just a cloth wedge... you know what I'm sayin?
-able to offroad and able to do long distances. I plan on doing both.
-a large enough clearance between the front fender and the tire that mud doesn't get stuck in between.

I realize that short fender clearances tend to mean wedge-pillion seats. Maybe there is such a thing as a compromise? Maybe TIC and I should pick one or the other.

Beyond that, any general pointers regarding quality or things to avoid would be appreciated.

I've found a few bikes that catch my eye.
The Jialing 250GY looks good.
Zongshens RX3 looks super cool, but perhaps a poor track record?
I'm also a fan of shinerays options.

Does anyone have any recommendations? And thoughts? Experiences?