China Day 6 - Riding from Beijing to Yuxian with more Unofficial Detours

The day’s ride was around 240km from Beijing to Yuxian. The group split up naturally and some gravitate to one another. For myself it was only Tsevtan and Myself and I was the navigator. It took us nearly an hour to get out of Beijing running close to 60km radius and that was with good traffic.

The journey really started then after getting out of the Beijing 6th ring road and finally hitting the national road G109. I remember riding this road in Tibet a few months back and a little smile creep into my mouth as I know it would be a nice scenic ride. 

Viewpoint on Mini Mountain Pass outside Beijing

Viewpoint of Mini Mountain Pass outside Beijing

What surprise me was, almost immediately after hitting the road was a mini mountain pass which was delightful taking corners and just getting more scenic views after views.

Very quickly though the mountain roads became flat and we were riding through villages along a river for a long time. It got a little boring, and my mind started to wander and when some tourist signpost in brown came up saying Huangdi Historical Ruins at 13km detour, I stopped the bike and had a chat with Tsevtan which agreed to check it out.

Octopus Monument 

Huangdi Historical Ruins which we briefly read but somehow almost immediately forgot was some kind of three kingdoms in the area nearly 5000 years ago. I wondered if it was part of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms history but sincerely had no idea. 

There was a brand-new humongous octopus like monument erected in 2022 just outside the main gate and paying the entrance fee of 70 yuan looks fair with the AAAA tourist attraction mark.

Huangdi Historical Temple

Huangdi Historical Ruins - Totally gone

We went in and to our disappointment, the so call ruins was really a destroyed flat field with nothing visible of the old Kingdom. 

This detour was a failure in a way but that is the nature sometimes or most times when going off tangent trying to find hidden gems on our own. We made a dash then for Yuxian but it got dark very fast after 6pm.

We were forced to ride at night, and it was not fun even with my double powered spotlights. Trucks were beaming high beams all the way from the opposite direction and the ride was constantly blinded everywhere and being pressured by oncoming trucks overtaking and just forcing us onto sidewalks which was very risky without being able to see properly.

By some luck, not falling into a ditch, pothole or even running over wild animals, we made it to Yuxian safely and checked into the hotel quickly dumping bags into the room and running out for food. John had already arrived at the hotel two hours ago and woke up from his nap to join us for dinner.

Dinner - Pancakes & Dumplings 

Local place for Dinner in Yuxian

Tsevtan , John & Me having local food for dinner in Yuxian

Round the corner of the hotel, we found some local street food ordering BBQ skewers, pancakes and dumplings while exchanging stories of the ride for the day. 

The restaurant ladies were so fascinated with John and Tsevtan (European) that they kept taking photos and when John manage to exchange wechat contact with one of the girls, she made him a tiktok reel full of hearts and pink love.

We had a good laugh for sure that night

Travelled on: Oct 2024

Exploring Beijing Tourist Attractions

We had a total of three nights in Beijing. It was luxury with time this round with the tour where not every day a rush to get to the next destination. While we reach Beijing fairly late on the first night, we had two full free days to explore Beijing.

Beijing Summer Place Entry Ticket Booth

Beijing Summer Palace

The first day morning was spent exploring the Summer Palace and after a quick lunch, afternoon was spend exploring the Forbidden City. Although most of us started out together in the Summer Palace, I lost everyone halfway in and was just walking alone to explore the place.

While we met up again at the Summer Palace Exit, it was clear that this group had no qualms to split and explore independently. Hence other than the first day crossing the border, we barely see everyone at the same time. 

Beijing Summer Palace

Beijing Summer Palace 

Tourist Resting at Beijing Summer Palace 

I ended up starting the Forbidden palace with John and Abrar then somehow bumped into Yassine, Andres, Joe, Steppi & Lukas but very quickly inside we all split again and that was how our Beijing excursion would be.

I finished the forbidden city and waited for Tsevtan at a cafe and after we all gathered back for a hot pot dinner or at least most of us.

The Forbidden Palace - Beijing

The Forbidden Palace - Beijing

Forbidden Palace - Beijing

Second free day in Beijing and I had to do chores. Morning was laundry and then a quick lunch with John before heading out on my own. I think everyone spend the day on their own today doing their own thing. I headed for the temple of heaven seeing the sights and just walking around.

