5/11/08

Okay. We're in Beijing, or more specifically, on the outer-most ring of Beijing, of which there are three. We arrived last night after a 2-hour bus ride from the port where our ferry landed from Japan. We will pick up the motorcycles that were containerized at Kobe tomorrow.

I found out that the Chinese have to carry identity papers that indicate what ring of Beijing they are allowed to go into. Entry into the various rings is not necessarily checked, but if caught where they don't belong - a stiff fine and revocation of their driver's license follows. Apparently that's the way the government controls movement throughout the country. Visitors must be part of some state- approved tour group (else a visa won't be issued) and locals must have papers stamped indicating they have permission to travel to various destinations.

Dave, a friend in this subscriber group, asked about the drivers. My observation is - the Japanese and Chinese are almost polar opposites. The Japanese drive very defensively and only use their horns in a no-kidding, dire situation. The Chinese exercise random movement and chaos theory on the roads and use their horns like New Yorkers, just for the hell of it. Chinese truck drivers routinely drive in the fast lane but also exercise random lane changes. The bus ride to the hotel was essentially a slalom run interspersed with periods of heavy braking/acceleration and cussing by our driver.

Fortunately or unfortunately, we will NOT be allowed to ride in (the required) convoy fashion on "expressways". We will only be allowed to use secondary roads, which reduces the chances of high-speed ooopsies, but brings with it the chance of an accident with people and/or animals randomly milling about on the roadways. The obvious cost of the secondary road travel will be constant situational awareness.

So far the food has been interesting/different. We began our Chinese cuisine experience on the 2-1/2 day ferry ride from Kobe. Quite frankly there are things I ate that were a mix of good and nasty and some of which I have no idea what it was. Visual recognition is in order here. I gave up asking the server staff what some foods were after several attempts what with my shot-out hearing and just not being able to lock in on what they were saying. Oh well, more adventures to come.

We stopped at a restaurant last night that appeared to be a cross between a brightly-lit casino and a meeting hall, complete with Christmas tree and decorations. Our Chinese guide, Sim, chose from the menu and upon request, ordered a huge plate of fish prepared Sichuan-style that was (spicy) hot but most excellent. I'm looking forward to more of that! Well enough for now. Will do some local exploring by walking about and hopefully take some pics.

See ya.

Ed Olsen World Tour 2008

Impressions of Week One

We had an interesting ferry ride from Kobe, Japan to the port city Tianjin-shi, China. The food was a cultural shock and the prices have dropped dramatically. Experiences were both good and bad (cleanliness). We taught Mike and Stuart how to play Pinochle. We will be having the rematch this afternoon at 4:00. As usual, Harrison loves to get the bid.

Upon arrival at passport control, Henry and Debbie were held up. They made us wait while our passports went behind closed doors. It took an hour and 40 minutes before they deemed us acceptable to enter the country. Still don’t know why.

Beijing was a lot of fun. People, traffic, people, traffic. Went to the Silk Market. Harrison bought silk shirts for himself and others. Had a blast bargaining with the young girls. He is definitely a pro. We saw the new Olympic stadium and it is beautiful. Visited Tianamen Square, Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. There are so many Chinese tourists that it makes it difficult to get a peaceful photo. The Chinese people are fun and love to interact with us. Many want their photos taken with us and we can see them taking our photos when they think we are not looking. We do the same because their faces are unique and have a lot of character. We had a different type of “Chinese Food” every night and all of it was delicious.

Bus ride to Chengde was nice. Chengde was relaxing and quite a relief to get away from the Beijing smog. Visited two temples, one a replica of the Potala Palace in Tibet (although it was much smaller). The Summer Palace for the Emperor was across the street from our hotel. Had a nice walk and tour. Extensive grounds which were used for hunting. There are still a lot of deer on the grounds.

Bus ride from Chengde to Shanhaiguan was terrifying most of the way. Road construction, passing on blind corners, mopeds, three-wheeled carts, donkey carts, pedestrians and everything else you can imagine. Our able driver got us here safe and sound so we gladly tipped him. Visited the beginning of the Great Wall (Dragon’s Head) were it enters the Yellow Sea. Very beautiful and again, another great day.

Still waiting for our bikes. Hopefully this afternoon. May be riding by tomorrow. Having a lot of fun but are anxious for our motorcycles.

Some thoughts…compared to our China visit in 2000. Things seem to have changed dramatically. Before, we couldn’t go off on our own. Now we wander at will. It is truly a foreign country and one of the most interesting and exciting places we have ever been. There are very few signs in English and very little English spoken. Only photos can give you a brief picture of what we are experiencing. There is new construction everywhere. Intricate high rises and massive apartment complexes. Almost everyone is young which is surprising. It could be an illusion because everyone waiting on us and working is young. Everyone has been kind and helpful. We feel completely safe and accepted.

