Off to the Army city we go 26th June

We finally leave the Sichuan province and enter into the Shaanxi province. Thankfully we have a shortish day due to us doing more of the miles yesterday and in typical fashion of eastern China it is to start the day in Rain with roads that are thankfully good, just need to watch out for the landslides. Did not bother with the rain suite as it is to warm and once it stops raining, everything dries out very quickly.





This eventually gets to a main city and we turn right to head for Xian, then a traffic jam for no reason at all, maybe because it is a Saturday and everyone is in town for a market?

Then a few miles of roadwork’s and road closures but finally we hit the outskirts of Xian and could not resist a picture with the bike outside the temple

It was at this point that Kevin went past hooting his horn with Adam the cameraman on the back.
Well the next eight miles were pure adrenalin as we dived around and through traffic, Police trying to stop us and it will make great footage for the DVD. Adam said it was brilliant and could not believe some of the stuff we were doing. I say give the Chinese a taste of their driving HA!

11104 miles - Xi’an, China

Long day in the saddle! 25th June

Sometimes the miles are not that big but they just take forever to clock up and today was no exception

As promised a few from the Blue fire club turned up to see us off. They are mostly 150cc motocross type bikes from china but there were two guys who had Yamaha XJR1200 and they rode out of the town with us




I like the guy with the blue XJR who has helmet and gloves on but is girlfriend is very unprotected. Adam the cameraman taking a picture of me filming him for a change
Everywhere we stop the bikes always get a lot of attention and so do we as there are no tourists who venture through these areas and there is always one question they ask “HOW MUCH” pointing at the bike

So onward we go o the main roads but not the motorway which we zig-zag under, over and follow along but not on. We will get ot he motorway i am sure, just need to speak to the right people

These roads are great fun and it gets more twisty and the scenery more green mile after mile and we spend all our time on the sides of the tyres, which is good as the middle of the tyre is getting a bit low on the height of the knobblies

After 11 hours in the saddle, another hotel in a small town in which there does not seem to be anything but it is comfortable and guess what we had for dinner, Go on i bet you cannot guess, “Chinese”

10981 miles – Foping, China

Smog or Humidity Haze?? 24th June

We are starting to get into the main areas of Eastern China and it feels like one town just blends in to the next one, so rather than take a main road to the next main city, we need to get “out of town” to see some more of the countryside.
We cannot decide whether there is still smog in the country here or not but to get there we have to go through a few more towns
Judge for yourself in the following pictures. Could it be humidity haze?




On this route we have a river to cross where they have not finished building a bridge yet, so the only way is by ferry




Then lots of the lovely winding roads in 30 Deg C and 80% humidity to finally end up at the hotel for a relaxing shower with a twist?

Sorry to scare you all but I just had to show this bathroom wall into the main room
A local bike club (Blue Fire) had their meeting in the car park and Robert and I were presented with flags of their club for starting my bike up as i had my key on me.

They were going to meet up with us when we left at 08:00 the following morning

10678 miles - Langston, China

Hello Pandas 23rd June

One or two people had a little bit too much to drink and were still a little inebriated in the morning. Luckily it was an early start for some more tourist things like visit the park where the Pandas live
This is not a zoo but a research establishment which is looking to improve the population of the panda in China which stands at around 1700 in the wild at the moment
IT was a good day to see them as it was cooler than normal and wet which is how they like it



This panda cub is one year old and I apologise for the poor pictures. This was due to me not charging the camera battery and also using the video camera from Adam as he was not allowed in. Sorry for the silly outfit as they are insistent that you wear the covers for your shoes and gown with plastic gloves as well. Not sure if it is for ours or their benefit



It was all rather rushed and a little processional with around another 6 people in with us four. Oh well it is something a lot of people have never done
Out of the main Panda are and onto the Red Panda area. “WHAT?” I hear you ask. A sort of Racoon looking thing of a similar size and has the main markings of a panda but its main coat is red

That afternoon it was off to a site which they reckon is more important than the terracotta army as it is the oldest evidence of civilisation in the Bronze Age at Saxingdue dated from 1600 to 1100 BC.
The detail is incredible and how they have survived as long as they have is mystifying

This mask is over a metre wide
Back to the hotel in readiness for our group meal and a performance in the local opera house of “changing mask” along with other delights, like Urdu playing, to original Chinese drums

Finally back o hotel for a little night cap after a very long day off looking at the sites of Chengdu

10477 miles – Chengdu. China

Goodbye Monkeys 22nd June

Oh it is Miss Di's birthday today but with being 7 hours ahead i will skype a call to her later and a text to her now.
On the morning of us leaving the manager wanted to give us all a present and have lots of photos. I think this may all appear in some advertising for non Chinese tourist’s somewhere.
The gift was a stuffed monkey as Mount Emie is famous for its monkeys in the hills.


