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  1. #21 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
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  2. #22 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
    Moto Scholar moilami's Avatar
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    Thank you of the pics and report, very good writing. Wish you had a better first trip, now it was the worst I know as first trip, but do you know what? You got experience, and hopefully touring fly bit you, next time you know more how to make your journey :)
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  3. #23 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
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    Quote Originally Posted by moilami View Post
    Thank you of the pics and report, very good writing. Wish you had a better first trip, now it was the worst I know as first trip, but do you know what? You got experience, and hopefully touring fly bit you, next time you know more how to make your journey :)
    Thanks man.. hope people can suffer several more posts. Haha. Got more. I'll also chuck them up on a website as a blog. I need to edit the go-pro footage and put a video together. This is not the most adventurous trip by far or even filled with natural beauty, but testing and adventurous for someone of my level. Future trips should include riding partners. Would make it way better as an experience- I rode with a Chinese guy for about an hour on the third day out of Beijing and it was totally different. I imagined having a buddy up ahead or following quite a bit- chatting on the blue tooth- sob. haha

    I am planning on taking the bike on other trips. Need to improve my offroad skills..
    Again, another call for off-road trip idea- Qinghai? Guizhou....Will follow Bikerdoc's idea for Zhejiang and around Ningbo particularly.

    Want to do ChinaV- esque trips:)))
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  4. #24 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
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    Day4

    Short day here, but , none the less, eventful. Rode to Qingdao and made for the nature park peninsula east of the city to check it out before going to the city itself. As it turned out, this day had a lot of go-pro cock ups. I filmed the epic mountains rising from the right of the road, with the sea on the left, only to find that I hadn't filmed it.. The mode was wrong. Went to the entrance of Mount Laoshan and decided it was a tourist swarm, didn't fancy trekking in my motorcycle boots anyway. Then stood on the beach and watched people in there tents having a day out. Has a great snack of friend fish and a baked sort of sweet potato, afforded me a rest in the sunshine, then got back on the road , filmed the mountain and made my way to the city proper. I found myself wing up a really pretty mountain road, glad that I was filming it ( this also didn't come out). On the way down, it stated to rain. My aversion to riding in the rain came back in full effect I thought I was filming and thought all the way down the slick, winding road that the viewers of my video would chastise me for riding at such a slow pace (no danger of that, as it happens, because –again-I'd selected the wrong mode on the go-pro and this part of the journey will remain only in my head)

    It's then that something divine happened. I saw a father and son on a small motorbike and pitied them riding in this rain but also felt well, they are sharing something.. as I went past, the father steered the bike to the edge of the road, pointing out to the left, showing his son the construction of a new flyover highway. A little moment.
    It's right after this that the heavens truly opened. This reminded me of the first day of riding in the driving rain, except now I was going uphill. I experienced a very strange sensation as the water was running down the hill towards me, still beaten by the raindrops, that I was actually not moving. I had to check the lines moving next to me to prove that I actually was indeed moving. The rain became far to heavy and I felt it was unsafe, so pulled off the road, under the new fly over which was being built and pushed the bike up the hill to wait it out. Two construction workers were sat on the ground, chatting and smoking. I thought to myself, amazing, the timing of this downpour… a few minutes earlier and I'd have been on the narrow twisty mountain road and scared witless in this rain. I entertained the thought that I'm connected with all of this, then I let the thought go. After a couple of minutes, a lady on a small displacement bike also came from the rain pelted road into the shelter of the overpass and took a seat off her little bike, sitting with the construction workers. I chatted with her a bit too. After about twenty minutes, the rain eased and I went on to Qingdao.

    I arrived and found my way to a marina with a lot of yachts and had a Starbucks in a kind of befuddled mood. Around me, commercialism was still ticking along, with young girls shopping in groups, makeup on, taking selfies. I felt at this point quite removed from city life having been alone on the road for the past four days. The trip, as I said before, was taking a physical toll.. sapping energy as it required concentration for hours on end. The first two slow days of the trip had left an indelible mark on me and I had , at that point, comforted myself with the thought that "never mind, I'll just get to Qingdao, relax and "get the bike delivered back to Shanghai".

    This thought kind of faded as I sat there tired and removed from this cosmopolitan scene. I thought "I'll get up early tomorrow and leave Qingdao". The thing is, as usual I didn't have a hotel. I actually asked several people, even ( comically) a guy that was trying to beg some money from me, where I could find a youth hostel. The first foreigners I asked were two Russian guys who said they'd lead me to a hotel near their office. They were parked in the same underground parking lot as me and said they'd wait outside the entrance. I went down, collected the bike and, coming up the ramp, saw a silver car with the Russian guys in. They led me through the rush hour traffic to the inner city. The hotel was awesome, and I was even allowed to ride the bike right in to the foyer to park- always gives me peace of mind knowing the bike is really safe.

    BTW, I'll go back to Qingdao, as it seemed nice and relaxed with cool bars and leafy avenues.
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  5. #25 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
    Moto Scholar moilami's Avatar
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    Thank you of the report again. I think various MC clubs tend to ride in packs, maybe look for one?

    It can take a few days before your mind and body gets used to newly acquired freedom Also it helps when you get more experience in riding so that your body and mind will be much more relaxed.

    Very glad to hear you are not giving up but getting hang on things. You have experienced the worst things, the best are left to be experienced.
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  6. #26 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
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    Great post. I find that riding alone is an incredible meditation. Be safe.
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  7. #27 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
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    Pictures day 4

    The first pic is the rain coming down- afterwards, it became torrential and I pushed the bike up under the flyover.

    Upon going down to the car park in the morning, I found the hotel staff in Jiaozhou had wrapped my bike up like a present

    The mountain is Laoshan- on the peninsula East of Qingdao.

    image3.jpgimage1.jpgimage2.jpg
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  8. #28 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
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    Day5
    Left the hotel at about ten thirty- a really late start for me. headed towards the tunnel that connects the peninsula with the southern part of Shandong. Asked directions and found that the tunnel didn't allow motorbikes, so elected for the passenger ferry, not before a zip up the seafront to record the building, again nice leafy avenues and colonial buildings but strong heat from the sun.
    The ferry was something like 35 yuan and after getting off. There was a lovely quiet nature reserve including mountains at 大株山 (DaZhuShan- big pearl mountain)- very few people. Along this road, there was the smell of the sea. After this, I just headed south with a quick stop for a dumpling lunch.
    When darkness came, I was filling up with a petrol and, as I'd decided to camp out that night, I looked for a natural spot to sleep.. I crossed a bridge and saw that the river had plenty of greenery and trees on the banks, so I took the path up the side of the river, past a small house and an orchard and then the path became single track and went through thick grass. The bike kinda konked out and I took this as the place to stop. I laid my ground sheet down and put the sleeping bag on top. Had a beer and boazi that I'd bought earlier and tried to get some sleep. Got about four hours sleep and was up at day break. The ground sheet and sleeping bag were both pretty damp and miraculously I had no mozzy bites, although the place was swarming with them.

    image8.jpgimage7.jpg image9.jpgimage10.jpg
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  9. #29 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
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    I've got a video up on youtube of this trip- Beijing- Qingdao- Shanghai

    Let me know what you guys think, good and bad.

    https://youtu.be/CQp5CvLNjg4
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  10. #30 Re: Beijing- Qinghai- Shanghai late June 2017 
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    I'm also adding the rest of this blog to my website...

    you can find it here. www.mychinablog.com

    (no sideways pictures, I promise)
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