We have spent some days in Kathmandu and tried to organize a motorbike trip to Tibet and China to enter Laos and SE Asia. According to RICHA TOURS & TRAVEL PVT.,Namche Bazaar Building, Thamel, Kathmandu, it is possible: As per tibetean law, a guide and support vehicle from Kathmandu to Lhasa and further on to Golmud is requested. After Golmud, it should be free to travel thru China on your own. Our inquiry included 4 motorbikes, two German and two Swiss, and the price would have been USD 4500.-. The more you are the better the price. In our case it seemed that 4 was the minimum. There was also a deposit necessary of USD 625.- per motorbike (as the Carnet de Passage is not accepted) which you will get back when leaving the country. In our case 2 Africa Twin 1993, 1 Transalp 2001, 1 Suzuki Freewind 2000. Keep in mind that law and prices change weekly. Best is to get the updated information from the chinese Embassy in your country. However, if you try to arrange it in Nepal, you can contact Mr. Sangay from RICHA TOURS & TRAVEL. Give him at least one week to provide you with the proper information or start your inquiry before you leave for a trek. It also seems to be possible to avoid the high costs of Tibet by doing the Karakorum Highway and enter China from Pakistan

G'Day,
one of our RD Shanghai bikers just took of last sunday from Shanghai with his Yamaha Virago 750 and doing the Karakorum Highway from China into Pakistan. read his plans below in his own words!
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TIME TO GO by Stefano
In this letter I will tell you about a journey.

Or, more precisely, of a dream that is becoming reality on the basis of the belief that dreams we have inside cannot die. They can only fall asleep until the day their awakening will bring them into existence.

This is a journey I will dedicate to all that are trapped in they daily life, between the freedom of their dreams and the prison of their life, for one day they may go beyond the worlds they know, simply towards the unknown, where instinct meets dreams to become life.

From China to Italy on motorcycle.

A journey across five of the most ancient and most beautiful civilizations ever existed.

A trip between history and modernism, a trip to discover lost sites and mostly to witness the clash of ancient beliefs against the modern credo of money and development. A journey to see how the original values of these civilizations are adapting or surviving to the 3rd millennium.

From China to Italy by motorcycle is a journey that, to the best of my knowledge, has never been made before: an independent testimony and a simple dream to go back home via land, on my motorcycle.

My story, briefly, starts after my graduation from the University of Florence in Italy. Already at that time a force inside me has brought me to look beyond the borders of my town and of Italy. I didn’t have a specific direction to look at, perhaps it was just towards the unknown, but it was surely far where I was looking.

This force became desire and made me live in several countries and continents: from New York, Boston, Columbus - Ohio, to India and now to Shanghai, China.

I never understood how certain desires are born and how my nature brings me to want to live in the world, where the world is my home and I am his guest and explorer. I accept and follow my instinct because I recognize that traveling is for me, life itself.

Crossing China we will go through the silk road visiting the cities of Leshan, Xiahe (perhaps Xi’an), Dunhuang and so on across the Gobi desert to the border region of Xinjiang until we will reach Kashgar: the last mythical outpost city on the Chinese silk road. From there we will enter the Karakorum mountain that will lead us to Pakistan through the Karakorum highway.

Built on a colossal joint project that saw Chinese and Pakistani alike working and dying together for a common cause, the Karakorum highway goes from Kashgar to Islamabad covering its highest point at the Khunjerab Pass at 4700 meters on the border between China and Pakistan.

Gilgit, Kamila, Taxila and Quetta will be only some of our stops in Pakistan. We will visit cities like Rawalpindi and Peshwara: two cities that once upon a time were the doors of culture and commerce between Central Asia and South Asia, today unfortunately publicized only for current political events.

Passing through Quetta we will go towards Iran that still holds all the beauty of the Persians and the influence of the Assyro-Babylonians.

Before reaching Tehran we will stop in mythical cities like Ban, Persepolis and Esfahan where we will be able to witness the very much alive Persian culture. This is a unique opportunity to visit this country not as a tourist but as a traveler, in contact with the people, their customs, witnessing the changes that are even happening there, in this modern cradle of the past.

A long stop will be dedicated to Persepolis, a mystical city that, almost forgotten in the folds of the past, is today still there to witness its past richness of culture and beauty; a symbol confirming how this heritage is not dead, but still lives in what once upon a time was called Persia.

This testimony will have its peak in Tehran, capital symbol of an Islamic modernism that wants to open to the world to show once again its splendor and its glamour of ancient customs still alive in what in the west we call postmodern age.

Tabric will take us on the road to Turkey, Empire of the Ottomans and today one of the most intriguing and fascinating places touching Europe. Dagi, Mersin, Ankara and Istanbul will be only some of the stops we will make before crossing the Bosphorus on the way to Alexandroupolis in Greece.

Greece, with its ancient city-states and its modern European life, mixed with the relaxation of the Mediterranean life and culture, will be our door to the heart of the Roman Empire.

After about 130 days of traveling, 18,000 km covered across 5 countries we will be on the doorstep of Italy, now not too far from my hometown, Lavagna (Genova) with a few more weeks left to explore the myriad of corners witnessing the past of the glorious Romans and the reality of medieval towns that are still part of Italy’s daily life.

This is a trip to understand that perhaps it is true that all is relative, relative to life itself and to the people that live it in each of their realities. A trip to understand that perhaps real problems are not only the ones that we see in our comfortable developed world, but that they are, in a more realistic scale, the ones that, at the end, tie the people of these countries to their very existence.

This is a trip that was born in me and that slowly I saw connected to the reality of other people I know.

A dream, the will of wanting to do it and, one day, the simplicity of having said, “this is the time”.

A trip that I wanted to share with people who, like me, have the passion for traveling. People for whom traveling is not a hobby, a status symbol, or an escape, but is a way of being; for whom traveling is part of them, if not life in itself.

So I started sharing this idea talking to friends, gathering their emotions, their expression of surprise, their worried eyes, and the signs of fear in front of what many judge as madness.

Then I thought I could to more if I could also share my emotions and this unique experience through the pictures I take, and using my ability to catch on film the moments, the smiles, the situations and the emotions, seeing sometimes what others don’t see in the diverse cultures and people I will meet.

The ideas are many, the images and the story will surely be unique.

But most of all it will be the opportunity to share this with others.

Our plan is to start from Shanghai in mid-April of 2002.

Best Regards, Safe Riding!
Stefano

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Somewhere down the road in China since '89 ~ along the route I've learned the hard way that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everybody off is a piece of cake....TBR

i guys

i am teh guy buth wrote you about above.
i am not sure where you are.
i reached middle of china.

just a few coments to yourplan.

i never heard that it is possible to ride freely in china. thisis not a free country.

china does not accept any drivr licence other than the chinese one.

when you cross the borde withte guide they will give you a chinese temp plate for the bike. if they let you go around china by yourself make sure you keepit withall the papers.

as you know the carnet is not accepted. all i know about deposit in entrance though isthat tehy must be of theentie value of the bike and that , maybe you will get at exit. don't forget that china is very big and bad connected. teh guy at you r exit point might not have teh ionfo and the money you deposited at entry unless entry and exit is the same point.
and here thay don;t care....

all in all though china as no fixed rules and if you get in and out happily it is a great ride.

ask a lot of questions and double check everything.
if you get it from pakistan let me know that we might meet somewher on the road!!!

ciao
sqm..

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sqm