carkmouch

Last year I had the opportunity to live 3 1/2 months in a small Chinese town in Guangdong province (SE China). I had a heavy single speed cruiser I bought there to get me around town ($50 US brand new), though it was nothing I'd want to travel very far on.

Now that I am finished with college, I am returning later this year to teach in Guangzhou for one year.

My ideas for touring in China are not so grandiose - basically I'd mainly like to do lots of short trips from one night to one week. Perhaps a 4-7 day trip from Guangzhou back to the small city I lived in last year. I have a dedicated touring bike here in the US, but I doubt I will bring it to China for the difficulty and cost of flying/transporting it and the risk of theft. Instead I think it will be easier to just buy a new bike in China.

I'm trying to decide whether I should buy a mountain bike or a folding bike. I've heard there is a Dahon shop in GZ, so I will probably check that out. I don't really plan on spending a lot of money on a bike there, but just want something decent and affordable that will be a good tourer. I'm leaning towards a folding bike, since it will be easy pack onto a bus or train. Then again a mountain bike seems more comfortable and better for handling some of the rough roads I will encounter through the villages and countryside.

I have done fully loaded touring here in the US, but in China I plan to just do hotel touring, since hotels and hot meals are dirt cheap there, plus I'll have lots of mountains in Guangdong to deal with so I don't need all that camping and cooking gear. I'll bring a couple panniers with me when I go.

Sorry if I've rambled on with no point, but anyone else have experience touring in China? Any suggestions for finding a decent, affordable bike fit for light touring?

mattbicycle

Hi carkmouch,

I bought a bicycle in Shenzhen then started riding (the next day) to Shanghai in November 2008. Since then I have been doing the short trips of 2-7 days from Shanghai that you describe. In addition I ride to and from work / meetings unless the weather looks particularly bad.

The bicycle I bought cost Y399 from Walmart. After 8000+ km the wheels, frame, seat, handlebars etc are in perfect condition. I have been through a number of low quality tyres, brake pads, a set of gear levers, countless pedals etc. But components aside, the core bicycle itself is flawless.

I think I know the bicycle you describe. It weighs a ton and is ridden by old men and postal workers!

From my experience, bicycles were very rare in Guangdong, even in the cities.

Don't bring your bike from the U.S. It's more trouble than it's worth to bring it. You'll be worried about it getting stolen and if something breaks, there's always the risk your local repairman (where I live there is literally at least one on every street) won't have a compatible part. Why not just buy one locally and rest assured that when (not "if"!) something breaks, it can be easily replaced for one or two dollars. You'd also have the problem of trying to bring the bike to China, then use-up most of your 20kg (or thereabouts) of luggage allowance when you're trying to take clothes, souvenirs, DVDs etc home as well. Not worth it.

Make sure to bring any specialised camping stuff you might need as there is little of that available here. I am sure glad I brought my Trangia stove. Any imported (Thermarest, MSR, etc.) stuff that you might be lucky enough to find will cost double what it would in the States.

If you're over about 5 foot 11, think seriously about bringing a MTB-compatible seat post with you. I didn't think of it (I'm 6ft 1) and suffered a sore lower back for a couple of days until I was lucky enough to find a shop in Guangdong selling those fold-up bikes which agreed to swap my Walmart seat pole for the 12 inch long, longer version. Most seat posts here are only 6 inches long. It might seem trivial to mention, but could save you a world of trouble.

Any accessories you might need can be bought on the Chinese-language Taobao site if you can read Chinese or have a friend who can help you. The convenience, efficiency and low cost is excellent.

Your biggest problem - unless you can read Chinese - might be finding a good map in both Pinyin and Chinese. I have a map of Guangdong which folds out to about 24 x 18 inches which helped me a lot but still wasn't the best. Use Google maps for China - which is now in English as well as Chinese. Try to print out as much stuff as you think you'll need and bring it with you if you're not sure about having access to a printer in Guangzhou.

Dahon has shops in Shanghai and the bikes are also for sale in the independent shops which sell Giant bikes. A Giant bike would make an excellent touring bike and would set you back Y799 or Y999 based on what I've seen in Shanghai.

I wouldn't like to tour on a folding bike but they are fun to ride in the city. I think you'd find that if you bought a Giant or supermarket bicycle you'd quickly forget about the folding bike idea and use the Giant/Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco etc. bicycle for city and country. I see quite a few people riding the fold-up bikes but very rarely see them on the subway. You could easily buy both: get a cheap (Y300-Y400) fold-up bike and buy a bike for touring as well for Y400-Y1000. We're only talking about USD100-150 for two bicycles!

