CSC Blog

Today was another fun day of great riding, posing for photos, and linking up with China’s  RX3 owners on our ride to and in Xi’an!   We are exactly halfway through our epic adventure, and tomorrow we’ll see the Terra Cotta soldiers.  They are the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World, and all by themselves, they are worth the trip to China.   I can’t wait.

After a rousing welcome last night and a great dinner with the Baoji RX3 owners club, we stopped in at Baoji’s Zonghen dealership this morning.  They sure had an interesting collection of motorcycles on display, including this cool little Zongshen Grom competitor.    Check out Lu and Zuo playing around with one…while Joe Gresh grabs a photo with his iPhone…

I like this bike…its engine is based on the old Honda Super 90 engine, and I can tell you from personal experience they were bulletproof even 50 years ago!

Dueling Nikons, with Furem…

The Baoji RX3 club met up with us again on our way out of town, and we had a signing ceremony before we left.   The Chinese have a custom of signing banners, jackets, and more.  We’ve probably signed 6 or 7 of these kinds of banners so far on our China trip.

Immediately after the early morning meet with the Baoji club, we rode 120 kilometers on a beautiful road to Xi’an.   Dong led the way, as he is from Baoji and he knows the area.

Dong and Lu at a traffic light…

We stopped for a break at a pond with lotus flowers…

This young fellow graciously consented to a photo…

…as did these folks.

Lu grabs a selfie…

As we approached Xi’an, the Xi’an RX3 owners club met us.   It was more of the celebrity treatment when we met them just outside Xi’an….photos, greetings, more photos, and then Mr. Chen led us into town.  That’s Xi’an you see in the background.  Imagine that…riding an RX3 to Xi’an!

My rearview mirror in downtown Xi’an…

You might have thought I was joking about being a celebrity over here.   Far from it, my friends.   Gresh and I are the real deal in China.  You want a photo, you stand in line…

When we arrived at the Xi’an Zongshen dealer, this young lady anointed Gobi and me with flower wreaths…this is how we roll, folks.

Another group photo…

I gave my wreath to the little girl who gave it to me.  It looks better on her, I think…

The Chinese like watermelon.  So do I.  It’s very hot and extremely humid in Xi’an, and that watermelon was greatly appreciated.

That’s the Xi’an Zongshen dealership owner piloting this RX3, and one of his friends on the back…

We had a great lunch, and we’re headed out to dinner in a bit.  It’s a place where we are going to learn how to make dumplings.   This should be fun.  I’m bringing my camera.  Stay tuned, Amigos.

No photos today, folks. Not a one.

Today was one of the most intense riding days I’ve ever experienced. We left Lanzhou in a downpour, and I put both of my cameras in the truck. It was raining so hard I didn’t want to take a chance on the cameras getting soaked.

The day started with our standard breakfast…fried bread, baozt (little buns with meat inside, and I know I’m probably spelling it wrong), and a hardboiled egg.  Then it was the mad dash through Lanzhou’s Monday morning rush hour traffic. Then two hours on China’s mighty G30 freeway in a torrential downpour.  I had on rain gear; I could have used a SCUBA outfit.

Then the sun broke through, but we didn’t see much of it. We must have bored our way through at least 40 tunnels today, and folks, let me tell you, nobody does tunnels like China.  I’m talking tunnels that are 3 to 5 miles long, with curves, going through China’s extreme mountain ranges. Green mountains with granite cliffs punctured with endless tunnels, with bridges connecting the tunnels over the deep valleys in between, with muddy rushing water below. Nobody does massive road projects the way China does, and the construction is ongoing. They have to have the most advanced tunnel and bridge network on the planet.

