Cast my mind back 20 years when I bought a sidecar unit and started driving.. Didn't last long here.. Had no license and no insurance.. Lucky the unit is a heap of crap and is difficult to get going fast. Anyway.. The cops took if off me and I had to get a driving license..I just got a stern warning and a question from Jonny Law.. "Why do you not respect me or my country enough to get a license and insurance?".. I drove round with a map and fingers that pointed to places on the map.. Most of the locals had never seen a map.. Frankly it was a lot of effort and not being able to read or write then made it a fairly pointless exercise. But I was pretty much the first "IDIOT."
Nowadays if you ride without a license and thus insurance you can go to prison for 6 months. The police like to make "examples"... and then you will be deported with never a chance of returning. If bad things happen and say, you take out a jaywalker it is your ass on the line.. You will be looking at minimum 6 years to a bullet in the brain and a crap load of money in compensation to the family.
Then you think you're a good biker.. Yeah.. You have NO IDEA how the people here can be so creative in their endeavours in removing your ass from your saddle.. To say nothing of the roads. And then there is the weather.. Cooking or Ice cubes....
20 years ago there were no cars and just as few roads.. It was actually safer then. Now any man and his dog can get a driving license. Once they have passed the test they simply forget anything they have learnt and just go for it as the Police will sort out guilt and the insurance will pay.. Responsibility for actions goes no further. Not much good if your brain is under their front tyre.
So what is the attraction in driving here? I like getting to a remote spot, dismounting and having a chin wag with the locals.. They are nice and kind in their own special way... But you don't speak chinese.. You're just going to look at strangers who will remain strangers and the only thing you can do is smile..
I don't know.. I think doing Nth America would be more buzzy.. Good scenery and they all speak english or spanish.. It's about riding .. It's about riding.. if not.. do the paperwork and have a confusing and dangerous experience..

Quote Originally Posted by bikerdoc View Post
Overlanding China: Self-Drive without a Guide Possible without a Guide.

After our unforgettable and blissfully unguided self-drive traverse of China (and countless requests for more details from fellow travellers) it is now time to finally introduce you to the man who made it all possible. A man willing to go to much effort in order to help fellow adventurers.
Meet Ricard Tomas Herrero. A Spanish businessman who has been living and working in and out of China for over 20 years.

China Tierra de Aventura (F@cebook link) is his baby, sort to speak (sic), his pet project. It is not hugely known nor is it widely publicized, which is why it took me over a year to discover it even existed. It seemed that this tour company was very much an insider’s secret…one we were elated to uncover!

While Ricard has been running phenomenal motorbike trips from Madrid to Beijing every year for over a decade, this is the first time he has organised a fully independent crossing of China for overland bikers. And he’s willing to do more!
Ricard has a fantastic team of fixers spread out all over China, people ready to help and support you through the logistical issues you are bound to come across as you ride through the country. They are all just a phone call away but otherwise, you are free to ride as you wish, within certain boundaries of course. Tibet, for example, still requires a guide to be with you 24 hours a day.

Want to be among the first to ride through China on your own? Here’s your chance!

It’s important to note, however, that it still ain’t gonna be a walk in the park. It will take lots of preparation time, a substantial amount of money (still only a mere fraction of a guided tour) and much resourcefulness on the part of whoever tackles it. Support may be there, but never right next to you to translate, negotiate, argue and organize. You must still be able to tackle all that on your own. We were joined by Michael Stumman Nielsen (a motorbiking friend of ours from Denmark) and three proved to be an ideal number. As with all overlanding travel destinations, China can be quite intense, so it’s ideal to have two co-travellers to share the load and stress!

Not for the novice overlander I’d say, but if you have a few experiences up your sleeve, and don’t mind a wee challenge, then a fully independent China crossing promises to deliver a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

What’s included?
Ricard will organize all the documentation you will need. This will take a minimum of 3 months to organize. Your entry must still be guided by a local agent, who will escort you up to the first major city, where you will get a Chinese driver’s licence and vehicle number plate. You will be sent on your merry lonesome way, soon thereafter. You can have your hand held, figuratively speaking, as much or as little as you wish, depending on how confident you feel. As an example: we had ‘fixers’ escort us through the first two major cities and after that, once we realized that with a GPS and some pre-planning we could go it alone, and requested no more escorts. It worked a treat.

We may have been the very first foreign overlanders to have crossed through China legally, and independently, with our own foreign-registered vehicle. We appreciate how special this experience is and how it has the potential of revolutionizing the well-trodden overlanding route from Europe to South East Asia. No more shipments from India or Russia and no more cargo flights from Kathmandu to Bangkok. Not only is this option now a reality, but it is within the reach or even the most budget-conscious traveller.

As a token of our appreciation towards Ricard and his team, all we want to do now, is to pay it forward to fellow travellers.
Should you have any questions, before contacting Ricard for a quote, do not hesitate to contact me either though this site’s contact page or my Globetrotter Guidebook’s FB page. If you prefer to write in German, please contact Chris on Hinter Dem Horizont Links (sic).
We will be more than happy to guide you through the preparations, just as Ricard was happy to guide us through the entire process.

Happy travels through China!

Yours
Laura & Chris x

PS. Welcome newcomers! For all who are new to my site, here is a link to my first China-crossing blog, where I detail HOW we managed to convince Ricard that a self-drive, guide-less tour would be perfectly legal. Click here for more!

PSS. Edited 10th November 2014. Please do note that I share Ricard’s email address on the last China blog. PLEASE READ the next post and the one after so you are well aware of ALL that concerns crossing China without a guide. Cheers!