Carnet for Chinese motorbikes?
 

I am planning to make a long way home from Shanghai to Spain and on every route seems like crossing customs might be quite more difficult than the route itself.

Most of the countries require a Carnet for temporary import of the vehicle, but as a Chinese licensed motorbike I can't get a Carnet in here.

Do anybody know of a possible alternative to this? Including travelling to Spain (without the bike) and somehow registering the bike there to get the Carnet there?

Thanks in advance!

-kali-

Some further information might be useful... However for the moment, bear in mind that a Carnet is only required for Pakistan and Iran...
you could ride to Europe across Kazakstan- Russia...and not need a Carnet at all

Really? Well, India most certainly does, and Pakistan could also be pretty tough to get into without it. Iran is officially a carnet-country, but there have been reports of succeeding to enter without one (could be an interesting crossing, though)....

But if you´d cross from China to the Stans (that are north of Afghanistan), then I don´t think having no carnet would be the thing that´d stop you. Basically the same should apply to Russia and Mongolia as well. But I don´t know, if you might have some other kind of trouble at the borders (to get out of China, for example).

And do not expect, that it´ll be a breeze to register in the EU a Chinese bike, that you bought in China. Not saying, that it´s 100% impossible either, but 2007 and newer models imported here need to be Euro3-compliant, something that most models sold in Asia are not, in fact very few vehicles with carburetors pass that norm... and even if it´s older, you´ll probably still need to be able to somehow prove, on paper, that it complies with the norms, that were required at that time. Getting that done for a single bike is probably so expensive, that it´s simply not worth it.

Also read this:
Paperwork | Horizons Unlimited

Hi Kali,

I think route wise, like the others said, so long as you go North you would be Ok. We rode from Germany to Mongolia (Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and then Mongolia) without a carnet. We then sold our bikes in Mongolia because we could not ride into China with them and bought little bikes in Malaysia.

So that route gets you around the carnet, the bigger problem is finding out if a Chinese registered bike will be a problem in and of itself. I think so long as you have the papers you should be ok. But I have never tried it with a Chinese bike before. :-P But we are riding Malaysian bikes in our names and we have yet to encounter a border problem here. (Each border being of course different, and China a special case above all).

Hi Kali,

I'm in the same stage - will relocate to Germany later in 2012...so why not move the bike on its wheels and see some parts of the world?

My information is that you can obtain a Carnet in your homecountry, if you still have foreign nationality even the bike is under foeign registration. Not sure, but the intend o move may aid a application.
In Germany its the ADAC, I will contact them soon enough to find out.

Whats your schedule, and what bike you going to take?

I look at departure around June 2012, around 6-8 weeks. Bike is a ChangJiang with BMW engine.

Cheers André

Hi,
Im also buying an ATV in China and will then drive it through Mong, Russ, Kazak -sweden. Too have a chinese registered vehicle is probably not an issue. But any ideas about insurance? anyone?

Hi, sorry I totally forgot about this post. Things have changed a lot (as it usually does with planning for too long in advance) and our route is now moving to Cape Town.

We will depart in late April (22nd) to cross the Khunerjab somewhere in early May. Then we plan to cross Pakistan and see from there depending on the status with Iran, but aiming for Africa.

Regarding the CDP we confirmed we can't get it here, and I also checked I can't get it in Spain (my home country) as the bike is not registered there (I would need to register it there first). Since I'm coming back to Shanghai after the trip (probably shipping the bike back by boat or just selling/abandon it in Cape Town) I don't have plans to register it elsewhere so I don't care about certifications (although I've been told that this official 2010 Yamaha YBR complies with the European normative as it is the same model that is sent there, produced in Chongqing).

Andre if your plan fits on ours don't hesitate to send me a pm/email.

Cheers

Well, I was trying to do this trip in reverse on a Nepal reg. Bullet, and whilst the RAC are preparing my carnet as I type,( bless 'em ) it will not include China, as China does not allow temporary importation of vehicles and consequently you cannoy get a carnet for a Chinese reg. either. Just a word of caution for those intending to try and enter Pak from China through Khunjerab this year, as of the end of last year, the Pak goverment had stopped the issuing of VOA at the Khunjerab Pass, so probably better to try and get your Pak visa first !

I don´t think getting foreign vehicles into China depends in any way on the Carnet, because China is not in that system.

You should be able to get in there with a foreign vehicle, but by a different procedure, that is both complicated and very costly.

''You should be able to get in there with a foreign vehicle, but by a different procedure''
Could you elaborate on that ? What 'different procedure' ?
I've also been told that you can only drive in China on a Chinese license, which is only available to residents, can you shed any light on that ?
It just seems such a shame that I will be at Khunjerab on my bike and not be able to cross the border.

Chinese agency
 

Hey all,

If you go from Pakistan to China you need to organise the Chinese bits with a tourist agency from inside the country. There are scant bits of information on the hubb about it so its hard to piece the bits together - I get that!

I've been dealing - and plan to use a Chinese guy called 'Wayne' and his company to help me out in a couple of months time to go from the Paki border - into China and then out of China somewhere near Kashgar into Kyrgyzstan or thereabouts.

His company's website is Climb Muztagh Ata, climb K2, Trek to K2, Trek to Muztagh Ata Base Camp, cycle the KKH, enter China on your foreign licensed motorcycle or car
.. and I gather that others have used him without any big dramas.

If anyone has any other info on this company, or others, I'd be keen to hear it!

Cheers,
Drew

And also keep in mind, that you´ll need to contact them several months prior to your crossing, can´t just pop up at the border and proceed. The Chinese travel agent will arrange you more or less everything, including a guide to meet you up at the border, and travel with you to the exit border. As you can imagine, that won´t be cheap (...but the KKH route is sort of special, because it does not require you to stay in China for many weeks, so the total cost could be a bit more tolerable).

But I haven´t personally entered China with my motorcycle, so that is all second-hand info, which I´ve gathered following the several active threads about the subject right here at the HUBB.