We are willing to get our bikes into China illegaly. Does anybody the consenquenses if we get stopet and they find the bikes? Thinking about geting them into China in a truck from Laos.Cheers,Ingo

I'll take a punt.

First I think they might have a look at what is in trucks entering China.

If you do bring the bikes in illegally and are riding around with out a license no insurance no rego(might be easy to spot your Jap or euro bikes with out plates)

You might be able to ride around but I doubt it having no plates would be a dead give away lets say you have an accident and it isn't your fault even. They(police) will make you pay all the expenses of the other party then they will pull your visa and deport you.Up here they will.

Plus I believe they confiscate illegal bikes(no plates,dodgy plates) in certain parts of China.

How would you like it if I illegally brought my motorcycle into New Zealand and rode around illegally.

G'Day,

Mate, spot on!!! They might learn a lesson or two getting the bikes confiscated and detained / deported..... Looks great on the next visa application: "have you ever been deported from any country in the past"...

Best regards, happy travels! BUTCHMAN

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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

First of all, I think your bikes not gonna make it unspotted in the back of a truck. Provided they would, you're in big trouble if you get caught. You may face detention, advanced questioning, deportation a hefty fine or, most likely, all of the above. Depending on your nationality, you may face consequences in your home country as well.
Why taking big and unnecessary risks. There is a legal way which unfortunately takes long preparation and costs quite a lot.

Think about it

P.S. The year 2009 is a political sensitive one, they may charge you for whatever offence

Not having plates will not be an issue in China - an average of 2-3% of vehicles (including police vehicles are unplated) at any point of time and the police just ignore it.

I rode around for a month unplated, uninsured and unlicenced. As for what happens in case of an accident, IMHO it all comes down to bribery and corruption regardless of what your insured status is. So what if you are deported after the acident, you won't exactlty be wanting to hang around anyway, will you?

Your biggest challenge will be smuggling the bikes in - I thought about but decided it was cheaper and easier to buy a bike once in China. Let me know how you go.

Garry from Oz. Across the universe

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

Yeah, they said the same thing in 2007 and 2008 too.

Garry from Oz.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

Garry google this and read his blog regarding China1 All you other guys too it does shed some light on what can be done.

cheers and good luck
Hard way home
THE HARD WAY HOME

Mate you have your head up your ___- if your recommending driving around China with no plates so 97/98 % do have plates.The police up here are certainly not ignoring it .Every time I have been up the toll road every second toll station has had the police stopped there checking cars and bikes.

Also your now recommending bribing the cops there is a smart move in China offer a bribe to the wrong one and you will know it.

So you traveled through China for one month unregistered, uninsured and unlicenced and willing to offer bribes.

Its idiots like you who stuff it up for people trying to do the right thing stay home in Australia and ride around unregistered,uninsured and unlicensed you can offer bribes to the cops there. There is probably some cops there who may take your bribe probably alot who won't just like here.

Bigdamo is on the money with his reply.

It is one thing to be on a registered bike with insurance and an international driving license, even though you need a Chinese motorcycle license by law, on a tourist visa it's very difficult or impossible to get one, (but we are working on it) so many riders who come to China are kind of being forced to ride illegally. While I don't condone this, I can understand it. Also sometimes the traffic police may in certain areas be sympathetic if someone has tried to be legal as much as they could, but this is no guarantee that they will always be lenient in these circumstances.

But having no registration or insurance is plain crazy, especially riding on a bike which has been smuggled in, if shit hits the fan, it will hit HARD. The law has just changed for foreigners, and now road law applies equally to Chinese and foreigners, you could be jailed if you have an accident, and not released until you have paid all costs and fines, then deported.

Farquar's comments don't help, just because you rode illegally and got away with it doesn't mean that it's OK. Think about this, if I run across a busy road without looking one time, does that mean next time I will be guaranteed to be safe? It's a question of time, will I be hit by a car the 2nd time? The 20th time? Who knows.

Also things change over time, road laws and enforcement have become tougher gradually, and will continue to get tougher in the future.

Do yourselves a favor come here and buy some 250cc bikes, and get them registered and insured at the very least.

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National Motorcycle Club in China: http://www.the-fmcc.co.cc

Interpret my comments as you choose BD, but allow me to correct you when you misinterpret.

1. I also saw the police at the toll stations - read my blog. I stopped at every police checkpoint and engaged them in conversation - no attempts to sneak past surreptitiously - I needed to do this otherwise I'd never have found my way across China. Navigation, when you are unfamiliar with pictograms, is the bane of every traveller to China. I repeat - something which you choose to ignore - that many Chinese vehicles, including police vehicles - do NOT have plates, and their non-existence was not of ANY concern to any police officer I came across.

Let's do some simple maths.
31 days riding * ~ 15 initiated interactions (by me) with police daily = 465 total.
31 days riding * ~ 50 non-initiated interactions (e.g. passing through tollstations, waiting at traffic lights) with police daily = 1550 total.

So, some 2,000 interactions in total, and yet not once was I ever queried for something as blatantly obvious as not having plates??. Seems hard to believe if the laws are truly enforced as you state they are BD??

I'm now going to take it one step further. On Day 2 of my ride I stopped overnight in Gui Ding and checked into a small hotel which did not know how to register non-locals. The hotel owner took my money, sent me up to a room and then called the local police to assist with registration. The four police very helpfully checked all my documentation, asked me what I was doing in China (answer: riding across it by local motorcycle) saw the bike, told me where to park it safely for the evening and then offered to take me to dinner. As my bike was by that stage locked in the hotel foyer for the evevening I was ofered the pillion seat on the back of the local QinqQi 150 police bike (yep with siren, lights et al) and taken for a meal of bozi. The police refused to let me pay and on return from the restaurant the police rider INSISTED that I ride the police bike back to the hotel with him on the rear! Hardly seems like they had grave concerns about my lack of a local licence does it?

