The trains were incredibly noisy and they almost continuously blared their horns. It did stop for a few hours in the middle of the night and so we did get a bit of sleep. All the hotel in this town only have hot water after 8 pm?? We were up and out by 730 for the 3 km ride to the border. We had gone about 5 blocks and found the road blocked with metal gates from all directions and manned by the army.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4399/...bd7f41e1_b.jpgMongolia to border-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4421/...8a5761e4_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-22 at 21.25.39 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4341/...cc8a0399_b.jpgIMG_9715 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

There was a line of jeeps that we had seen last night at least a km long. These are the transport vehicles for all the Mongolian passengers from the UB train. You can not walk or take public transport across the border. You must hire one of these guys to drive you to the Chinese side. Here they load up on supplies and then bring this stuff back.

We talked to the guard and they said the gate opened at 8. They initially wanted us to back track thru the town and around to the other road to our right. After some cajoling they finally agreed to let us thru just after 8.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4448/...fe2e4dba_b.jpgFILE0755 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Next you show your passport at the gate to the guard for exit to no mans land.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4438/...aebb5ff2_b.jpgFILE0759 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Then you ride 2 km to the actual border zone.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4433/...738f7772_b.jpgFILE0762 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We passed the first building, which seems to be a new border control hut under construction and then thru the X-ray scanners.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...2f6f7359_b.jpgFILE0764 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4439/...265571d4_b.jpgFILE0765 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Keep these reports coming, Dan seemed to be enjoying riding the camel a bit too much in the hotel lobby :censored::cool4:

Serious rug burn on the great toe! :oops2:

From here you ride 300 m and head to the small booth on the left that all the truck drivers are running over to. Here you hand in your slip of paper with the 3 entry custom stamps and show your passport. After this the agent gives you one stamp.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4356/...56875fde_b.jpgFILE0775 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4332/...bfdb4a8a_b.jpgFILE0777 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4343/...246d6ab7_b.jpgFILE0782 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Then the Quarantine guard will then walk over to you and he gave us a stamp with out even looking at any of our luggage. Then you pull ahead 100 m to park under the covered customs area. Here an officer took our TVIP paper inside and when he came out he said you can go and walked away. The next guard came up to us and said we needed to go to a second booth just ahead on the left. Here a very nice lady who spoke English said we needed to show the TVIP. She marched out and tracked the other guy down to get the papers. Here she did the cancellation of the TVIP, checked out passport and moto registration. She then stamped the passport with the exit stamps and the last stamp for the paper exit slip. Fastest border in a long time 33 min!

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4507/...c796ec90_b.jpgIMG_9686 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4395/...6dd89cc0_b.jpgIMG_9687 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4485/...172a1d74_b.jpgFILE0785 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4514/...6acf9b67_b.jpgIMG_9693 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The last step is to show your passport at the gate to the guard for exit to no mans land.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...7ef9731f_b.jpgFILE0796 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Here you ride 3 km and there is even a stop light part way.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4484/...d3a49316_b.jpgFILE0800 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4360/...d5c8c3ee_b.jpgFILE0808 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4392/...7255be77_b.jpgMongolia to border-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


We were waved around the car wash of toxic spray and spuge wash pit.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4420/...ba0776fb_b.jpgIMG_9698 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

In 200 m you arrive to the gate to China's border zone control area. The guards checked our visas and told us to wait as some one would come. They also asked Orvar “What is a Sweden?”. They get very few bikes coming thru this border as most foreigners transit in the south west of China.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4460/...24592651_b.jpgFILE0810 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4417/...30f3da3d_b.jpgFILE0813 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4377/...fc739155_b.jpgMongolia to border-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

An hour later we were still waiting and we got out our chairs and a snack. There is a ton of action with vehicles coming and going. Many of the jeeps had “too many” people in them and the guards would make them get out and wait for another jeep or private car to get into to cross the border.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4445/...af19073a_b.jpgIMG_9701 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...f0514648_b.jpgMongolia to border-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Killing time!

