Again, thanks for the advice Prince666, That is cool that you can get a license while at the airport in Beijing, Maybe we can make it so we fly through Beijing, and thanks for the offer to help if we were to pass through your neighborhood. Problem is we are just short on time. My girlfriend can only get 30 days with her passport and we had carved out 30 days for our china/xinjiang time with an outward flight already booked. But we were denied our China visa last week due to having lots of strange stamps in our passports (they particularly didnt like that we had been to Tajikistan), we re-applied but and got it the second time with the help of an agent, but we lost 5 days, so now we only have 25 days. Needless to say it's not much time to do everything right. But the Beijing airport idea could be do-able.

To add to all the complications of this I am realizing that it would be very hard to see much in Xinjiang in such a short time without using the toll roads, which apparently isn't possible on a bike. It is all getting a bit tricky, we are still considering options but starting to include defeat as one potential option (which would mean using public transport). We'll see.

And yes, BidDano, I agree, just cause a local says it doesnt mean its true, half the time they have no idea what the real situation is, but it was just one bit of info to add pile to be digested.

And NZBrake....lets see, so far since I posted this you have called me an idiot, a self-entitled hippie, and lazy, all because I asked for some information and advice. Thank you for your offer to help in Chengdu. I will pass. I would like to say "I will take all the help I can get", but I have self respect and limitations.