Travelling through China with your own vehicle is only possible if you do it through an agency with a Chinese guide travelling with you in a car all the time ... this is very expensive. So we started an online search at the beginning of the year getting together a group consisting of 9 people, 1 dog, 5 bikes and one car (who took the guide in). This way it is more affordable but also a bit of a gamble - you don't really know the others and you will spend quite some time together - chances are if the group is that big there will be problems! We have selected a date for crossing the border and all arrive there seperately.
Most of the group have met a few days before the border and on the morning of our entry Micha and Martina arrive too and away we go.
The departure from Mongolia is slightly chaotic, we got exact instructions of Paul from Chinaoverland as to what kind of documents we will need to be given at the Mongolian side of the border – only - the Mongols seem to have no idea what we want and so it takes forever until that is sorted. Then they try to charge the passengers 1000 Turic for the exit stamp but we have no more Mongolian money and also don’t see why we should pay this. Eventually they get tired of discussing the matter and (bloody) wave us through.
We finally have everything together and are facing the Chinese border. What a difference! Everything is clean, clear and orderly. We are asked to leave the vehicles at one side and are herded into the building for the passport control. You could get lost in the vast arrivals hall which could easily cope with cross-border traffic as exists between Mexico and the USA but the ratio of passport control officer to arriver is 1 to 1. Here Frank awaits us (I 'm sure he has a different name but the Chinese who are dealing with foreigners choose Western names for themselves. Either sounding similar to their real name or just one they like. How this is with Frank I have never found out). He takes care of all immigration formalities. Most of it he has probably sorted prior to our arrival. They take pictures of the drivers and already we have the first problem: on the Mongolian border Kevin was cited as the vehicle owner in the export form - the vehicle registration certificate is stating me as owner though . The first small problem and Frank is acting already slightly miffed but he can somehow sort it and we get waved through. Now follows the customs check. The bikes are seemingly of little interest but Martina’s car is being scrutinized. One finds a map of China and there is a big fuss because Taiwan is on it. They want to confiscate the map but Martina solves the problem by snatching a pair of scissors and cutting out Taiwan - the pages in her Lonely Planet which report on Taiwan she has to tear out too. We find all this a bit ridiculous but rules are rules so the episode just serves to give us a bit entertainement. We have a snigger (you don't want to laugh and upset them) and then we wait until we can finally leave the border. We are required by the new regulations to stay in a particular hotel for foreigners - our vehicles are not yet released for China and we also still need our Chinese license plates and driver's licenses.
The hotel is part of the customs authority – now make of this what you like!
Well the room costs 20 € for the night and we even allegedly have Internet access in the rooms (just not a working one)
We’re all hungry now and our guide takes us to a street vendor of delicious pies . The poor guy is now trying to satisfy 9 people with different desires, wishes and priorities. We are still hungry, Martina seeks an internet cafe, Johan a phone card and Petra an I-phone-shop and so on and so on. At 6 pm the guy with the license plates and driver's licenses arrives - what a pity there are only laminated cards that we should carry with us - and I thought we get a real license plate! Well never mind at least everyone gets their own Chinese driver's license.
In the evening we try Chinese street food for the first time – it’s still sheep but definitely with Asian spices and we are all very happy (all my dreams - spun in the Kazakh desert come true: delicious China food) - you can even drink their Tsingtao (brewed to German recipe). And after dinner the first fireworks - another prejudice come true: the Chinese really love their fireworks and on our long journey we will see quite a few of them. Erenhot is a fairly new city -very clean and modern. I am taken by the transport bikes and am immediately making plans on how I can get one through the German MOT. I have already some good ideas about what I'm going to do with it .... but that would now go too far now.
What throws us a little off track (remember, we all just came from Mongolia) is the crossing of roads. Everywhere are scooters, motorcycles and bicycles with all sorts of trailers and they all have an electric motor - you cannot hear them and they appear seemingly out of nowhere . Our guide clucks like a hen he 's got to protect nine individualists from the consequences of their curiosity and we are like a bag of fleas with each moving in a different directions and he can not quite believe that we could somehow possibly cope without the translator. Well - we will teach him that one soon enough.


taken from our blog on www.holfordsaufweltreise.jimdo.com

Attached Images