Anyone interested in a cross China ride in the fall of 2014? Planning for somewhere in the August to October time frame, and likely 30 days in the country. Looking at west -> east direction, entering through Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or Russia. Departing through Laos or Vietnam. Looking to split "guide", permit, etc costs Route unplanned as of yet...
I am Chinese and live in China.You can email to me if you want talk. daviddong@163.com or chinese.dongwei@gmail.com
We are currently planning a trip from the Netherlands to Shanghai! Our preferred planning is to enter by Irkehstam (Kyrgyzstan) the beginning of August and travel for about 30-35 days across China with preference to cross tibet. This basically is the same trip as you, the only difference is the exit point as we want to go to shanghai for sure as we are going to "visit a friend" It may possible (did not do such request at an agency, to investigated possibilities) to add a guide halfway the trip in order to save on cost as we can share during the first part. In case all of this will get to expensive we will travel through Mongolia and enter by the Erenhot pass. I think we are able to do the same for this route regarding cost. We think about staying within China for 14 days in case we take this route. Are you still planning on making the trip? You can send me a pm in case you are interested in sharing some cost.
hey mate, im planning pretty much exactly this trip and would love to share costs, ive sent you a PM let me know what you think cheers harry
Never done China on my motorcycle.. but a couple of years ago, I was planning a trip with a group, turns out this trip never materialised, but for this purpose, I got a quote from chinaoverlandinfo.com: - 1-6 bikes - Kazakhstan to Laos, 30 days in China - Includes paperwork for border crossings and all bike-related paperwork (does not include hotels, fuel, food etc.) - Includes one guide to accompany the group using his own car, includes the car costs - Estimated cost: 110,000.00 CNY (just tried converting this, remember my quote is about 2 years old, but anyway, today I got: 17,606 USD) Sort of gives you an idea, why you won´t see a long queue of Western bikers at their borders... for that kind of money, you could ride from Europe to India, for example, and live like a king in India for several months (I´ve done that, the ride to India part, not the live like a king part). And remember, you pay this money only to get your motorcycle into China, and to be able to cross China with it, so all your normal expenses come on top of this. I have zero doubt, that it is a very, very interesting country, but so is India, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc, etc, and none of them charge an extortionate amount of money to do them on your bike (ok, a carnet may be required). Somewhat cheaper option seems to be Kyrgyzstan-China-North Pakistan or v.v., that route is much shorter inside China, so the costs should be a lot less, this is probably why a number of travellers have actually done that route. (Keep in mind, that was just a quote that I got, I have no idea, if this is the actual cost, or it costs more, or less...)
My bike is in Kyrgystan and I'm crossing into China on the 9th of September with a guided tour through NAVO tours. Tour ends in Pakistan. The more the merrier.
