With the fact you will most likely be mostly illegal, about from your Visa.

So my advice is STAY AWAY FROM THE POLICE?

Get over the hotel problems and use the note I posted about Chinese ID cards or just ride on to the next petrol station.

The problem you had with the Chinese ID card is mainly in the far west and don't happen that often in 10 years maybe only 2 times.

What can be a problem and is more common it that with a lot of cities were bikes are restricted or banned then you need a valid bikes documents book to get petrol?

Our friend Sjaak Lucassen on his famous R1 also drove in China without registration or guide. He, however did not drive across the border. He had put his bike in a train to somehow get beyond the border without permits or paperwork. Hiding his bike somehow from the border guys.


R1 World Tour Route

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- On the road since 2003 in a vintage Land Cruiser

You have a visa, you have stamps from the border guards showing you entered with the vehicle, why are you illegal? It's not like you snuck across a mountain!

Laowai Smash is a powerful weapon. Use it!

Awesome! I'm very interested in some more information.

So you did not get a Chinese Drivers licence and you did not get a Chinese licence plate?

Adventurous greetings,
Coen

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- On the road since 2003 in a vintage Land Cruiser

We are 3 canadians crossing from Kyrgystan to Pakistan across China in september 2018. If anybody does this crossing successfully (or not) please keep me posted. We should try it as well then.

So good news

#ridersxeurasia

Unfortunately for us we had no luck with entering on one motorcycle. We had visas, but border control would not let us enter without a tour agency that would collect us. We begged and pleaded, asked them to use our Carnet, offered money, but they would not allow us to enter freely.

As far as I remember Alex Rubtsov was there a bit earlier with his africa twin but without guide:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...8-4#post195981

It is really interesting thread.
If it is true I will start shipping bike from India next year.

Very interesting !

The interesting bit is not that somebody got in by mistake or thanks to some poorly trained official. What's interesting is that these guys got away with it TWICE. Yes, you need to get out of the country too, and not have your bike impounded or pay a huge fee.

I can imagine the local police have no idea it's illegal for foreigners to ride alone, so I'm not surprised people get through checkpoints unscathed. But what if you have an accident ? things will get hairy.

It's a bit like people slipping into Thailand from Cambodia without a guide. You can do it, but it doesn't mean it's legal or safe to do so.

Still, if I were in Kyrg I would try my luck. There's no visa in Kyrg no if it doesn't work too bad, you just go for plan B. It only costs a Chinese visa, which isn't much.

The thing is, if dozens of bikers show up at the border without guides, the Chinese may realize they need to tighten their procedure. Just like when you could get an Iranian visa in Trabzon without authorization letter. Not any more.

Laurent

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2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

Apart from Rubtsov, I also know of Bruno Blum ... a swiss guy who we met in China when there on the bikes in 1994.

https://www.amazon.de/Motorradtraum-.../dp/376544152X

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Yes, this has become an interesting thread, thank all for posting.

@JimboMatrix

Where did you try to enter?

@Colebatch

Yes Bruno Blum crossed China on his own with his own bike. When I lived in Switzerland I met him a few times and he invited me and my ex girlfriend for dinner once, but this was in 2006 or 2007 and we did not talk about China then.

There are others that crossed China on their own a long time ago, but the only ones I remember at the moment are Klaus and Claudia Schubert, Doris Wiedemann and I also recall Dave Barr writing about him doing it. But I am sure there are more.


@Ibendel

I did not get in by mistake, I got in legaly and I still have the legal paper from the person in government.

... you are so right, getting out for me was more difficult, but I managed. But pls dont ask me why I got out, it took ten days and a lot of visits to Chinese Customs Headquaters in Kashgar, and I was never told why I could leave after trying with no luck twice. But I am sure they were not poorly trained officals.

I had two accidents in China, both with scooters crashing into my bike when it was parked. I just went and picked up my bike and told the riders to get lost, no problems. Sure an accident can cause a problem, but deal with it when it happens, and deal with it like a man, and dont be scared. Trafic in China is crazy for an European, and I saw a lot of accidents. Take care.