Expect to pay Y30-Y50 per night for a guesthouse in a small town in Guangdong. You'll get a bed and roof over your head. Meals are available everywhere. But my advice is to play it safe and bring a Trangia stove. You won't regret it. It's only an extra 250g for the entire Mini-Trangia kit. Some gravy powder, dried noodles and a rogue carrot & onion stashed at the bottom of your bag can be your best friend in rural areas

If, despite your best planning with maps and calculating distances, you're unexpectedly stuck in the mountains and it starts to get dark quickly with no town in sight, you will be very pleased to have it stashed away in your bag. It happened to me twice! It might be two hours to the next town but if they simply don't have a guesthouse, or you're delayed with a flat tyre and it starts to get dark, stealth camping is sometimes a necessity.

My turn to apologise for rambling on. I hope I have been of some minor assistance.

prxmid

mattbicycle, sounds like you've had some great experiences over there. I go to Macau/ Hong Kong yearly but never to the PRC, would be fascinating

mattbicycle

It's a great place to tour if you can adjust to the crazy city traffic, buy a cheap Chinese bike, and don't mind being away from first-world luxuries whilst in the rural areas. But for me, finding a $5-a-night guesthouse and having to stumble through booking a room with my atrocious Mandarin pronunciation, then walking to a nearby local (dingy, unclean...) food shop for dinner is a big part of the trip's enjoyment.

I spent countless hours on this site before my Shenzhen to Shanghai trip. I thought I knew everything, but in hindsight I knew very little about touring when I first started. I'm probably only a little further along that road now. I think the best thing to do sometimes (and what I did) is to just prepare as best you can through online research, then buy a bicycle, clip on a pannier bag, sleeping bag and attach a front basket, throw in a Mandarin guidebook and just hit the road for tour.

I've done a reasonable amount of university study over the last few years but constantly feel I've learnt very little. I reckon the best lessons are learnt through doing rather than reading and talking about something!

Prepare as best you can by reading on this site and finding out what the weather will be like. Take a pump, patches, adjustable wrench, small pair of long-nosed pliers, some money, lightweight stove, map and a phrasebook. There's other stuff you'll need, of course... You can't go too far wrong in China. Anything else you need can be bought along the way. Food is dirt cheap. Accommodation is in almost all reasonable sized towns if you know how to find it (i.e can recognise the various Chinese characters for "guesthouse", "hotel" etc.). Repairmen to fix your bike are everywhere (although not in Guangdong, for some reason!).

Arrive with an ultra-expensive bike and expect to stay in the Hilton every night, though, and you will likely run into trouble. Come with low expectations and flexible attitude and you'll have a great time on tour Oh, and do not expect *anyone* to speak English outside the major cities!

BTW H.K is *much* different to China. Cross the border into Shenzhen and it feels like another world!

carkmouch

Thanks for the helpful posts. Like I said, I lived in a small, rural Chinese town for a few months so I am used to biking in crazy traffic and bad roads and dealing with all the little bits of Chinese culture shock. My Mandarin is pretty decent and I'm continuing to study it - 我会说一点点中文。 Reading maps in Chinese wont be too big a deal, as I can recognize and memorize certain characters if needed.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I won't bring my LHT - it wont be worth the risk and hassle. I think I will just lend it to my old brother while I am gone for him to enjoy.

Buying a cheap but decent wal-mart bike or something will be the way to go. A mountain bike with decent low gearing will be good, and I'll probably keep the knobbie tires on for all the rough/dirt roads.

As for a long seatpost to bring, what diameter/width do you recommend?

What I plan to bring to China (as far as bike/touring stuff goes) is:
-frame pump
-multi-tool
-handlebar bag - can stuff it with other stuff and stuff it into my check in or use it as a carry-on
-2 panniers
-lights
-bell (same one that I took from my feng huang cruiser in China)

stuff I might bring:
-trangia stove/pot set - usually on tour I just eat at restaurants, and especially in China becuase food is so cheap. As for emergency food, I usually just have food I don't need to cook.
-sleeping bag and tent - most of the time I might not need to camp, and I'd like to save weight and bulk in touring (plus flying), but having the option would be nice sometimes.
-U-lock or cable-lock - maybe I can just buy a good lock in China too? I saw lots of U-locks for motorcycles last time, so I might just get one of those.

I will probably buy one of those waterproof cape/poncho things that all motor/bicyclists in china wear for dealing with rain. If it starts to pour, just pull off the road and get under that for a bit.

