I am on the May trip. But I though I should give the JH600 another shake down before the May trip and Shangrila sound like a warm enough place to be in March.

By the way, there will be a group of Chinese biker riding from Yunnan to Lao and then Thailand. This will be the first big group tour coming out of China. I think a few years down the road, you will see many of them roaming around SEA on Chinese made bikes.

Not sure why you'd think Shan-ge-li-la would be warm in March but I'm sure you have your sources. I'm also sure you're right about seeing more groups of Chinese riders roaming around SEA and I sincerely hope China will be kind enough to reciprocate the open border policies to motorcycles. What's your take on that? Think it will happen?

CC

Hello all,

I just bought my second bike in Beijing, Honda sdh125-42 v-men (picture) - I could not find any information about it online, so my guess would be that it's some sort of Chinese replica of an old Honda bike(?).

It took me 30 minutes to decide on a bike (the choice was very limited in the shop) and about 3 minutes to buy it. 8500RMB for the bike(6500rmb), B plate(1500, A plate is 8k), helmet(300) and alarm(200), original price was around 10k. No questions were asked about license or residence permit(which I have, having a tourist visa), shop asked money in cash, so had to go to the closest ATM (one of the sellers showed me the way and walked with me :) ).

After I signed the papers I needed to take a taxi to another location to get my bike (I was lucky, the bike I wanted was in stock and I didn't have to wait for 10 days to get it), what's surprising is that I've got money back for the taxi, it was around 40rmb. Couple of guys assembled the bike, checked it and after 20 minutes it was ready.

I drove home on my new bike, and had a little accident on the way, some army car (those don't care much about anything) jumped on the road from a side way, I locked my front brake to fast, slipped(wet road) and fall down in front of the car. My speed was around 30kmh, so nothing happened except a broken light, I called the shop to ask how much it would cost to fix it and asked the guy to pay, he refused to pay so we called the police. I have no plate (yet) and no license... I was damn nervous :)

Long story short, after 1 hour, I go back to my bike with 300RMB from the army driver. Police didn't care about my license or the plate, although they did ask me to provide my home country license(!), which doesn't work in China anyway.

So it's not that bad, buying a bike in Beijing, or driving without a plate ;-)


Carl, what kind of trip are you planing?

David,

Glad to hear you got a bike and happy that you made it out of your get-off without much hassle.

Seems like a whole bunch of fellas are heading towards Lhasa come mid-May or so. Should be dry season and days should be fairly long. After that, who knows. Could be anything!

CC

Carl,

Sounds good, it's just to bad you are in Chengdu and not in Beijing.

Do you know if any of the guys starting their way or passing through Beijing?

David.

Anywhere with no black ice on the road is warm enough for me. It is still early to tell if China will open up the border for international travellers. Treaties have been sign between Laos, Vietnam and China to allow their nationals to cross border with their own vehicles. Plans are already on the drawing board to build super highway linking SEA countries with China. 10 years down the road, anything can happen but I can't wait that long. I will be doing it in 2008 or 2009.

Here is a photo taken by my friend 2 days ago in Yunnan

Biking in China
 

Don't forget your Chinese driving license. Every cities has different procedures to issue them to foreign residents. Non-residents sometimes have to go through driving schools, automobile clubs etc., but it should be possible.
And be advised that most bigger cities ban bikes completely or at least bikes with numbers from other cities. Shanghai has started to expel foreign factory managers etc. for not caring about Chinese law last year (after one drunken, license-free foreigner killed a Chinese bicyclist with his forged-registration bike).

You better stay away from the Chinese East coast, there are too many restrictions.

Carl ('culcune' from chinariders and advrider here), it seems that the Qingqi would be the way to go as far as quality in China. However, 'suprignet' from chinariders just got his way cool Shineray with the big tank and the extra racks. Are you familiar with that bike yet, enough to have someone consider it vs. the Qingqi?

Well look at you and all your screen names!

Supersignet has been helping me set up my new chinese motorcycle forum and he's told me a lot about his experiences on the bike. So far it sounds like a good ride and he hasn't had too many functional problems with it.

I took a tour of the Shineray factory a couple weeks ago and it's a clean facility. The workers seemed to pay at least some attention to details and their marketing as well as RnD seem to be focusing on the off-road segment. Hell, there's certainly enough room in the market for more than one competent bike!

Supersignet put a review and some trip reports on his bike here:

CC

Sdh-125
 

I have just purchased a Honda SDH-125 in Yanji, China. I up-graded from a Suzuki 110. The bike seems pretty good so far, I am still trying to break it in right now and get some k's on it. One small problem is that the seat is designed for Chinese people, my knees don't fit comfortably into the ridge on the sides of the gas tank in the middle of the bike. I also noticed that it feels loose in gravel, maybe it is more of a road bike.

Some friends of mine and I just took a trip in NE china on our bikes to the border of Russia, China and North Korea. If you would like to check out the video, its on youtube.com. here is the link.

YouTube - Hun Chun part 2

Hi,

I have been searching alot on how to buy a motorcycle in china and looks like you guys already have the answer for me. I will be going to china on a tourist visa and i want to buy a motorcycle to travel in china. I dont mind a small cc motorcycle. As long as it has got 2 wheels on it, I am ok.

Do you know how much it will cost?

Can all the paper work be done easily? If yes, how long would it take to just get it done and to go on the road?

Is it possible to ride the bike out of the china?

Where will be a good place to buy the motorcycle?

I will be starting my trip in sept 2008, so I need fast reply. Thank you very much.

Thanks for any information.

Really appreciated it.

I have lived in China a total of 8 years, and the bike situation there is not good. As a visitor you can not buy a bke or get license. An international license in not valid. To buy a bike or get a license you need a residence permit. The alternative is to bring in your own bike through a tour company that will arrange for you to get a temp. license (which you can do alone without official help). Traveling in and trying to buy there is not an option. If someone else has don so and knows a way then good luck.

Within China some citys are now baning motorcycles completely or severly limiting there use, Guangzhou (Canton) is the first to ban then, Shanghai and Beijing restrict their use, others also have followed but I don't know the details. All in all considering that the Chinese are becoming a mojor manufacturer of bikes they are not very bike freindly.

south east asia
 

CrazyCarl;
hello,i plan to travel starting from india>tibet>china>south east asia (i assume driving through myanmar is not possible) by road.after a lot of home work i have dropped idea of self driving my mitubhishi and plan to hire self drive cars in each country.i wish i could do it in my car which i have modifies for long trips.driving , nature photography,feeling nature all along travel,not just visiting famous tourist spots is my passion.
is there still some possibilities that i drive up to india & myanmar border ,then ship the car to thailand which should be not more than 300 kms,then self drive rest of south east asia,
use local trian,buses,and taxis in china
please can u suggest

all china
 

deaninkl
to visit all of china in detail ,will a mix of train,buses and taxi work?

full china
 

deaninkl
how many weeks should i allot to visit full china in detail