... or they open the border for bikers, who knows with the Chinese? But I think its worth a try ... just go and try, you have nothing to loose.

@Sambor

Thanks for posting the link. I had never heard of Alex Rubtsov.

Good to see you posting here, remember we met in January here in Bolivia (Tupiza) for the Dakar. Where are you?


@Nuff Said

In general I agree with your advice, maybe six or seven time I rode away when the police tried to stop me ... not because I was doing anything illegal (with the exception of the motorway), just because I had wasted enough time in the "no communication possible game" with the police and I won every time.

But I remember one situation, when I had no more fuel (and I had 36 Liters on a DR350) and the petrol station did not wanted to give me any. What would you do? I tried bribing, did not work, because of all the cameras I guess. So I went to the police station and asked for help, it took about two hours but I got fuel. The petrol station attendent even filled my bike up before he got the offical paper from the police to tell him to do it, but he asked me to wait until the police would bring the paper and I did, having lunch and drinking in a restaurant with my bike parked at the petrol station just over the road.


So, who is going to try next? As Pkicken showed us in this thread, and I showed you in my little ride report, it can be done.

Greetings from Bolivia
mika

We tried at the Irkeshtam border. Kyrgyzstan > China.

@JimboMatrix

Thank you for the reply. Pls tell us, if you made it over the border to the border station? Or did you have to turn around at the border? What passport are you using to travel?

Oh, maybe you did not know, but the actual border and the border station are some kilometers apart (if I remember correctly around 30km).

At the Torugat Pass (where I left China to Kyrgyzstan) the border and the border station are 100km apart, and its a military zone ... it will be difficult there to cross the border on your own bike without a guide. But you could try, its a nice ride up anyway ... in 2015 they opened the gate only in the afternoon.

mika

We made it over the border, the first couple of checkpoints were fine we showed our passports and were waved through by the Chinese. It wasn’t until we reached border control where they x-ray luggage and vehicles that we were questioned, “where is your tour agency?” I tried everything including using a Carnet. I tried lying and saying the agency was waiting for us in Kashgar. They tried phoning higher officials to get permission, but there was no way they would let us in without an escort and customs paperwork provided by the agency.

Me and my wife hold British passports and our Chinese visas are multiple entry 2 years.

@JimboMatrix

Thank you very much for the details, I hope this will help others.

Yes, the place where they scan luggage and stamp your passport is called Irkeshtam border station (if I remember correctly).

So you made it over the actual border and you could ride free to the border station.

This gives me an idea, but I am not suggesting this on a public forum as it would be of course illegal.

When I traveled 8000km across China in 2015, nobody ever asked me to show bike documents ... only when I wanted to leave the country.

So, this is it from my side for this thread. Maybe it helps somebody.

All the best with your China Adventure

mika

When we met Bruno Blum ... it was July 1994 and we were all in Police Detention in the Chinese city of Jining, near the Mongolian border. He was held by police because he entered China with no Chinese registration and drivers licence. We were being held because even though we did have Chinese registrations and drivers licences, the area near the Mongolian border is considered a military zone and we had entered this military zone without a permit.

The Chinese special border zone cop allowed us to talk with Bruno. We made a deal with the cop that we could go to the Mongolian border if we doubled a tourguide on the back of the bike (so we would not venture off track and observe secret chinese military activity I guess). Bruno and his bike were going to be transported to Beijing on a truck and shipped to America from there. I told Bruno that apart from this guy near the border, I suspect the other cops in China dont really now the rules about foreigners ... its a role for border zone cops. So I suggested he try to make a run for it from Beijing - just get on the bike and ride. He said he wanted to get across the Khunjerab pass to Pakistan. I thought he was optimistic to go that far without docs ... but he made it.

Looking back, its just a funny co-incidence that we ended up 24 years ago in the same city at the same time being detained by the same border zone cop.

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