Quote Originally Posted by Maxo View Post
...Any advice on how to avoid coal trucking in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia? Which roads are an absolute gridlock?
Dear Maxo,

Great first post and welcome to the forum!

As for how to avoid those immense traffic jams, the answer is probably "ride a dual sport with decent off-road tires, and make your escape to any alternative road that works". That region has been dealing with that problem of too many trucks on too little road for more than a decade. I got caught in such a jam back in 2001 in a VW Jetta, and only managed to get out by taking that passenger car off road for probably 20 km. You'll notice that in many of the worst stretches there are usable dirt tracks running crazily alongside the main tarmac, and these were indeed created by exasperated drivers.

Better yet, of course, is to avoid these main intercity highways. An excellent reference for this trip surely will be MCM poster Pat, whose Beijing-to-Kunming ride report you've surely seen by now. He managed to get through, or around, the Shanxi/Shaanxi coal region without getting ensnared.

I do hope you find a good riding companion, especially one who is adept with a camera, so you can post brilliant daily updates and awesome pet trick pictures featuring Foniyo.

The 1150GS should be a great companion too, especially if you are experienced riding such big artillery in China. Would love to hear a bit of your history in China and that of the bike too.

How is it that you've only joined MCM now?

cheers!