We are having a blast and truly grateful for being able to have this experience.

We will try to write more on this tour.

Harrison and Debbie

Hello!

My first week in China is filled with a new admiration of Asian Chinese people. There are plenty of them around everywhere. I am very impressed with the building that is everywhere. I have never seen so many sky cranes and thousand of workers everywhere. Every shop, every corner has many people doing various activities. There is no litter; they clean the streets by hand, but with pride.

The people are very happy and proud of everything they do. Many still ride small motorbikes, electric bikes and scooters, one-cylinder trucks with no cabs. The one cylinder vehicles have a very unique sound and reminds me of Midwest farming country 30 years ago with the one-cylinder John Deere tractors. Air pollution is the biggest single drawback I see with this country. There is dust in the air everywhere from the Mongolian dessert and coal dust and particles from various sources of coal being burned…

They are also in a major drought and I see those two things being their national challenge. These are very happy people which are at peace with their lives….You can go anywhere and not fear for anything….They strike me as very honest people. I would recommend a trip to this area for anyone…for an adventure.

We have run into a few hiccups with customs that we are working through in the next few days. We will be very happy to get our bikes and start that part of our journey…I have met many new friends and look forward to this trip ahead….

I am hopefully my friends will go to Fisher house donations site. We are doing well with achieving my goal of $10,000 for our soldiers.

Sincerely,

Michael Jones

Hello,

We knew shortly before we arrived in Tianjin that our Chinese Travel Permits had been modified, but when that delay was compounded by the Seattle container being misrouted through Hong Kong, we all became a Bus Tour Group for a week. The one benefit of being without the bikes was that we actually did get to spend a bit more time with the Chinese. Beijing is a city the size of Belgium with somewhere around 17 million people living there. The amount and size of the construction projects going on in this city is as interesting as the air pollution is stifling.

As we finally boarded our bus for Chengde, 186km Northeast of Beijing, I was not going to miss this mega-city. Chengde, the home of The Mountain Resort, was built throughout the 18th century so the Emperors had a cool escape from the Beijing summers. The Resort is now a vast city park and tourist venue. One of the Eight Outer Temples located near the Resort is the Putuo Zongcheng Temple. This Temple was modeled after the Potala Palace in Tibet and is now know as the “Little Potala Palace”.

It was quite good to have a chance to get off the bus and walk the Resort and to visit Putuo Temple. The feeling I got in Chengde was that of a more relaxed people – maybe it was the mountains and a lot cleaner air. The food has been very good for the most part, but after a week of three-a-day Chinese and round tables, we needed a change. On one of our bus rides, Mike Paull was quick to spot a Restaurant whose sign had the English words “Beer Hall” and “BBQ”. What he discovered was a Chinese micro-Brewery and South American BBQ. We were living large – and no round tables! Good eye Mike!

From Chengde, the drive to the little town of Shanhaiguan was a long day on the bus – 346km of two-lane roads and death-defying passing on blind turns. All that l could think about was the Beijing Police official who gave us our “Safety Lecture”, talking about “no passing over solid single or double yellow lines.” Apparently none of China's 250 million drivers had that lecture. I don’t know just how we avoided so many potential head-on collisions, but we did arrive without any physical damage.

Shanhaiguan is where the Great Wall meets the Sea. The Dragon’s head, as the wall’s beginning is called, actually extends into the China Sea.

The food has taken a sudden turn to the average. Some of the ingredients are obvious but for some others, well, no one really wanted to ask. The bikes show tomorrow – one more day and we’ll be riding! A good start to week two of our adventure.

Cheers,

Dan Townsley

Beijing to Chengde For seven of us, this year’s World Tour began in Kobe, Japan. Having finished up an inaugural three week tour in the Islands of the Rising Sun, we boarded the China Express Ferry Yanjing, a passenger/container combi vessel in the Port of Kobe for our 2-1/2 day sea voyage to China. As we steamed out of the harbor, a tattered and worn Japanese flag was lowered from the bridge deck’s mast. Looking sternward, the national flag of China snapped about smartly in the breeze. On a cool and Sunday afternoon, the ship’s engines slowed, and we entered the port.

Those of us who live in Washington State think of Seattle as a “major” seaport. The Port of Tianjin must easily be 100 times larger. Even before we entered the harbor proper, huge bulk tankers were offloading fuel to tank farms the size of a small town. Further in, we saw long lines of other bulk carries offloading mountains of coal. Next came a seemingly endless horizon of container ships and cranes. The variety of ships and commotion was daunting. To port, a submarine, heavily cocooned in scaffolding and tarps was in dry-dock for repairs. The sheer scope of the yards and operation was overwhelming. However, a passenger port it is not.

