China, a great country, has always been an attractive destination. If you are interested to experience the land of the dragon, you are in luck. Yanser Ltd. in Hong Kong is the first biker oriented tour operator that organizes motorcycle tours to China. This guided tour is designed by bikers for bikers. As China is still virgin territory for motorcycle touring, there is no motorcycle rental service available. You must bring your own bike. After all, you will enjoy more when you tour on a familiar motorcycle.
I had many reservations about bring my bike into China when I first heard about the tour. But all my friends are so excited about it convinced me to bit the bullet and paid the deposit. 2 months of anticipation made us talk about what to expect of the trip every time my mates and me meet.
I have decided to use my 1998 Yamaha XJR1200 for the tour. In order to get it tour ready, I have added a medium size GIVI windshield, pannier boxes and a top box. A change of engine oil, oil filter and air filter is a must. I have also recharged my 12 months old battery so it won't go flat on me after a 10 days stay inside the shipping container. Four good quality nylon tie-downs were bought to secure the bike inside the container. This saved us a lot of money to avoid having the bikes crated. Actual transit time from Hong Kong to Dalian (major seaport at the northeast of China) was only 5 days but we have to allow a few days at each end for loading and unloading.
Route (green route) Dalian - Tienjin - Chengde - Shanhaiguan - Jinzhou - Benxi - Dalian
Day One : Fly from Hong Kong to Dalian in the afternoon, welcome reception at Dalian Airport, check in Hotel.
(Dalian )
Day Two : Devanning the bikes from container and set up the bikes for the tour. City tour of Dalian after a delicious lunch. Take the over night Roll-On Roll-Off ferry to Tienjin in the late afternoon. We got about 14 hours to relax and got briefing about the journey ahead
Day Three : Tienjin - Chengde Enter the famous seaport of Tanggu. A stomach warming breakfast at the famous local breakfast outlet set us on the road to Chengde – the Summer Palace of the Emperor. On route we took a high speed run on the very well paved highway across the Hebei plain. The farmland on both side of the road is the food basket of northern China. As the highway came to an end, there are the mountains. The twisty country road took us uphill. Running along side the Great Wall is a lifetime experience. We also stop at several scenic spot to admire the beauty of rocky mountains and clear water creeks. The ladies were the first to find out a farmer selling raw honey by his roadside shack. For about US$3 we bought 5 bottles of honey to sooth our dry throats after the ride. We made it to Chengde in the late evening, exhausted but in very high sprite. Dinner is of a banquet style, which is way too much for our hungry belly. 400km
Day Four : A late morning start as we don't have to ride much today. We hired a local tour guide to show us the Summer Palace built 300 years ago by the Ching emperor. 100 percent of Chinese culture and history soaked us for 4 hours. After lunch, we visited the largest of the eight Tibetan style monasteries. It is a replica of the grand monastery in Lasa. Built only 1/3 to the scale, this establishment looked no less majestic than the original. It took us more than 30 minutes to climb to the top. The 20m tall godess of a thousand eyes and a thousand arms, carved from solid wood is the biggest wood carve statue in China (or may be the world). Dinner again was a lavish one. Every dish is a specialty. The tamptation made us eat more than we should. 50km
Great Wall of China
Day Five : Chengde - Shanhaiguan Opt for more simple food, we rode to the local market to experience what the locals have for breakfast. Hot Soya bean milk, steamed buns, dumplings and deep fried bread sticks were all mouth watering. To get to Shanhaiguan, we rode through the hills towards the coast. When ever we passed through a Manchu village for a quick stop, hundreds of people emerged from nowhere and surrounded our bikes. Children gazed at these big machines totally amazed as they have never seen these kind of motorcycle before. After reaching the seacoast, we visited the Dragon's Head (starting point) of the Great Wall. Learn about the heritages of Chinese culture and admire the ancient wisdom of China's architecture built thousands of years ago. We went through the First Gate of the Heaven, which is the first gate of entry at the beginning of the Great Wall. (350km )
