Anyone for a career in customs clearance in Korea? - 28 May 2008

I'm here in Busan after a 300kmh maglev train ride from Shanghai to the airport and a short flight from Shanghai airport. I've paid my shipper's handling fees this afternoon and if all goes well I'll be riding the Burgie away sometime tomorrow.

Busan is wet and rainy and so is my pack. It's all pretty damp even after only getting caught in the rain for a few minutes, so everything is spread out on the floor of the Zen hostel to dry. Hopefully tomorrow will be a sunny day in more ways than one. :-)

The Haobon is gone! Long live the mighty Haobon!.

The Haobon is gone! (sniff, snuffle)... Long live the mighty Haobon!.

It had to be! I feel so sad, as if I've lost a lifelong companion ... "Wilson, NO ... come back Wilson". Like Tom Hanks basketball, the Haobon has become my friend and companion in this foreign sea of non-English speakers.

I ended up selling it to a motorcycle repair man and his wife for AUD$150. They got a great deal, but frankly they were the only ones at all interested. I'm sure they will onsell it quickly and make a smart profit - good on them.

If I had been able to wait longer I'm sure I could have fetched a lot more but time doesn't allow me and overall my total cost for the Haobon for 1 month of riding has only been AUD$400, or $100 per week - excellent value.


I'm leaving Shanghai 9am tomorrow for Busan, Korea, and further adventures on the Burgie. :-)

Fanyang to Chuohe - Saturday 24th May

Another long and tough ride on a mix of roads but a great day's progress with another 500km covered after 12 hours in the saddle...

The day started bright and sunny as I passed through wheatfields and duck farms along with th usual mix of Chinese agriculture. I know I have said this before, but the sheer amount of energy and effort put into agriculture inChina is second to none, with every arable inch produced crops many times over each year.

However, the blue skies were not to last. This was an especially difficult day because today not only was I riding on bad dirt roads, but it also began to rain - in bucketloads.

I, along with many other vehicles, had to wait in a service station for almost two hours whilst the monsoonal downpour passed. The rain came down with such force that it was like standing under a high pressure hose.

Once I was able to get back on the road again, the roads deteriorated until they were nothing more than dirt tracks one lane wide. Whilst cars, trucks and buses were spinning their wheels in the mud I was struggling to keep the Haobon upright. The mix of dirt and water soon had the Haobon filthy, and me exhausted. Unfortunately just as night fell it also ensured I had yet another puncture. Fortunately for me I felt the rear end wriggle (as the tyre deflated) right in the middle of a small village and right outside the only tyre repairer in town. Whilst I waited for the tyre repairer to come back to town (it was night and he had finished work for the day) I was kindly invited by a local girl and her family of rice merchants to share dinner with them.

Once again Chinese hospitality comes to the fore and I was very graciously accepted as a total stranger into their group of family and friends. After repairs I was honoured to hear that I was the first foreigner to visit this small village and that I still had a way to go before I could reach a town with a hotel for the evening. I was soon on my way again and after 1.5 hours of hard riding I managed to reach the next major town with a hotel for a good night's sleep.

Chuohe to Shanghai - Sunday 25th May

After my night in Chuohe it was back on the road again to Nanjing. Compared with yesterday, today was a totally dry day again.

The road to Nanjing was a pleasant ride through rural China






and the road surface steadily improved the closer I got to the big smoke and I rolled into town through the industrial suburbs to spot the MG/Roewe (Chinese for Rover) right in front of me.

Talk about coals to Newcastle, the Chinese bought the English company (and all its tooling) from BMW for one dollar a few years back and are proudly promoting the brands quite heavily at home, but I'm not sure if they are pursuing exports as yet.

As usual, once I reached Nanjing (which is a huge, albeit very pretty) city, I knew finding my way out would be a challenge as the G312stopped dead at T junction. I chose to ride downtown (contrary to where the GPS said highway G312 should be), crossed the Yangtze (a huge river)

and found my way to a beautiful 15sq km park and lake opposite the railway station.

At this point I figured I was completely lost and went to the nearest police station for directions. They telephoned the biggest hotel in town(Hotel New (Xin) Century which was just down the road, and put me through to the English speaking assistant manager to provide guidance. Once again,my navigational instincts were vindicated as it turned out as I was only 500m from the (unsignposted) left turn I needed to make to get on to the G312 to Shanghai.

From this point it was a fairly straight forward well signposted ride, mostly on dual highway, into Shanghai. The only real challenge was a fuel shortage just when I went onto reserve. Now fuel shortages are not something I have experienced before in China and this puzzled me. I finally managed to find fuel with only an estimated 7km worth (or 200ml) left in the tank -talk about running on fumes!

I hit Shanghai just as it was getting dark and found my way to the Ming Hostel and a bed for the filthy mud encrusted Haobon and myself for the night.

In many ways it was a bit of a let down to the end of the China leg of my journey as the wide roads and big cities are such a poor, dull contrast to the "interesting" country roads and towns.

Jiyuan to Fanyang - Friday 23rd May

After a delicious breakfast and saying my farewells to the Lis, I had an early start and was on the road before 7.30am. Mr Li was kind enough to escort me a short way down the main road south before setting off on his day's labours

It was another tough day's ride on a mix of fairly good roads, but all in all I made great progress with 530km under my and the Haobon's belts by end of day.

The landscape was changing again and becoming less green - most of the agriculture now consisted of vast fields of wheat ready for harvesting.

Just a brief note on what was my highest mileage day to date. 530km may not seem a like a long distance but you need to put this in the context of road and traffic conditions.

Here in China I have at least 20-50 near head-ons every day whilst riding, it's just the nature of riding. Trucks do not respect bikes (or cars for that matter) and simply expect you to get out of their way I also experience vehicles constantly turning across in front of me and pulling out from side roads on either left or right without looking.

Everyone does this, no-one looks when pulling out on to the highway - you are expected to somehow avoid them (the closest analogy I can draw is being on a ski slope, where skiers are expected to look out for, and avoid, all skiers lower down the slope). There is NO respect for red lights and no such thing as traffic lanes (on a divided highway you will have oncoming vehicles on both your left and right - imagine being in the left lane on a freeway with oncoming trucks! - well that's the norm). It's simply the way things are.

My worst road experience so far occurred today, being caught between a 25 metre long truck I was overtaking, and an oncoming similar sized truck. I had no choice but to keep my cool and ride through the metre wide gap, whilst towered over by massive truck wheels spinning either side of me, and travelling at a closing speed of close to 150 kph (we were each doing around 75kph) on a potholed road.

Boy, do I have some adventures to tell my grandchildren.