East-coast China to UK by Motorbike!

[fredleeming]

Hi just having a think about a trip i'm really keen on doing and looking for a bit of advice!

I really want to purchase a motorbike in China (not sure what yet any ideas... am on a low budget £1000??) and take this all the way home to Edinburgh.

At the moment I don't know which city to start in Shanghai or Hong Kong (or city in general south area). Which route across China do people thing is best to take, and whereabouts is best to cross the border to carry on the Silk Road?

Any information and advice would be hugely appreciated... its very much just an idea at the moment but want to make it a reality. My brother just did edinburgh to cape town so I need to match him!

thanks in advance

Fred

[TBR-China]

Hong Kong won't work as you can't cross the border HK / PRC freely with a motorbike bought in HK. Quite a few cities in South China's Guangdong ban motorcycles (Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, etc.) and lets not forget the necessary China Driving License issue...

Not really a good situation as Mainland China does not recognise overseas driving license and international driving permits. Would not recommend driving / riding without a Chinese license as it's a well know fact that quite a few foreigners ended up in detention for up to 15 days on the spot without any court hearings and booted out of the country afterwards (not able to return to Mainland China on any type of visa for 5-10 years). This happened to short term visitors and resident "expats" holding work permits and Z visas alike.

Some time ago rental car companies like Hertz / Avis in China were able to obtain temporary driving license for foreigners (short term visitors) renting a car through them and the temporary driving license was interlinked with the rental car and actual rental period. They only issued temporary China driving license for cars - not for motorcycles!!!

Do not listen to any so called "visa / driving license agents" in China offering to assist or help out, they provide you with fake documentation for thousands of RMB (Chinese Yuan) and some of them driving licenses look like drawn with a black crayon by a five year old.....

Own motorbike through temporary import, unfortunatly only legal way as of today is either going solo (very expensive) with a government appointed guide through a licensed tour operator for China travel and / or find a group of foreign China travellers that did all the ground work already and join them to lower the costs involved (many threads going on the internet incl. HUBB).

Be warned, TIC = This Is China and everyone is after your $$$$'s....

Side-note, have a read and a few laughs, China National Driving Exam Questions = http://www.chinese-driving-test.com