I titled this thread "Slabbing to Moganshan (and back)" and perhaps created some confusion with the verb "to slab". It's used in freeway-mad California to describe boring riding on high-speed freeways in the interest of saving time, and it certainly applied to our ride to Moganshan.

So how did we manage to get on the forbidden expressways, known as 高速公路 or gaosu gonglu? Well, let's call this a work in progress. We know that China's national traffic law does not forbid motorcycles from expressways, and around Beijing access is pretty easy and the tolls keep away small bikes. In most other places, onramps are posted with "no motorcycles" signs (picture of a motorbike in a red circle with a lateral red slash through the center). We simply roll up to the toll gate and ask for a ticket. This is generally declined with comments that include: "it's not safe" and "it's not allowed" and "we don't have a class of ticket for motorcycles". I reply, "it's way safer than on the surface roads, and we'll look out for our own safety" and "please show me the law that forbids us entering" and "please give me the class of ticket used for cars; we're happy to pay" and, as the toll taker fumbles with the phone to escalate these ideas to his or her superior, I reply, "Everything will be OK," and we do something that's perhaps best left to the imagination.

What's interesting is that when we reach the next toll gate, we get looks of surprise, but no blowback at all. Typically we just get waved through -- no muss or fuss with tickets and payment. On the ride back into Shanghai, we even passed through a major Shanghai Expo security check manned not only by traffic police but also by People's Armed Police. I saluted them as we slowly rolled through, and all was well. We've done this both with the police vests and without. At one rest stop where we were briefly hassled by a plainclothes security guard with too much time on his hands, he did ask about the police vests. We just said they were given to us by a Shanghai police officer who urged us to wear them for the sake of visibility and safety, especially on the expressways. He replied, "We don't actually know very much about expressway regulations."

I made sure to include some expressway pix as we left the mountains behind and blasted back toward Shanghai, though we didn't get any shots of the tollgate encounters. Again, do note the dramatic change of color from green to blue.



So what's that out on the horizon, beyond the G15 expressway sign? It was the first of several emblems of China's new infrastructure -- architecturally stunning bridges that hold up these beautiful new expressways. We saw angular forms like this, and bold curves as well. Some bridges combined both.







Look up! Wheeee!













The bridge is called the Minpu Daqiao, crossing the Huangpu River that slices Shanghai into halves. It links Shanghai's Minhang and Huangpu districts, hence the "Min" and "Pu" in the name. Daqiao simply means big bridge.

The first tower in cloud shadow, the second bathed in brilliant sunshine!





And a final look aiming the camera back over my shoulder. Yes MotoKai's still there!