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4484/...70cd17bc_b.jpgIMG_9695 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4401/...c5772d95_b.jpgIMG_9697 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

At the 2 hour mark we were getting pretty anxious. Finally the guards came out to talk to us. They stopped a car headed to China with a Mongolian guy in it who spoke English and who asked us for the phone number of our guide. He then stopped a Chinese driver headed north and asked him to use his Chinese cell to make the call. That started the ball rolling and a few minutes later we could see Toni waving from the immigration hall 200 m away and then the guards let us thru.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4396/...a8c9e2ae_b.jpgFILE0819 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...49b789db_b.jpgFILE0823 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We parked at the immigration hall and we met the guide Toni, the driver Mr. Tang, the local customs agent/fixer, and the senior police officer who probably was “paid” to streamline the procedure for us. The officer directed us into the immigration hall, asked us to fill out the tourist info cards, and then ushered us to an open agent for our entry stamp.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...881366cb_b.jpgFILE0827 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Then we went back out to the bikes and were told to follow the policeman to the quarantine area about 200 m away around the right side of the immigration hall. We arrived and parked. We did not even have enough time to get off the bikes before the senior officer had talked to the quarantine officer and he said “ you are done with quarantine”.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4478/...e9bd0470_b.jpgFILE0833 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Next you ride 100 m to the customs inspection. The officer asked Dan what he had in his luggage..clothes, tools, computer, parts…After this there was a discussion between the guide, the policeman, and the customs officer. Our guide said to us “do you all guarantee that there is nothing bad in your luggage?” Like drugs, weapons, or meat. We said YES. Then they did not search anything at all. You then pull ahead 100 m and park under the cover. The customs fixer than steps in and get the process started to import the bikes. He was back in 10 min and we were told to ride around and park by the rainbow! Here we unloaded all the personal gear that was not in the panniers and put it in the driver’s van. The bikes will stay parked here until they clear customs today or tomorrow. All our paper work was submitted 3 days ago, but it is now after 12 on a Friday. The customs office is not technically open on Saturday, but they are making an exception. So we “ may “ get them tomorrow. In hind sight since we were at the border yesterday and the guides were there for 3 days we should have been advised to cross yesterday! Especially as today if Friday!! This error then will cause a cascade of issues….

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4409/...6ea4dd05_b.jpgFILE0839 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4373/...c5ffc73a_b.jpg

We then all hoped in the van for a 20 min ride to the hotel. We got cleaned up and went for lunch in the place closest to the hotel. We had amazingly delicious Bbq chicken rice bowls. Finally delicious food with flavor and spice. Well flavor that is NOT GOAT! We have all obtained VPN’s so we can access simple things like google and gmail. We had a team meeting over dinner and some excellent Chinese food ordered by our foody driver Mr. Tang.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4457/...488ce029_b.jpgIMG_9703 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...6844ee04_b.jpgIMG_9702 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4436/...b91f089e_b.jpgErenhot China-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

It is amazingly quiet in this town and most of the vehicles are electric. There is little “traffic” and the drivers are orderly. We went out for a walk to the main square where they were groups of people dancing and lots of families out strolling.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4453/...0fc02805_b.jpgErenhot China-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4356/...832be431_b.jpgErenhot China-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4356/...d1c64d39_b.jpgErenhot China-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We had a very quiet night with our room on the inner courtyard. We had our first “Chinese” breakfast, which for us is a weird combination of steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and boiled eggs. No coffee of course. They only drink hot water in the north of China. Not even Tea is served here. We had some time to kill as we had not heard from the customs agent and we went over to China mobile to get some SIM cards. It is really only useful for texting for us as North American phones support only E and you can barely open Wikipedia with that. To get a SIM card in China you must register with your passport! Our good luck today was at a place that served fresh beef noodle soup near to the hotel. We westerners managed to eat all the garnish before the soup came and had to ask for more! There are rules here. You do not start eating until they have put 4 dishes on the table. We have a lot to learn.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4485/...71b610fa_b.jpgErenhot China-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


There was a shop opening across the street and at an auspicious hour they let off a bucket load of fireworks. Then it was back to the hotel to check out before 2 in the hopes that we will get the bikes today.

We are getting a bit concerned since we will have a very long way to go leaving this late in the day. Again Ride China should have known and suggested that arriving on a Friday was not ideal. This was picked at random and we could have easily arrived the day before. We sat about the lobby and at 230 we got the call the bikes are almost done.

