Once again, GlobeRiders and our group of intrepid riders embarks on another World Tour, our fifth iteration of this, our original and longest-running Adventure.  This year, five riders (together with Dan and I) journey to China by ferry from Kobe, Japan, having just completed our Japan Hanami Tour 2008. Four more will fly in to Beijing - our group totals eleven.

To get you acquainted with our route, we have an interactive map (courtesy of Google Maps) at the top of this page which shows our route, "waypoint-by-waypoint". By clicking on the pan and zoom controls in the upper left hand of the map, you can see where we'll be riding.  If you click and hold in the map, you can drag the map around.  To reset the map, refresh your browser.

At least once a week (sometimes, bi-weekly if time and internet connections permit), we'll send an email newsletter to all subscribers in our database. This newsletter contains one or more clickable links to new Weekly Chapters (which you can also access directly via the Navigation Menu above). If a Weekly Chapter has been published, it will colored yellow (or blue if you have already viewed it) in the Navigation Menu. If it has yet to be published, it will be colored white.

In addition, there are two special "Weekly" Chapters. The Bikes & Bios Chapter allows you to get "up close and personal" with our participants. It has a short biography and a couple of favorite photos from each of our tour members.

There is also a Satellite Tracking & Navigation Chapter. As our resident GPS guru, Dan's motorcycle is equipped with a satellite GPS transponder provided to us courtesy of Touratech. Every 60 minutes while the group is actually in motion, the transponder uploads Dan's current position via satellite, and this in turn updates a tracking frame which you can see on that page, showing our current position and also our track to date.

Motorcycles of the four riders flying in to Beijing were shipped from our staging "warehouse", South Sound BMW in Fife, Washington, USA, on 27 March 2008, loaded and secured a 20-foot container, which sailed from the Port of Seattle, Washington, USA, bound for the Port of Tianjin, the closest seaport to Beijing.

The group will "meet and greet" at our base hotel in Beijing on Monday 12 May.  The following day, we'll board a bus from Beijing to Tianjin, reclaim our bikes from Customs, obtain our Chinese driving licenses, registration, and license plates, then take to the road for the first time in the Middle Kingdom.

We'll spend a total of 15 days in China and Inner Mongolia, eventually crossing from Manzhouli, China, to Zabaikalsk, entering Russia on Day 16.

Then, it's 26 days across the vastness of Siberia and the Ural Mountains, riding through Russia, to Anapa, Ukraine.

From Anapa, on Day 42, we'll take a ferry across the narrow straight joining the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea, and make landfall at Yalta, Ukraine.  On Day 47, we enter Poland.  On Day 50, the Czech Republic.  The following day, we cross through Slovakia into Germany, and on Day 52, make our final waypoint in Munich, Germany.

THe tour officially ends on American Independence Day, the 4th of July.  As a "bonus" add-on, most of our now experienced riders will take a final ride together to BMW Motorrad Days, the world's largest BMW rally, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.  There, we'll hang out with 30,000 like-minded riders for the weekend, and finally, make our separate ways home.

We hope you enjoy your virtual tour with us. Should you have any questions or wish to drop a line to any of our participants, all you need to do is click here, or send email to info@globeriders.com.

It's going to be another fascinating Ride, thanks for coming along!

Come Ride with Us!

For more information on China, please click the flag.

For more information on Russia, please click the flag.

For more information on Ukraine, please click the flag.

For more information on Poland, please click the flag.

For more information on the Czech Republic, please click the flag.

For more information on Slovakia, please click the flag.

For more information on Germany, please click the flag.

[Note: All country reference links and articles courtesy of Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, with articles submitted by "GlobalWriters" everywhere!]