Visiting China by Bicycle

[jugnoopk]

I am from pakistan want to visit china by bicycle I need to ask ton of questions can you guys help me here?

 

[Silent]

I propose you ask your questions. In 2008 I made a bicycle trip through China so maybe I can help you though info may be dated. Not sure how many more people did so. 

 

Otherwise Lonelyplanets Thorntree has several active users that have made bicycle trips in China. Try the bicycle forum or the China forum there.

[LinZhenPu]

Because your post is sparse on details, I think you mean that you actually want to ride a bicycle to the Pakistan-China land border at Khunjerab Pass and enter China that way. This would be quite an undertaking and it is safe to say that very few people especially foreigners have done it, you would be one of the first.

 

I suppose it's possible but do note that it is an 84 kilometre bicycle ride from the nearest motel in Pakistan to the border and then a much longer bicycle ride from the border to Kashgar, Xinjiang. There do not appear to be any motels along the way so you would be camping out next to the highway.

Perhaps a better option would be to enter Xinjiang at one of the two borders in Kyrgyzstan. That way the bicycle ride to Kashgar would be shorter but still quite long.

 

Now that I think of it, I don't think the border guards would let a solo person on a bicycle through without prior special permission from the authorities. To get this, you I imagine that you would need to provide evidence of your athletic ability to endure such a long bicycle ride and a detailed outline of your travel plans in China.

 

You will of course need to apply for a Chinese tourist visa ahead of time. Because you want to travel in the border region of Xinjiang, I believe you will need a special permit for this otherwise there's no way the border guards will let you through without it.

 

Yet another option would be to travel to Russia and enter Mongolia via Russia and then Inner Mongolia, China via Mongolia. This way, you would need a visa for Russia and a visa for Mongolia as well as the visa for China. But I imagine this would be much easier to do than to obtain a special permit for travelling in the border area of Xinjiang.

[Guest realmayo]

Lots of cyclists have crossed the China/Pakistan border (though it seems the final part needs to be driven): find journals on crazyguyonabike.com e.g. https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=tS&page_id=56627&v=16H

[Silent]

Realmayo is correct. KKH is a classic bicycle ride.   Tons of people cycled that route though in recent years it's largely deminished due to security issue's and travel restrictions. I guess however that OP should just ask his questions, there is little point in playing a guessing game.

[LinZhenPu]

Oh, well there you go.

[Guest realmayo]

Silent, where did you ride in China? What was it like?

[Silent]

I cycled from HongKong to the edge of the tibetan plateau (Chengdu, Emei shan), and then a bit to the south just into yunnan to take a bus back. I did take a quite curvy route due to several times getting lost and poor planning.

 

I cut the trip short due to a mix of reasons, the principal ones issue's at home, language problems, very poor weather and the sense of mentally and physically (I lost over 10 kilo in nearly 3 months) not being up to the challenges. So at some point I decided it was better to cut the trip short, have despite the challenges, good memories and return at a later date then to push it to finish the plan with the risk of destroying the positives. This was for me the motivation to start learning a little Chinese and the reason that China is the only country outside of Europe I visited on more then one trip. In general I hold the policy every trip outside Europe to a different country.

 

I made the trip from mid februari to early may. That year the weather was odd, just a week or a couple of weeks before I left for China there was snow in Hong Kong. As said I had a lot of rain. Dry days were rare and I think over half of the days I had at least several hours if not the entire day of rain. Language was a big issue. I had hoped to pick up the basics on the road as I have done on other trips, but had the impression that in every town I had to start anew. In part this is probably due to the route Cantonese, minorities and probably some strong dialects too. Nevertheless it resulted in getting lost many times when getting of the main route and hassle to get very minor and basic things done. 

 

What I loved about the trip: the large diversity and that despite that I often resorted to pointing out random dishes from the menu I generally ate very tasty food. That I came across unexpected and interesting places nowhere to be found in the travel guide on a daily basis. It feels great to make these discoveries but afterwards I also feel I missed out on a lot of interesting places. Many small villages that have their own character. Extremely friendly and curious people that despite poverty seemed guininely interested. Many people I spoke told me that I was the first foreigner they ever spoke too. I got invitations to eat at peoples homes, people insisting on paying my retaurant bill and several times people gave me bags of fruit that took me days to eat. What I found very curious is that in particular young teenage girls (15, 16 years old) had a lot of interest in me (38 at the time) seemingly mainly to practice english and to take pictures. (Afterwards in mail contact two of them expressed they had other interests too.) 

 

More neutral/mixed feelings was my dealings with the police. I was once picked up by the police and deported to the next city as I was supposedly in an area where foreigners were not allowed. In advance I heard about it from other cyclists and I thought it was an interesting experience and hoped for it to happen but as it happened fairly early in the trip it made me a bit more worried then I like. In the end it happened only once and, though curious it may sound, I'm happy I've experienced it. After a day cycling (through the rain) and checking in at a hotel I prefer to take a quick shower before exploring town. Several times before I finished the shower police showed up. Seemingly informed by the hotel with the purpose of filling out the registration. The first time it happened I was worried, several times I found the proceedings entertaining, but nevertheless experienced it as hassle.

[Guest realmayo]

Fascinating, I'd love to do something similar. Sounds like a hilly route: even at the beginning, if I remember right, there's plenty of climbing once you start heading north west from the south. From what you say it sounds like, even though you've now studied Chinese, you haven't gone back to continue the trip yet?

[Silent]

I indeed did not finish the trip as planned at that time. To be honest I've never really intended to do that. The trip was based on the circumstances of that moment. Not really a project with head and tail. According to a friend with more cycling experience in China some of my experiences were a-typical. In part related to the upcomming olympics but probably also to the different style of travel/accomodation choices. Olympics were pretty much a central theme as everywhere I went there were displays and activities related to the olympics and I also saw the olympic flame. When on the last day of my second trip I visited the olympic park in Beijing it felt for me as closure and mission accomplished. So for me it doesn't feel as an open/failed issue. I feel the experience and consequent study of Chinese has enriched me and I've moved on to new things that add value for me. 

 

It may very well be that some day I make a new bicycle trip through China, I still feel the urge as I still recognise the benefits, but at the same time I know why I moved on to more backpacker style travel.