Ride Report: China, "The Middle Kingdom Ride"

[Pfaelzer]

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for posting the picture of Leo. He didn't hesitate for a second, when I asked him to fly to Lhasa. Leo helps me and our company a lot in China since many years now. I think he deserves this trip and the little holiday, which he has connected to it with his wife. Wishing him lot's of fun up there.

Ryan, you are living a dream many of us have and you are sharing it with the motorcycle community. Being able to contribute with a little support makes us feel a bit closer to the real action.

Ride on and show us some more pictures... Shigatse, Tingri (check out Old Tingri) and from there to Everest Base Camp...Curious to know, if they let you ride the final few kilometers up above Rongphu Monastery with your bikes to the starting place of the mountain expeditions.

Cheers,
AW.

[chinabiker]

Ryan, you are living a dream many of us have and you are sharing it with the motorcycle community. Being able to contribute with a little support makes us feel a bit closer to the real action.

+1 to Pfaelzers post.
Your trip is really what many dream of - me included. You will meet difficulties on a trip like this which you are not prepared for - you can't be prepared for everything. In such a case you'll need some help which we were pleased to offer.

Ride on safely

[ryanjpyle]

DAY 45 - The MKRIDE team safely traveled from Lhasa to Shigatse. Today is our first day of riding with fully functional motorcycles in what seems like weeks, but it was only about 5 days. We headed west from Lhasa, in an attempt to back track to near where we broke-down, and also visit Mount Everest Base Camp. Highlights included lovely twisting switch backs to a high pass looking out over the most stunning glacial lake, who’s name escapes me for the moment. It is F*#king great to be riding again.

[ryanjpyle]

DAY 46 - The MKRIDE team safely traveled from Shigatse to a small farmhouse on the outskirts of Tingri. As we moved further south from Lhasa and then on to Shigatse the landscape began to change and the snow-capped Himalayan range began to appear. Most of the day was spent on the 318 high-way which actually starts in Shanghai and runs right through the country, through Tibet to the Nepal border. We stopped at a plaque that was a marker for the 5000km marker for the highway, meaning that it was a 5000km straight shot from rural Tibet to Shanghai. It was a bit exhausting in Shegar where we had a police checkpoint and a military checkpoint within about 5km of each other, the two checkpoints combined added over an hour to our journey that day. Exhausting bureaucracy.

[ryanjpyle]

DAY 47 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived at Mount Everest Base Camp (EBC). We had an intense 70km, seven hour, off-road riding experience to get to EBC. Washed out roads, steep drops and tones of gravel and sand. Needless to say it was a dream day of riding. Pulling in to EBC on our BMW F800GS bikes was a real moment of accomplishment for Colin and I. We have traveled so far and worked so hard to get here, it was really an amazing experience; a real sense of achievement. Once we arrived we parked our bikes and headed to the EBC plaque and prayer flags, which is about as far as tourists can go. The altitude there was 5200m, the view was breathtaking.

[ryanjpyle]

DAY 48 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived in Shigatse today. We woke up and had breakfast looking out at Mount Everest before starting the long journey back to Lhasa. The road out for EBC was amazing as we had to overcome about one straight hour of switch-backs in thick sand and gravel before making it back to the 318 highway that we’d take back to Lhasa.

[ryanjpyle]

DAY 49 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived in Lhasa today. Though we had some bad news. Throughout much of the journey we’ve been making applications and petitions to travel through Eastern Tibet to Yunnan province, as this would coincide with our plans to circumnavigate China. Sadly, after months of petitioning and making applications with our travel partners in Tibet we’ve been denied permission. This is a huge setback for the MKRIDE team, as no we have no real way to continue our journey. Traveling north through Qinghai province would add some 4,000km to our journey. Sneaking through the three military check points in Eastern Tibet at night is not an option as well, as we would be putting our guides and driver potentially in harms way. We don’t exactly know what we’ll do at the moment. We’ll need to have a team meeting and sort it our in the morning.

[ryanjpyle]

DAY 50 - The MKRIDE team decided late last night that trying to “sneak” through eastern Tibet would be too much a risk for our guides and driver, not to mention our filming ambitions. So this morning we loaded our bikes on another truck, which really broke my heart – bikes in perfect working order should never be put on a truck, and sent them off to Yunnan province. The truck will cover the 1,600km journey in four days. The MKRIDE team, all being foreigners and not allowed in Eastern Tibet because of “civil disturbances” will fly from Lhasa to Yunnan and collect the bikes and continue our journey to Shanghai. These last few days have been tough on the team, we’ve spent more days off the bikes than on, and we are itching to get moving again. This is just another example that traveling through China, and Tibet specifically is never as easy or as straightforward as it may seem.

[ryanjpyle]

DAY 51 - The MKRIDE team safely arrived today in Shangri-la (Zhongdian), Yunnan province. We flew from Lhasa to Shangri-la and it was the fastest 1,600km we’ve done so far on the trip, just under two hours. We’ll hang out and rest here and await the arrival of our motorcycles, which should arrive in the next 48 hours. Fingers crossed.

[ryanjpyle]

DAY 52 - The MKRIDE team is still waiting for our motorcycles. Not much going on in Shangri-la. We are keen to get back on the bikes and get moving. Covering the kilometers and really getting moving provides such a sense of accomplishment for the team. This entire sitting around is really not good. It’s hard to relax when your BMW bikes are on a truck somewhere in Eastern Tibet.