bringing foreign friends for 3 week cycle tour of china

[justashooter]

having lived in luoyang from 2004-2009, and ridden various bikes throughout henan province with an old pennsylvania car tag screwed to the back, i cannot say that i have always been within the letter of the law while riding in china, but hey, it's china, right?

this time i think i should go legit: i am looking to come back to china (qinhuangdao - 250Km east of beijing) on a job assignment this summer and into next year, and have been asked by a group of 5 experienced international riders to host a self tour, hitting the interesting points of "back country" china. they could fly into beijing, see the great wall and forbidden city, then bus/train to qinhuangdao to start the trip.

i wanted to buy local bikes in the typical honda copy 250 class in qhd, fit them out with back alley steel shop riding racks, ride the coast and across the peninsula south to shandong (qingdao), then train west to kaifeng, ride to luoyang and xian, then train south to chengdu, ride south to kunming in yunan, then train east to nanning, and ride south onto hainan island, then sell the bikes between there and hong kong, where we fly out.

i want to keep this under 21 days, need to get the riders (who all have M class liscenses) temporary permits, hoped to hire a translator/co-rider out of the motorcycle district in qinhuangdao, travel without a formal guide, burn some gas, and show the guys a good time, in all respects.

i will be working quality auditing in qhd at an SOE on an export bridge manufacturing project, so will have some good guanxie there, still have pull in luoyang, and could do this with a single translator, but am concerned with the permit issues, and a freewheeling itinerary. i have some friends in the travel and tourism industry, and could title the bikes to the seller's shop and allow him share in proceeds at end of trip, maybe riding or training back with 2 of the projected 7 bikes.

looked thru this forum about training bikes in cargo and found mixed answers, but this is prolly guanxie related. thinking that this is doable with enuf hershey's chocolate bars, american smokes, real zippo lighters (only one way to know the chinese fakes from the pennsylvania originals) and sambuca. your thoughts requested in the hope that china is still the freewheeling wild west i knew it as a few years ago.

specifically, what is the cycle street price on a 250 honda copy in china now? last luoyang price i recall was around 9500 RMB? where to best get temporary permits and how long in process?