In one of the tunnels (I would guess it was one that was about 4 miles long) traffic stopped.   The tunnels are only two lanes wide, and there isn’t much room on either side.  I thought we might be stuck in there for the duration, but Sergeant Zuo was amazing. He bobbed and weaved between the trucks and buses and the tunnel walls. I wouldn’t have believed the RX3s would fit where he took us, but they did. If he went, I followed. There I was, with the tunnel wall on one side and a massive flatbed 22-wheeler on the other, with my mirrors dragging on both. Then Zuo would make a hard turn between the front of the 22-wheeler and the rear of a bus, and we’d split lanes between vehicles.  And on and on it went. The tunnels were so long that in some cases it was raining when we entered, and the sun was shining when we emerged. One of the guys told me China has a tunnel that is 32 kilometers long. We’ve gone through some that were nearly 8 miles long. Amazing stuff.

Then we left the tunnels and the superslab and took a two-lane road through the Chinese countryside. It was raining, but it was stunning scenery. I didn’t have my camera, but it didn’t bother me. Some things are better left unphotographed. They are better as a memory.  The sun set and visibility became a challenge. I rode with my visor up because I couldn’t see anything with it down because of the water droplets.   The rain stung my face like a thousand little needles, and then a truck going the other way hit a puddle and I got a mouthful of mud.  This was a ride I’ll remember the rest of my life.

Just when I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into, we pulled into the town square to applause that drowned out the rain.  Wow, was I surprised!  A large crowd was expecting us, standing in the rain awaiting our arrival. It was the Arjiu and Dajiu show all over again. A beautiful young lady handed me a bouquet flowers. More applause. More photos. There we were, Dajiu and Arjiu, standing in the rain beneath Chairman Mao’s outstretched arm under the incandescent street lamps. The crowd of Baoji Zongshen owners continued to applaud. Then they wanted more photos. A minute before I had been full of doubts about what I was doing riding in the freezing rain at night in the middle of China, and then I was on top of the world, being treated like a conquering emperor.  Our awaiting admirers fired up their Zongs and led us in a parade to our hotel, in a downpour, under the bright Baoji city lights.

Zongshen must have publicized the hell out of this adventure. We stopped for a break at a freeway rest area this afternoon, and two buses full of Chinese tourists followed us in. The Chinese passengers emerged and mobbed Gresh and me, all wanting photos. Selfies, iPads, iPhones, and more poses. It was amazing. It was like being Jay Leno at the Rock Store on a Sunday morning. Several folks showed us photos they had taken of us on the freeway. Arjiu! Dajiu! Folks, we are celebrities over here. I can’t make this stuff up.

So, like I said, no photos today.  I’ll try to grab some tomorrow.  We’re going to Xi’an (look it up; Xi’an holds the recently-discovered 8th Wonder of the Ancient World).   We’re riding to Xi’an.  In China.  As heroes.  On our Zongshen motorcycles.   Oh, life is good, folks!

It’s the Chinese equivalent of our Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyon National Parks all rolled up into one, and we visited it with the Lanzhou RX3 owner’s group yesterday.   Just a few photos, folks, before we leave for Baoji later this morning…

At the Yellow River Stone Forest entrance with the Lanzhou RX3 club yesterday.

A Chinese RX1 rider.

Young Chinese RX3 owners having fun.

A Chinese equestrienne.

The view from the top.

Know what this is?

Yep, a hydraulic RX3 clutch!

The Lanzhou riders having fun with Joe Gresh.

Mr. Wong’s son and daughter, and mom and dad…Mr. Wong is the Lanzhou Zongshen dealer.

A donkey cart ride into the Yellow River canyon.

My obligatory selfie.

It’s raining again over here today, folks.   Hopefully we’ll ride out of it soon.   Stay dry and stay tuned!

Out of the Gobi, off the Tibetan plateau, and following the Yellow River, we arrived in Lanzhou today.   Our first stop was at the city’s motorcycle marketplace…

We saw more than a few interesting bikes…there’s only space to show a few of them here.

I had seen these motorcycle seat covers elsewhere in China, and I bought one for my bike today.

Here’s the young lady who installed it.

This was another option, but I opted for the one you see above.

We saw a lot of sunflowers yesterday and today on the G30 superslab.   The guys bought some today for a snack.

