China, Leg 4. Complete. 8,240 kms. Total distance traveled to date: 22,320kms.

China, Leg 4. Complete. 8,240 kms. Total distance traveled to date: 22,320kms.
This is a brief summary of our China leg and we will endeavor to provide further updates on this leg in due course as there was so much to report on.

Our China entry date of the 8th May was our one and only fixed date on our journey that we had to meet and there were also uncertainties if we would actually be allowed to enter the country but it all went without issues thanks to the fine work of Drive China whom we engaged to provide our mandatory guide services.
We entered China from Boten in northern Laos to Mohan in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan and we completed immigration and customs formalities and were issued our temporary drivers licenses and Chinese registration documents for the bikes, a process that took about half of our first day. Needless to say we were very relieved when it was all completed.

The Route across China took us from the Southern part of the country right across to the north western region where we exited near Kashgar to Kyrgyzstan covering not only just under a quarter of our whole journey but also many different cultures, climates, landscapes and cuisines. Visiting Tibet and seeing Mt Everest so close has to be the highlight of the trip and a real privilege that will never be forgotten.

We traversed over a dozen high mountain passes over 3000 mts with the a few over 5,000 mts with challenging conditions. The climate ranged from plus 40c to below freezing with snow and ice, lush sub tropical landscapes to the arid Gobi desert, complete with wondering camels.

The Route took us to many ancient cities with rich histories such as Lijiang, Dali, Shangri-La, Lhasa and Khasgar with their wonderful inquisitive and joyful people all wanting to engage, help and converse.

We endured many police checks and bureaucracy along the way, seemingly pointless, but it was always done in a very friendly and helpful manner, they were just doing their job and they all did it with a smile and politeness.
The roads ranged from newly built state of the art highways along the Belt and Road network to the downright hyper dangerous and infamous G318 with its high mountain passes, stunning scenery, poor surfaces, roadworks, tight bends and heavy traffic of both truck and tourist variety. Refueling our bikes could also be a challenge. In some regions we were not allowed to refill at pumps but had to use watering cans, other regions required police checks and passport registrations or did not allow you to travel on toll roads.

As you would imagine the food varied hugely as we traversed the country. Hot and spicy red chili laden food of Sichuan, Yak and goat and barley based dishes in Tibet and the arrival of Turkic influences in Kashgar with Shashlik, mutton, camel and naan type breads and pastries. Choosing dishes was often a lottery and friends mistakenly ordered a goats head. Translations were often amusing.

Exiting China to Kyrgyzstan was definitely the most bureaucratic and farcical day of the trip requiring hours of customs, police and immigration checks, many just a few hundred meters apart performing exactly the same checks. The road out of China up the notorious Torugart pass up to 3,760 mts was under construction much of it a gravel road with trucks thundering along. Once finally out of China we had other issues to contend with, but that’s another story….

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