Unexpectedly, I took nearly three hours exploring the Temple of Heaven and its surrounding compound. By the time I left it was already closing time (5pm) and I decided there was time for a quick exploration of Beijing Hutong Street.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven

I was in one of the least popular hutong riding a bicycle just exploring the eerily empty narrow streets when I got a message from Tsevtan to meet up. He was fairly near, so I continued exploring the Hutong along the way while he grabbed a bicycle to head my way as well.

We visited Dashilan Hutong and the surrounding mostly and the Hutong’s could be super touristy or super bland depending on the parts explored. It was definitely worth just letting instinct guide us to wander around going into dark alleys and then popping out into tourist pedestrian street before droning into another alley and emerging into some modern and massive pedestrian street that linked up to Tiananmen Square.

A random Hutong in Beijing

A random Hutong in Beijing

A random Hutong in Beijing

Darshilan Pedestrian Street - Beijing

What felt like a luxury at first having three nights in Beijing quickly turn out to be a very short time in Beijing. Short as it was I think I won’t be returning to Beijing anytime soon. It’s a weird feeling I think for Beijing since there is so much things to do and see in Beijing but at the same time it did not feel like those places that will keep on making you astonished day after day.

Interesting things to see and do every day yes but not a place that would give me a feeling of never enough. I have seen the main sights in Beijing, and it would last me a while I suppose.

Zheng Yang Men Jian Lou

Qianmen Pedestrian Street

Qianmen Pedestrian Street 

Travelled on: Nov 2024

China Day 3 – Ulanqub to Beijing and the Great Wall of China

There were not many plans for today. It was a long journey to Beijing. Mostly highway and barely any sights to see, we hit the road opening up the engine to the max. 

Somehow Tsevtan and Me still can’t see any of the other bikers despite constantly running at 120km/hr. We were left in the dust basically as their higher HP bikes all run full throttle.

We had marked out three potential locations to visit the Great Wall of China before entering Beijing. The recommended one was Badaling Great Wall, but it was famous and expected to be touristy. 

View at the Highway Reststop

Andres took a shot at looking at the map like I did the day before trying to find hidden gems and mapped out another part of the Great Wall to visit but there was no info so it was a random hit or miss which we had to decide on our own.

There was also a third one somewhere on the northeast side called Mutainyu Great Wall scenic area, but it was too far for a detour that we discarded it almost immediately. 

By mistake, when it came time to navigate off the highway, I made a turn too early and hit another highway going the wrong way for nearly 30 km. Poor Tsvaten just following me behind not knowing that I made the big blunder.

Once I could finally exit the highway and check bearing and time, we decided to just head for Badaling since there was not enough time to turn back to try and explore the unknown one. Along the way to Badaling Great Wall, I saw signboards for the Great Wall of China and slowly we could see the great wall in the horizon on the mountain ridges.

Juyongguan Great Wall

Juyongguan Great Wall

Juyongguan Great Wall 

A chance finding and a split decision made, I turned off the road following the signboard to Juyongguan Great Wall of China navigating purely by signpost at this stage instead of GPS. 

The other that headed via Andreas marker to the unknown one turn out to be flob as we asked the rest later and Badaling Great Wall turn out to have no tourist at all but closes at 530pm which made the visit time for most of them very short.

Tsevtan & me was the only two at Juyongguan Great Wall by luck and chance and here it was opened all the way to 9pm allowing visitor to hike the wall during nighttime where it was lighted up. 

Juyongguan Great Wall of China

Juyongguan Great Wall of China

Juyongguan Great Wall of China 

Apparently, we were there during a special event, and they extended the opening hours. We did two climb, one at the east before sundown and another in the west after sundown.

Juyongguan was a fortress in a way with the Great Wall forming a circle with two mega gate building entrance. The experience and luck were just precious. I would pick up more followers in the future due to this as many begin to trust my instinct to find hidden gems.

Juyongguan Great Wall at Night

Juyongguan Great Wall at Night

Me & Tsevtan - Juyongguan Great Wall of China - Night Time

Juyongguan - Great Wall of China at Night 

Hence it became that the second day riding and Tsevtan & me would ride again at night to reach Beijing after fully absorbing and appreciating the Great Wall of China.

Travelled on: Nov 2024

China Day 2 – Splitting Away from the Tour Group making my own Detours

New group and slowly getting to know everyone but it was surprisingly quite seamless. We had six bikers including myself and a total of five campers’ vehicles. It was a quick and easy group up as the bikers all more or less stick together with hotels and had our first group dinner yesterday.

Campers had separate place to camp, so I guess we were bonding in different ways. The group chat was also full of positive vibes which makes the starting so much a relief for me. It was a great group and all really independent travellers. The bikers were also all rugged and worn down traveling through Mongolia so expectation was not high and easily met.