BTW, here is a photo of my Feng Huang cruiser I used for 3 months. I loved and hated this bike. It was about 50 bucks brand new - really heavy, geared too high, cottered cranks were messed up, and the rod brakes were weak. It was a beauty though.



谢谢

mattbicycle

The U lock will be too heavy. Bring one from home or buy two or three of the cheap rope/lock devices in China.

I'm not sure about the seatpost specifications. You could bring a couple of the more common sizes from home and one is likely to fit. Alternatively buy one from taobao once you've arrived.

I wouldn't worry about the tent but a light sleeping bag is good to have. I like to stay in abandoned buildings if I can find them in the rural areas, so no tent is needed

jbpence

see
this link

and scroll to the bottom for a tour blog of a solo unsupported trip i took last year from Dail to Deqin (tibet border) in Yunnan Province. 3 weeks, 800 miles and a boatload of huge southern himalaya climbs and descents.

i only carried a tent and bag for emergency. never used it. I had a pot and stove to boil water, never used it as water is readily available almost everywhere. get shots!! lots of hep in the water in rural china

Once out of the cities, i never locked the bike - though I had a thin cable lock.

your list looks rather short for a long bike tour. i carried some spare parts, recommend you do the same. a spare tire and three or four tubes. duct tape and tie wraps. i even had some spare cables. there were times i did not see another person all day above 14,000 feet (above tree line, so no agriculture means no villages means no people except tibetan nomads herding pigs and yak and collecting caterpillar fungus)

watch out on busses, folks could slit your bags and grab stuff. But then I never had any problems with theft or anything. I did make sure I would hear the door of my lu guan room opening in the night, kept the bike propped up against i. the people were all just great and I went to many places that had never seen a westerner, or so I was told. I did learn enough chinese to order food, find lodging, ask directions and haggle prices, and that was a huge help. I also carried a palm pilot with a chines phrase book that spoke in mandarin. some places i went, nobody spoke mandarin; or the dialect was so string we could not communicate - but pantomime works great in china.

Many folks would say if you could only go to one province in China on a trip, go to Yunnan.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Jack

mattbicycle

I think carkmouch's list is of stuff he is thinking of bringing from the U.S rather than a packing list for his tour in China. Well, I hope it's not his packing list! Jbpence, your tour sounds amazing. I am envious and would love to visit Yunnan. I think it's so weird that there are whole regions of China where nobody speaks Mandarin and the locals are looking at you strangely and just cannot understand why you haven't become fluent in their local/regional dialect instead of this 'useless' language which 1 billion people speak

The phrasebook would have been great because even people who cannot speak Mandarin can usually read the characters.

Yes, hot water is available everywhere. Most shops/restaurants have big plastic Thermosflask-type bottles which they keep full of hot water and are happy to provide to a traveller. Carkmouch, you would have seen them in the village you stayed at, I'm sure.

No lock - I agree. I didn't even take one on my first tour since the bike was always with me. In the city I use three separate locks to deter thieves.

carkmouch

Correct, that list is just stuff I will bring with me from the states. I'll buy some extra tubes over there and carry them on the trip - I doubt I will need a spare tire if I will be riding on wide mtn bike tires anyway. If I do ruin a tire and am stranded, I can always hitch a ride into a town on some tractor or truck. I don't plan to do much touring in remote desert areas, though Yunnan province looks very tempting...

Here is a possible route I would like to take - it goes east from Guangzhou to Wuhua, the small town where I lived last year and would like to visit again. I figure it will take me anywhere from 4-7 days, and will probably ride it sometime where I have a week off for holiday or whatnot. I used google maps' "walk there" option and it made this route for me, and it looks good enough.



Yeah, people are everywhere in China and villages and settlements never seem to end, even traveling through the countryside. No matter how poor or small, most villages have someone selling bottled water and coke, and hot tea and water is available everywhere.

mattbicycle

On my trip through Guangdong, I went through Huizhou. Youre travelling slightly north of that city / large town. Some of that region is deceptively hilly and (as I found) wasn't near as flat as I had anticipated. I have never had trouble with destroying a tyre. In fact, on my Y399 RMB Walmart bike, I didn't even get a flat tyre in Guangdong until I reached the border with Fujian province. The worst trouble I've ever had has been a flat tyre, which I've either changed myself or (if in a town) paid Y2 and gotten a repair guy to do it for me.

I am planning on going back to Australia at the end of next month. At the moment I am using Taobao to find/stockpile any accessories I am likely to need over the next year or two. That site is amazing. My advice would be to get yourself "a bike" whatever that ends-up being. Then top-up your components/accessories from Taobao. Get a Chinese friend to help you if need be. The range of quality bike parts and the low prices are incredible.