At 3 they called back to say we could come and get them so we loaded into the van and headed to the secure border zone. At first the guards did not want to let us in, but after passport checks, some phone calls and discussion they said we could go as long as the same number of people left with us. It was awesome the customs broker agreed to work on Saturday for us. We drove in and got the bikes and Toni said “ lets get out of here before someone changes their mind!”

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4509/...f2b9869a_b.jpgFILE0847 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We are outside the border control zone and the bikes are now officially in China!!

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4341/...54a67581_b.jpgErenhot China-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4498/...93e64c6e_b.jpgFILE0870 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4414/...09e4ee6c_b.jpgIMG_9707 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The next order of business was to drive across town to the Drivers license office next to the police station. They are also closed on Saturday, but one of the officers agreed to come over and open it for us so we could be given our Chinese drivers license and so he could check the VIN numbers for the Chinese Plate (this is really just a laminated card representing the license plate). They can make you do tests and eye exams, and even visit a doctor and so we are not sure what to expect. All he did was check the VIN and take a photo of each bike. The only potential problem here is Orvar is too old to drive a motorcycle in China and we held our breath until he was given his license. The only snag was one of the digits on Sara’s VIN number was incorrect. The officer could have said come back Monday, but he let it slide!!! Again we were like the IKEA ad “start the car” get out before they change their mind!

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4509/...8d443898_b.jpgFILE0874 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4464/...97766ac9_b.jpgIMG_9729 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4513/...75c3e19a_b.jpgIMG_9730 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4443/...678a9b86_b.jpgIMG_9731 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Now were went back to the hotel to gear up and headed out for our 35 days tour thru China.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4441/...112ec38d_b.jpgErenhot China-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

It was now after 4 pm and we had 349 km to ride to Wulanchabu/Ulanqab and it gets dark at 1830. This is to try and keep to what we now know is an overly ambitious itinerary. (If we were to do it again, we would have skipped the trip to Beijing and used those 6 days to add rest days or shorten long days on the rest of the trip)

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4485/...9b6d6ce3_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-22 at 21.27.49 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

These cameras will be everywhere!!!! BUT they are for front plates only :)


https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4496/...5daf0ee2_b.jpgFILE0887 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


Leaving the city there are several km of dinosaur statures.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4455/...bbcfd763_b.jpgErenhot China-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4341/...e5e02106_b.jpgErenhot China-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

About 50 km out there is a police check point where you must get off and walk over to the office where they take a photo of your passport, Chinese plate card, and Chinese drivers license. There are a lot of officers here with big guns. The place is high tech and each officer has a iPad like device to scan Chinese ID cards. Now to get onto the G55 toll highway.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4514/...ff2c6994_b.jpgFILE0924 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

All major roads here are user pay and toll. Bikes are illegal on the highway here. At the first booth there were no other vehicles and they could see us coming for 400 m and so the guy in the booth was out and blocking the lane. We had been told by the guide to go to the far right lane and “ride there”…He did not specify before this that we would need to hide behind the van and stealth our way to storming the gate. He did not say that you just ride and don’t stop if they come out…they will not do anything to you, but must make some attempt to stop you as they are constantly watched by CCT. I’m not sure if we knew this ahead of time we would have agreed to this, but there is absolutely no way you can get anywhere here if you do not use the highway system. Our itinerary would be impossible.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4463/...40b02ae0_b.jpgFILE0927 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The first toll attempt was thus an epic fail. We backtracked and then went about 5 km to the next entrance and had much better luck now that we knew the game. The guy did still hop out of the booth, but he was not quick enough to stop the first bike and once one is gone they do not try to stop the rest. The only issue was the sun was so low in the sky and blazing in our eyes that Trevor who was the last bike did not see the gate (that the rest of us went to the right of) and it nearly took him off his bike. The terrain here is like the south of Mongolia of course we are in “inner Mongolia” and it is mostly flat semi desert. There was however some sand drifting onto the pavement at times. We had made it about 200 km and the sun had just set and it was now 10 degrees and we all needed to put on a few more layers. Now we had 140 km to go still in the dark. It is a bit more hilly as we go farther south and east. There have been almost no other vehicles on the road and this was true until about 60 km from the city. The traffic in the city center was a bit hectic, but sedate compared with Tehran.