Erenhot Monument - National Highway G331

Inner Mongolia - China

We started from Eranhot late morning with all of us going for petrol then to the traffic police station meeting up at 11am. This time the checks and license issuance took barely half an hour, and we were free to go on our own. Our tour guide Joe was a really chill guy barely saying much but always solving every problem like lightning quick.

Bikers all needed coffee but ended up having brunch instead in Eranhot. This delayed the setting off, but all was well. The roads were now good in China, but what I did not expected was the horrible cross wind battering constantly since we were still in Inner Mongolia.

The original route given by www.drivechina.com had no detours for this segment going to Ulanqab city. However, I had way too much time the day before at the customs waiting hence intensive looking at the map and just looking for alternative hidden gems. By chance I saw Wulanhada Volcano Geopark and that became an optional detour for the group.

Wulanhada Volcano Geopark was a string of volcano mount in the flatlands, and I picked out No.6 to do a visit. Tsevtan was following me as we were the two smallest bike and slowest in the group. 

Wulanhada Volcano Geopark No.6

Wulanhada Volcano Geopark No.6

Wulanhada Volcano Geopark No.6

By the time we reach the park it was nearly sunset. Trying to go for the shorter route led us to go off-roading to visit the volcano through the rear side. It was beautiful and a quick stop.

By the time we left the Geopark we had to ride at night to Ulanqab. We found out later that only two of us did the detour. Dropped the bags in the hotels in Ulanqab and quickly we all grab a taxi together to the small street food night market for dinner. 

Edward & Sarah (One of the campers) joined us bikers and after it was back to the hotel with all eight of us plus a dog and cat jumping in the campervan where Diego the van dropped us off.

Travelled on: Nov 2024

Border Crossing from Zamin-Uub (Mongolia) to Eranhot (China) with a Malaysian Motorcycle.

I had successfully crossed Mongolia from the western most point all the way to the China Border near the southeast. At this point at the border in the early sunrise glimmer, I knew that I was safe from all the police in Mongolia.

Riding through without the Venice Convention International Driving Licence seems like not a big deal in a way. I still had legal customs temporary import permit for the bike and insurance, so I guess the poor Malaysian that crossed over a few months ago was just unlucky to meet up with some nasty police causing trouble.

The border gate opened at 8am and bikers was ushered through first and we were happy quickly riding into the Mongolian Border Control. For some reason, or because we were the first to go through the gate, the first customs stop and checkpoint barrier was opened and we rode pass it. 

Exit Mongolian Border - Zamin-Uub

It was chaos after that everyone following someone else like a duckling and I decided to split from the group to process it slowly. I went back to the second customs checkpoint and with some translation managed to get help. 

I was walked back to the first shed custom post where the customs officer proceeded to key in all of Bragge particulars into their system. Next was the custom building on the right and this time they had my information in their system asking me to point out the plate number.

A custom officer followed me to have a quick inspection of Bragge and then I was told that all was good to go. Riding through customs clearance was quick and lastly was a small post where Immigration for riders/drivers was done.

The rest of the group went through the confused chicken/duck way. The riders and drivers all parked their vehicle and went through immigration on the left building which was actually for passengers. They then backtracked to fumble through customs and got stop at the last immigration post confusing the officers further on how they managed to get the exit stamp.

Entry to China Border - Eranhot

Still, it was a simple error and by 9am we were all through the Mongolian border and on our way to Eranhot Border (China). Our guide was already waiting for us as we rode into the customs compound, and we were quickly processed through immigration. 

Then it was parking and waiting for a good five hours while China customs did something in their office which we were not aware off. We just had to wait and there was nothing much we could do. At 4pm two customs officers came out to check all our Vehicle Chassis number and that was it. 

Waiting at the Erenhot Border Control 

Little town of Erenhot - China 

We were good to leave the border and enter China finally. We managed to cross over in a day and avoided having to leave the vehicles in the custom compound for the night. The 5 hours wait was frustrating, but the bright side is that we did not encountered any unexpected delay.

The bikers were released first to move on to the hotel in Eranhot while the bigger monster vehicles had to undergo another Vehicle Technical inspection before being released for the night. 

We all still had to get the local China license plate and driving license the next day at the Traffic Police but that was more or less the extend of the border crossing.

Lots of waiting and doing nothing. We are in China and I have a new group to get to know over the span of 29 days.

Traveled on: Nov 2024