We finally made way to our terminal, large but decrepit in a Greyhound bus terminal sort of way, where a rickety gangway was fork lifted to the ship, and our small band of passengers disembarked. After clearing drawn-out immigration and comically abbreviated Customs formalities, we boarded our bus for Beijing, arriving a day ahead of the remaining riders who were flying in direct from various points in the USA. All told, we are 11 riders total, 10 Americans and one New Zealander, on 10 BMW GS motorcycles (one of them a venerable R80GS that started it all), and a lone KTM 990.

We didn’t realize that the “adventure” had already begun Between our World Tours and Silk Road Adventures, GlobeRiders has brought seven adventure touring groups into China. With only one exception that I’m aware of, in each of those years, our Chinese travel partners have told us we were the only “overland” motorcycle group allowed to bring large-displacement, foreign-registered bikes into China. It’s never been easy. There’s apparently a local saying, “In China, anything is possible, everything is difficult”. We shortly discovered what a truism this really is.

This year, the over-arching event in China is the Olympics. However, two other major “historical and cultural” vehicular tours were planned. One was a 4x4 overland expedition out of England. The second was a huge event, the 100th anniversary of The Great Race. This year’s Great Race was to start in New York City, travel across America then into British Columbia. From there, the 100+ vehicles were to be airlifted by two chartered Boeing 747s, and flown to China, eventually making their way to Paris. Long story short, both events were denied their permits, and have been cancelled.

Amazingly, Helge’s long association with our partners here prevailed, and we were given permission to run our World Tour, with new conditions. Although we began our last tour in Beijing, due to security concerns surrounding the Olympics, we had to begin this Ride 300 kilometers beyond Beijing. Our partners here had to post a Customs Bond equal to 80% of the current market value of the 11 bikes. We had to submit medical examination records from a Chinese hospital. We had to attend a class in driving safety at the provincial Police Authority. All of this in addition to the usual requirement of Chinese temporary driving licenses, motor vehicle inspections, registrations, and license plates.

As always, we will be required to ride in convoy, with local guides and drivers guiding the way. At the moment, all this effort has come to naught. For reasons out of our control, the container bearing the 4 motorcycles direct-shipped from Seattle was mis-routed through Hong Kong, and will arrive one week later than our planned departure date. Because our exit from China and into Russia is fixed, we had to get the tour underway. We’ve arranged to hire a private bus and driver, and thus begin this two-wheeled adventure on four.

The changes triggered by the Olympics are profound and pervasive. On the two hour drive from Tianjin into Beijing, the entire expressway has had greenbelts planted on either side. In Seattle, our freeways have had Scotch Broom (a virtual weed) planted along some areas, and grass seed sprayed in others. Here, for the entire distance, a row after row of shrubs and trees have been planted, 6 feet apart, a minimum of 10 ranks deep. Since the saplings are still young and have little root structure, they are braced in a precise crisscross lattice of bamboo poles – all of this planted and braced by hand. And this has been done along every major highway radiating out of Beijing.

The city itself has truly been transformed. Thousands of blocks of old-style apartments and shops have been “broken” to build new arcades, high-rises, and hotels. The streets have been widened, new signage and auto-countdown LED traffic signals installed. Every commercial establishment already has an apparently mandated Beijing Olympics 2008 souvenir counter, it’s hard to find any retail goods that don’t bear the interlocked rings logo. The commercialization is almost insane. Frankly I don’t envy anyone who attends - it’s the shoulder season right now, the congestion and crowds during the actual event will test the goodwill and patience of millions.

With and some unplanned idle time in Beijing, we’ve had time to expand our exploration of this megapolis. Once again, our group has walked the Forbidden City, Imperial Palace, and the mega fortification rightly called The Great Wall. We’ve seen the Chinese Acrobatic Show. Though they’ve clearly learned a few things from Cirque du Soleil in terms of staging and presentation, the skill and power of this performance stands in a class of its own and owes nothing to any other troupe. Although we have yet to take delivery of our bikes, our group is (obviously) here. Although all are understandably disappointed, they’re taking it in good stride.

Frankly, I am not missing the long ride into, and out of, Beijing. Unlike any previous group, ours has the advantage of observing the seemingly random and death-defying chaos that passes for driving here from the (relative) safety of a bus before we set out on our own rides. Elsewhere in China, the horrifying and tragic search for survivors continues in the hard hit areas surrounding the quake center of Chengdu. World press is focused on the troubles in Tibet and protests surrounding the progress of the Olympic Torch.

The world’s attention is focused on China as never before.

The Adventure begins . . . .

MikeP (currently in Chengde (not Chengdu), China)