Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Riding through China. I did it my way, without a guide. Mika Kuhn June 2015

Riding through China. I did it my way, without a guide. Mika Kuhn June 2015

As most of you are aware, it is still not that common to ride on your own through China, let alone with your own motorcycle brought in. Of course you can pay an agency get a guide, and/or ride in a group, being told where to stop, take a picture, sleep and fart, like a good sheep.

When I rode along the Chinese border down to Vladivostok in the year 2000, I stopped and had a look over the fence to China. And I promised myself to ride there one day. It took 15 years to attempt to cross this border, and now in 2015 I succeeded and crossed all of China, from North/East to West on my own.

Because I postponed my ride through Europe and Asia from 2014 to 2015, I had enough time in the winter to ask people and overland agencies for China how it should be done. As there was only one way for me to travel and I did not want a guide, most agencies could not offer any help. Bikers living in China warned me about the surveillance society and the police state. One even told me, that most parking lot attendants would report me to the police and I would end up in jail, for only riding around the block. Now I know it was mostly fear-mongering and that it is more likely to get killed on a motorcycle in China than to end up in jail. I know people that rode maybe 20 years ago on their own through China, but I decided not to ask them, as most things have changed in the last 20 years in China. And if you ask others, you will almost always never find your own way.

Laura Pattara traveled with her boyfriend Chris and another rider in October 2014 without a guide on her own motorcycle through China, they had to stick closely to the route accepted by the agency organising her ride. It was a start to ride China without a guide. Have a look at Lauras website.
Travel Independently through China…Take 2! | Laura's Travel Tales
Exchanging emails with her and the agency, I realised, that this could work also for me. But the agency gave me a quote of 38.000 USD, because I would travel a different route than Laura did. But exchanging emails with her, helped me to find my way. And also Ken Holmes from the HU community Beijing helped me to find my way. Thanks Laura, Thanks Ken.

Sure there was a risk of doing it my way, eg being arrested and/or loosing my bike. Is it an adventure to follow a guide? Maybe for some it is, but not for me. I hear many of you screaming now, “But it can't be done without a guide”. I still hear them screaming, “the world is flat”, “this is what the church says”, so it must be true. I tell you, if we always listen to authority, we will have the illusion of safety, but we will never get anywhere, let alone be free. And if we continue paying for guides in China, this agency/guide business is never going to end.

Sure there is nothing wrong with hiring a guide or traveling in a group, but I think there is something fundamentaly wrong with a compulsory guide. And it is not about money, it is about freedom, as Laura wrote on her website. 
Anyway it is about my way you are reading now, your way will be different. So, don’t think you can just follow my footsteps and get the same results. But go to China, travel through this magnificent country, do it your way. And don’t be scared, if I can do it, you can.

To find your way to travel through China on your own, I am sure you can buy a bike in most motorcycle shops with cash in your hand. The Jialing 600 would be my prefered Chinese bike, but I don’t think it is that easy to find. The new Zhongshen RX250 did not impress me much. As most hotels don't accept foreigners, and you are not officially allowed on the motorways with a motorcycle, it could be also a good idea to buy a van.

Do it your way. A double entry 30 days tourist visa, with a 30 days extension is easy to get for most nationalities.

Just for the record, and for those obsessed with stupid laws on this forum, I am not telling anybody to break any laws. As far as I know, I did not break too many laws in China and I was not even caught once speeding on the motorways.

Dont forget, you are reading my ride report and not a manual How to get your bike into China.

Enjoy, it is your journey.

HERE IS MY STORY OF RIDING TROUGH CHINA. Mika Kuhn. June 2015

  It had just developed as an idea when looking at a map on a cold winter day in Finland, I could try first to cross over to China in Blagoveschensk, as it would be on my way to Vladivistok anyway. Sure I would have to cross the Amur river somehow, but I have crossed a lot of rivers. A friend in Vladivostok told me, that it would be absurd to try to cross illegally, when I saw the river and both cities, I understood what he meant. 
When I arrived in Blagoveschensk, the border town with Heihe / China, in the Far East of Russia, I had done 680kms that day, on my little Suzuki DR350, called Yuhmak. 
It was getting dark and all I wanted was an affordable bed and a cold beer. So I rode around the city just to find this, but I found two bikers from the Motors City bike club wearing colors and riding their choppers. Sergey answered my question for a hotel in english and offered me to stay in the club house. I knew there was cold beer, so I accepted the invitation.

Next morning in the clubhouse I met the vice president, P.V. Pascha and he asked me where I would go next. I told him I want to cross to the Amur river and go to Heihe. He said, that it is not possible and that I should go to Mongolia, it would be easier to enter China there. 
When Sergey arrived, I asked him for somebody that would phone to Heihe in Chinese for me, as I had a contact person there willing to help me with getting the bike into China. So Sergey phoned Rustam Tulakpaev and I met him on the river bank, where cell phone reception with the chinese network is the best. Rustam did not only speak Chinese, he also spoke good English, and to my surprise he was a motorcycle traveler himself.

With Rustam there was an immediate connection, he understood what had to be done and he is good in getting things done. First he phoned his boss in China and explained whom he had met and what I wanted to do. The boss said, that when Russia would let me out, he will organize the entry for me and Yuhmak into China. The next steps were done in half an hour. Russian immigration and customs gave there ok's to let me leave and the ferry company agreed to allow Yuhmak on the passenger ferry. This left time for sightseeing in the afternoon, something that I did not do much on this journey.
Motors City members took me around town and the area in a car.