2. As for your suggestion that I am recommending offering bribes, I take offence at that. Quite the opposite, I will go out of my way to avoid a bribe and take the real hit. What I am saying though, and maybe I didn't express myself particularly well, is that the reality is that if you are involved in an accident the authorities will not care about the insurance because insurance will take months to come to the party. Unless you want to wait around for months in fulll - or semi - incarceration whilst the insurance company gets its act together then I suggest you are better off paying out in cash whatever amount the police determine you owe to the aggrieved party, and then getting on your way. Yes, if you had insurance then ultimately the insurance company may refund you but if you are a tourist like me then you ain't going to be around in China to receive the refund anyway.

BD, like too many people on the internet you are too happy to throw around insults telling people they've got their head up their arse and / or they're idiots. Read any of my posts, I simply state my experiences and give my opinion based on those without calling everyone who disagrees a fool. Try and do the same.

I've been doing these international motorcycling jaunts for 35 years now and am not some wet behind the ears neophyte. The reason I've survived so far without any conflicts with authorities is because I know how to go with the flow - bend the rules when appropriate but never butt up against authorities just to be consistent with some western image we have of ourselves, or to believe there is one rigid single view of the right/wrong way to do things.

Garry from Oz.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

Hey guys just read robbos blog
The Hard way home it explains all about china and how he and a Belgian guy actually did it!
good luck

Much the same way I did it as it turns out.

Garry from Oz.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

Farquar
So you traveled through China for one month and your now a expert on the country.

1:You spent one to two hours a day interacting with the police thats alot of time to waste when you only have a month to get through China.如果你不会说中国话，也许会让你等待很长时间

Just because they didn't pull you up on it and you had a nice night out with the police doesn't mean things change.You would be foolish to think that you are going to get that response from all the police you meet.

More and more foreigners are now trying to ride through China and the police are getting fed up with the problems they cause riding illegally and legally.Like police all over the world.One, two or three times they might turn a blind eye to it but when it starts turning into the hundreds they would rather the problem went away .They sure want me not riding a motorcycle up here with all the crap I have to go through getting a LEGAL license this is because previously foreigners caused problems up here.

You where lucky about them letting you stay at a hotel that is not registered to take foreigners. I have been turned away from hotels that are not registered to accommodate foreigners.A couple of times they registered me took my money to only be told a hour or two latter when the word had got out that legally they where not able to take foreigners and I would have to leave now.

2:It was plain and simple in black and white

''I rode around for a month unplated, uninsured and unlicensed. As for what happens in case of an accident, IMHO it all comes down to bribery and corruption regardless of what your insured status is. So what if you are deported after the accident, you won't exactly be wanting to hang around anyway, will you?"

Being a world traveler for so many years you would know having a stamp on your passport stating you where deported from a country probably with a criminal conviction ain't good.Best of luck entering alot of countries with that in your passport.

You have a accident with a local in China yes you can sort it out between the two of you with out calling the police.

But being a foreigner with no license no plates no insurance I some how think there going to call the cops at the very least they are going to want hellva lot of cash from you being a rich foreigner.1000.00 RMB ain't going to get you out of that one.China is expensive now.

You had no insurance.They are not just going to let you pay a small amount of cash the Chinese are not stupid they would ask to see your insurance when you can't produce it they would know your illegal and take you for everything your worth.How They will call the cops and the cops will detain you for at least 15 days until you have payed out the other party .Then they will fine you and deport you.They might even take you to dinner when they drop you at customs at the airport smiling all the time.

There is probably 5% on Australian roads that are driving either with out a license,rego or insurance.

I've been hit by two separate parties in Australia that had no rego and no insurance.They had no money where on the dole and knew the system.

They both said takes us to court we will tie you up in court for years and when you win the court will rule that we pay you $5.00 a month out of our dole money!

Do you think it would be right if the Chinese came to Australia for a holiday bought a cheap unregistered,uninsured car and drove round the country without a license for the month hey if they had a accident they could offer a bribe or just skip the country.Hey Australians are coming to there country and doing it.

I would think abit more about what you recommend.

Some idiot might actually listen to you.

Farquar, to be honest mate you really seem pretty arrogant. You just keep on about how these are the facts just because this is how you experienced them. I've done 50,000kms on motorcycles and 30,000kms on bicycles over seven years in China, much more than your month, and in my opinion and practically everyone else with long term riding experience in China you are wrong.

Traffic laws are being tightened up in China, this is the time that everyone should be getting themselves legal if they aren't already, not being told to 'just do it'.

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National Motorcycle Club in China: http://www.the-fmcc.co.cc

We are all here to share our experience and learn from our collective wisdom. It is up to the individual to decide what action they should take and be responsible for their own action.

IMHO Sharing experience is much encouraged but telling others to take certain risks is dangerous. At least, there is the moral responsibility.

I have been touring China since the early 90s. I am a HK Chinese and speak the langauge. I now ride a Chinese made JH600 with all legal document required. I am having a blast.

Last month, I did a 3 weeks tour of Yunnan and I got stopped by police road blocks just to check my papers 5 times. One of which, I have to go to the police station in the middle of the night and they checked everything using the centralised computer system, including engine no. and frame no. Everything was done very professionally and the officer even apologised for the inconvenience caused. I heard one week ago 5 bikes passing the same road block, 3 were detented for 7 days due to lack of papers and paid hefty fines. They are the locals and had 'connections'.