Hey Gang,

My name is Carl Parker (CrazyCarl) and I've been living, riding and working in Sichuan, China (east of Tibet) for almost five years now. Over the past few years it became clear to me that if China would relax it's laws a bit, the country would become THE next moto-touring destination. Everything from the world's highest mountains to some of deepest depressions as well as ancient cultures and cities abound and promise a wild time. Every week, more and more people become interested in riding China either on their own bike or one purchased inside the country. At the end, I'll offer a few comments of the pro's and con's of these two methods for the rider's who are on the fence about visiting China.

I thought I'd share a short four day trip report of a two-up ride with my wife into the Tibetan mountains of Sichuan on a Chinese made Jialing JH150GY-2 dual-sport. Living here, I've had the chance to see much of Western China independently and often solo giving me a great opportunity to push these machines and myself to our utmost limits. I do not over-exaggerate when I say this place is the modern Wild-West.

In China there are, or were, two major one week holidays being the first weeks of May and October. In May 2006 My wife, WenLing, and I went for a ride with my friend Zack and his SO. At that point we had been trying for about two years to find an unobstructed view of Gonga Shan (Mountain)...one of the many holy mountains in Tibetan lore. What makes Gonga so spectacular is not it's height, which ranks in the world's top 30 peaks depending on how you classify them, but it in it's chain also support dozens of micro-climates, rare species of wildlife and a now receding glacier, at the bottom of which is a monastery.

-- The Route : Chengdu - Yaan - Kangding - Liuba - GongaShan - Xinduqiao - Danba - Balang Pass - Chengdu --


Day one, we follow Hwy 317 west through Ya'an until we reach Kangding, once capital of the Kham Kingdom of Tibet. Highways 317 and 318 are two E-W parallel roads leading into Eastern Tibet from Sichuan. Both are quite good close to the city but as you reach the border of Tibet, the road conditions become tolerable but tough.

Within a few hours of leaving the cloudy and polluted Sichuan basin you enter a land of roads that follow rivers and high mountain passes with scattered occasional grasslands. It's almost surprising how quickly the landscape become Alpine in nature sporting many dramatic vistas and some roadside cooling off entertainment.

- Waterfall on the way to Kangding -



Unfortunately, the whole way to Kangding is full of heavy truck and bus traffic. These overloaded beasts of the road regularly end up in rivers, mechanically desintegrate on inclines and constantly belch thick black clouds of smoke. This was the first time our ladies had joined us both and travel like this understandably takes some getting used to so we thought to make the first day short and stop in town for some rest, eats and an after-dinner walk around town.

-The now tourism developed Kangding at night-


Burried in the mountain at the confluence of two rivers, Kangding itself was once the capitol city of the Tibetan Kham Kingdom until getting annexed into the Sichuan province not too long ago. It's history goes back several hundred years and traces of it's history can still be found.

-Our ladies inside the old Buddhist temple at Kangding-


Although I'm sure the temple was still used for ceremony, it was positioned so far in the centre of town, now preparing for the onslought of May holiday tourists, that it seemed a little more like a tourist hang out. I often think it would have been nice to come here even only 100years ago. Times are changing fast!

Eager to set off the next morning we twisted deeper into the mountains and I noticed a funny found coming from the engine. I'm pretty anal about sounds and stopped to see what was wrong.

-Hmmmm....-


Everything seemed okay. I'm always a little weary of most Chinese bikes because sometimes they develop what I call "Mystery Problems". I and a few others have experienced problems with our bikes that, for some reason, no matter how much money and time you throw at it, the problem could not be fixed or made to go away. Doesn't make any sense.



Funny noises aside, we were blessed with beautiful weather. Deep blue skies spotted with puffy mountains clinging to snow capped mountains and an amazing road which led us up to this 4300m pass between Kangding and XinDuQiao.

Some of the photos in this post were taken by my wife and marked as (WLP)


- This is the view from the overlook. Roads like this fill my dreams-


All sorts of people and things gather at the top of passes and this pass was no different. In Tibet, as most of you already know, chortens (the huge white spires) and prayer flags are placed to bring your wishes and prayers closer to the heavens. Works for me! I got all kinds of wishes that could use a boost!

- The Pass Party- (WLP)


We chanced upon a group of Chinese touring riders - visible in the foreground - taking a moment to appreciate the scenery at the top. What they call regular touring WE call "adventure" touring. Minimal clothes and camping gear as well as food and tools.

- Motorcyclists of the world - ;) (WLP)


Most of them bring their wife or girlfriend and pack amazingly little. The roads are often nasty and the weather something to endure. Although now slowly seeing more 200+cc bikes on the road, a vast majority of them are still 125-150cc cruiser type motorcycles or scooters. When surrounded by people like this it didn't take me too long to realize I don't need a liter class bike to travel. I just need something that goes!

- Cheese! - (WLP)


Always sad to part way with good people, since we were heading in opposite directions we exchanged road info and wished each other well.