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Pic. 1 Riding into the port of Blagoveschensk on Yuhmak

We had the ferry tickets for the next morning and meet at 8am in the port. It was a crazy stunt to get Yuhmak through the passenger terminal and onto the passenger ferry. But everybody helped and only a lady from Russian immigration wanted to boycott our departure. But after some shouting, she finally stamped my passport.

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Pic. 2 and 3 Departure hall and with Yuhmak on the ferry

Arriving in China it was all different, nobody wanted to help to get Yuhmak off the ferry, the Chinese just starred at us. Finaly some of the Russian ferryman helped to lift Yuhmak over the railing onto the dock.
It was lunch time for Chinese immigration and customs, when we entered the arrival hall at the ferry terminal. It looked like any arrival hall at any airport around the world, with barriers, cubicals and scanners. After immigration staff had returned from lunch, Rustam took the iniciative and pushed Yuhmak past immigration barriers and the scanners for luggage at customs. He pushed Yuhmak passed the staring Chinese police officers outside. I was stuck with immigration as there was a problem with my passport number.

But then I saw Rustam pushing Yuhmak back into the arrival hall, Yuhmak had caused too much attention and had been impounded by customs. My passport number problem took ten more minutes to be solved and I arrived at five custom officals staring at Yuhmak in total disbelieve. Only one of them smiled and gave me the thumb up.

Rustam had called the media and a televison team was waiting for me. But this did not impress Chinese customs much. They could not find any rules or regulations to follow in case somebody would bring a motorcycle, they were completly lost but still would not give Yuhmak back to me. Yuhmak was handcuffed in the arrival hall. Everybody told me that I was the first to try to get a motorcycle into China at Heihe. And I gave a short interview outside the building to the reporters.

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Pic. 4 Rustam and me talking to a reporter

Next day we met the head of customs, he smiled a lot and said he would give Yuhmak back if we write a paper from Rustams Russian Chinese Auto Motorcycle association, that he had just established, so we did. Only to find out next day that he would not keep his word and the paper was not enough, he wanted something from somebody in the government.

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Pic. 5. Rustam and me talking to the head of customs

Rustams boss phoned one of his friends, and next day I went to shake hands with somebody in the government. Please dont ask me who it was, I have no idea, as everybody except Rustam could only speak Chinese. By now all Russians that would come to Heihe on business or tourism had seen Yuhmak in the arrival hall. In a restaurant some Russians bikers came to our table and wanted to shake my hand, they had heared the story of this crazy German and of course they had seen Yuhmak.

It took another two days because of a stamp issue, before we had the right paper from the right person to get Yuhmak out. And I also had to pay a custom deposit of 2000 RMB (around 350USD), that would be paid back to me over Rustams Assosciation when Yuhmak would have left the country. After six days in the arrival hall, Yuhmaks handcuffs where taken off and I could wheel her out into China.

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Pic. 6 Yuhmaks handcuffs taken off, before being allowed into China.

Rustam gave me a ton of advise on riding in China, he even tried to explain the gps function on my newly bought phone. But there was no way for me to understand a gps in Chinese, as I am an old school map reader with nearly no expierince using a gps,. Anyway I lost the phone after only a week, and believe me I felt relieved.

Navigation was by far my biggest challenge in China, but I managed to cross the whole country. It was fun to get lost in a strange suburb and meet people that would stare at me like they had never seen a long nose face before in their lives. But it was also hot and frustrating sometimes.

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Pic. 7 having lunch with Zang, a Chinese rider on his way to Lhasa.

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Pic. 8 meeting a traveler (from Finland) next to the road

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Pic. 9 roadside trucker hotel with Yuhmak covered for the night.

Of course the police stopped me a few times, but the officers could not speak any language that I speak, but they were always friendly after they realised that I was a foreigner and not scared of them. Xingjang province was the worst what I saw of the police state of China, but still the only big problem I had, was getting fuel, as they don’t sell it to foreigners.

It took me a week and three attempts to leave China across the border to Kyrgzystan in the West. As I wanted to do it legally, because I had entered legally, I had to face the bureaucrats in the headquarters of customs in Kashgar. They gave me long list of documents that I should supply in order to leave the country with Yuhmak.

Talking to a travel agent in Kashgar, he told me that I cant get this documents when I am in China, only when I am outside of China, and than it takes three months.

When I told this to the custom officer I was dealing with, he said: Yes, we know this. My question on why then he would ask for this documents was not answered.

After five days dealing with them, I had already given up on leaving the country with Yuhmak, when they phoned and said that Yuhmak is allowed to leave. Somebody in a higher position must have realised that Yuhmak entered legally and that we should be allowed to leave. When I asked for a paper to confirm her exit, I was told, that no such paper would be issued.

Still I needed a car to guide me up to the Torugat Pass, as all tourists need this on this pass. It's just another Chinese money making scam for tourists, but after a week of arguments and waiting I just paid and left China for good.

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Pic. 10 Border station Turugat port to go to Turugat pass.

Arriving in Kyrgyzstan, I had to celebrate and I stopped at the first little shop that would sell cold beer. Drinking from the 1,5 liter plastic bottle, I realised:

I had done it, 8000km across China without an accident. It was hard sometimes but I enjoyed it every riding day of my six weeks.

Mika Kuhn