Day Six : Shanhaiguan - Jinzhou We started off a bit late again so we can have enough rest after hard riding and partying yesterday. The ride to Jinzhou was an exciting one. Not that the scenery is wonderful but due to the cold front that arrived last night. We have to ride in a 50-70km/h cross wind, chilled to the bone. Luckily we came prepared with good touring jackets, Gore-Tex pants, and all have thermo-lining to keep us warm. There is little we can do with the strong wind. I saw an old lady walking along the road got swept off her feet by the strong gust and landed on her back! The wind somehow dies down in the afternoon and made our journey easier. We arrived Jinzhou late in the afternoon, which gave us little time to tour the ancient town of Jinzhou (220km. )
Day Seven : Jinzhou – Benxi We had a quick city tour of Jinzhou and ride up north to Benxi. The scenery gets better, the more north we travelled. After making several stops to admire the natural beauty of the countryside, we found ourselves late to arrive Benxi and our resort hotel is still another 50km from town. We called ahead to let them know that we will be late and asked them if they can keep the Watery Cave open until we have arrived. To our pleasure, they have agreed to do so because we are the first tour group from Hong Kong ever visiting there. By the time we got there it was already 6:30p.m. and very dark. The staff guided us through a long narrow dimly lit lime stone cave as we discovered we have entered into a huge cathedral like hall with ceiling over 30m tall. In front of us was a small river, a small jetty with small battery powered sampans to take tourist venture into this underground river. Lights were placed at appropriate places to show the magnificent shapes of the lime stone formations. A trip upstream is about 2.8km and turn around time is about 50 mins. This is only the developed part for tourist, the underground river is much long than that. (300km. )
Benxi River
Day Eight : Very cold morning. One guy tried to wash off the bugs on his windscreen and found out the water drops on the windscreen is rapidly became ice. It was –5 degrees C. After warming up with a huge breakfast and gathered up enough courage, we braved the chilling wind to visit the Benxi National Park. Once we have arrived at the park, we have forgotten about the cold. The scenery is absolutely breath taking. The colours of the mountain, the clear blue sky, the golden farm land and doted with neat little farm house emitting cooking smoke from the chimney. What a peaceful and fond memory we can bring with us for the rest of our lives. Riding through the country park and nature reserve, our guide had made a few wrong turns. We were lost. No one was bother by this as with every turn, we discovered a change of scenery, we found ourselves totally absorbed by nature and time had slipped away without notice. During lunch break, we were introduce to the local menu. The steaming hot soup with mutton went very well with the rough corn bread. But we were careful to taste the garlic source fried cocoon of silk worm! Actually it taste just like tofu and I was told it is very good for my health. By the time we were back on track, it was already sunset. Riding into the sunset on the highway doing well over 160kmh is a whole new experience. As the darkness set in, we slowed down a bit and still managed to cover 120 km of the Yellow Sea Boulevard in 45 mins. Arrived back to Dalian after 7 p.m. and found ourselves stuffing our face again at a seafood restaurant. 450km.
Day Nine : Took a relaxed ride to Lushun (The home base of the North Sea Fleet) and enjoy the beautiful coastal roads which reminds me of the Pacific Coast Highway, California. Did a little last minute shopping in the afternoon at Dalian's city centre to cover up my guilt of not being able to share this wonderful and exciting experience with my family. 150km
Day Ten : Help loading our bikes into the container. Take the afternoon flight back to Hong Kong.
The trip was such a life-time experience for us all that we all opted to go for another ride in year 2000. We also found out that by riding and living together for 10 days, we got to learn about the good and bad habits of our fellow biker. We have enjoyed the good ones and joked about the bad one. In the end, we all become much closer than before. This is the extra bonus we have got from this already exciting China tour. -------- Franki.
Franki & Sylvia
How you can visit China. Minimum. 10 bike group, depart from Dalian, Ten Days Tour, Cost per Biker & Per Pillion : please send e-mail to: YANSERMC@NETFRONT.NET
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