Journey to Chengdu is not long but the roads are in need of repair and the driving of the locals is at an all time low. We get use to driving like them which is anywhere there is not a pot hole. The reason for the bad roads is that a new motorway has been built and they have not renewed this section yet. Unfortunately motorcycles are not allowed on the motorway “DUH!” I think we might test that out in the near future. We arrive there mid afternoon with a welcome from the management on the notice boards and above the main entrance. Seems like everyone wants to advertise our presence

Now Chengdu is the home town of our guide “Little John” and he will stop at home to have some time with his son.
We get to have a wander round the city which has a population of 10 million a very vibrant place that would not look out of place in any city in England.
Designer shops with no one over 30. Well that is how it looked to me (40+ person) but everyone else with me is thinking the same thing
So we visited Jing Lea Street which is an old part of town but like most things in China, it was refurbished in 2004 (read Built new)


10477 miles – Chengdu. China

Giant Buddha 21st June

Another journey out, to visit a Giant Buddha in Leshan, which is 71m tall and was built in 740 BC at the confluence of three rivers. The rock from the build was dumped in the river getting rid of the deadly rapids which had claimed so many lives. They believed it was down to the Buddha but we will never know?
The first way to see it is from boat on the river to get the best picture but the only problem is that we had to wait for over an hour for the boat to launch and then wear stupid life jackets

As we have learnt, the Chinese cannot swim and we went to the Spa at the hotel and in the pool we were the only ones except for a group who used floatation devices.
The mist you can see is not mist it is “SMOG” which will accompany us on our final leg to Beijing.


There is a bridge across the river in the photo if you look carefully and this was taken on a summer’s day of over 30 Deg C
OK here he is and you can even see the smog in these photos and since the Taliban blew up a giant Buddha in Afghanistan, then he is now the largest in the world



As you will see in the last picture, you can walk round but with all this smog, the majority of us did not fancy breathing all the muck in will descending ad ascending the stairs and along with the hour to queue and an hour to walk there and back from the car park.
Best head back to sort the bike out as we leave tomorrow
When we did get back to the bikes a banner had been erected by the hotel, excellent!

Time to also nip out on the bike and have a few photos from the area!



Good time also to get the bike clean.
My bike seems to be getting more attention than Roberts, probably because it is Chinese red!
Oh well back to the hotel for a group meet and get ready to leave in the morning

10372 miles – Mount Emie, China

Monkeys and Temples 20th June

After a leisurely get up and a very good breakfast of more western style it was all board the bus to be taken to Mount Emie. There are lots of temples which the Chinese say 108, what they really mean is a lot, not actually 108, along with jungle and monkeys.
First stop is to catch a cable car rather than walk up 100’s of steps, you will see them later as that is the way we came down

Then to the first temple which has monkeys at the base of the steps leading up to it and if you have a plastic bag they will grab it off you.

They will even jump on you if you have a backpack to see if there is anything inside as
John our guide found out

So up the steps we go to the first temple and you have to go round the whole thing clockwise for good luck. No problem as we can all do with as much luck as possible.




Now I am sure you all remember a TV program called KungFu with David Carradine, well these Buddhist monks still do all that and they do have classes for the locals. We did a ask one to give us a demonstration but he unfortunately declined

Then it was the long climb down the steps to the car park which takes about an hour, so some people decided to take the easy option!


When you see the size of ark and the steepness of the steps, they did a hard job. You may remember that Mark was the one who damaged his ankle in sand before Lhasa and was having a few aches with the hill descent.

A few more people jumped on the band wagon and then there was a race on

Then it is back to the car park


10372 miles – Mount Emie, China