One of the moto-dudes in the Chinese mega mall…

The competition…a Lifan with a Chinese dragon motif…

This is the cargo bed on an electric trike…

Electric scooters are very big in China.  Here are a couple I spotted last night in Wuwei…

And that’s all for now….it’s late and I’m tired.   We’ll be in Lanzhou for one more day, and then we’re continuing our journey east toward Xi’an, Beijing, and more.  Later, my friends.

We had a very full day today, including a ride along the ancient western end of China’s Great Wall, the discovery of a lost civilization, making a major motion picture (love those old gladiator movies!), and a late afternoon thunder shower as we arrived in Wuwei. It’s another one of those cities of several million people that seem to pop up in China every 40 or 50 miles…a city of several million that we’ve never heard of. China is indeed an amazing place.

It’s easy on us…I’m just following Master Sergeant Zuo’s lead…

Here’s one of Gobi Gresh on the Silk Road, paralleling the Great Wall!

And check out this photo I grabbed late today on the ride into Wuwei…

More good stuff…a stop in Yong Chang with a story about a lost Roman legion that is another one suitable for the plot of the next Indiana Jones movie. Several teenage girls came over to chat with us when we stopped. One even asked me for my phone number!  She wanted to practice her English.  The guys and I got a big kick out of that one!

And hey, it turns out that our expedition organizer, Sean, is China’s very own answer to the movie biz. We’re calling him Cecil B. De Ming!  He even looks like a movie director!

Yep, Gresh and I are the stars of a new major motion picture, portions of which the boys filmed in China this afternoon! You’ll want to read Riding China to get the full story, but as a teaser, here are a few photos from this afternoon…

We’ll make Lanzhou tomorrow, and we’ve done about 2200 miles in China so far. It is an amazing adventure.  The bikes are running great and so are we.  More to follow, my friends…so stay tuned.

Tonight we’re in Zhangye, which is near the western end of China’s Great Wall.  There’s probably a joke in there somewhere about Donald Trump trying to get the Mongols to pay for the Great Wall, but I’m tired and I’ll let that one go by.  Today was mostly freeway miles, but we are following the route of the old Silk Road.   Heady stuff.   Today was another day with no rain, and that’s good, too.

I’ll include just a few photos from today.  This is one of Gobi Gresh in front of what the sign says are the Yadan Physiognomy landforms…

It looked to be interesting stuff, but we are seeing so many interesting things that at some point we need to just move on.   You could spend a lifetime exploring all of the interesting things in China and still not see it all.

We took a rest stop under a bridge during our 500-kilometer day today and I saw this interesting graffiti…bear in mind we are in western China when you look at this…

I grabbed a cool shot of Dong smoking a cigarette during our break.   He looks like a Chinese Peter Fonda…

At 65, I’m the oldest (by far) of any of the members of our team.  Surprisingly, at a lot of our stops people know all about Arjiu and Dajiu (Zongshen has publicized this ride well).   I’ll tell you all about that in Riding China.   For now, I’ll mention that a lot of people in China are making a big deal about me being 65 and being out and about on a motorcycle exploring their country.  To me, being 65 is not a big deal, but one lady told me (through our translater, Tracy) that in China people who are 65 would not do what we are doing.   I’m not too sure what to make of all of this, but I will tell you guys that over here, 65 is considered “elderly.”   Shoot, back in California, at 65 I am usually the youngest guy in the group I hang with.   Anyway, when I saw this sign in Zhangye today I asked Gobi Gresh to grab a photo of me standing by it looking contemplative.  I have no idea what the rest of the sign says or means.   But you get the idea.   At 65, these folks think I’ve passed my “sell by” date.   It’s kind of funny.

We’re going to try to make Lanzhou tomorrow.  For the record, the bikes are performing magnificently, and we are not being gentle with them.   Both the RX3s and the RX1s are doing a great job.

That’s it for tonight’s installment of the Arjiu and Dajiu show, folks.   Stay tuned.

Last night, I wrote the Riding China chapter about our day entering the Gobi Desert. In it I mentioned that the Gobi looks a lot like our eastern Mojave Desert, and then I suggested seeing a few camels might make it a bit more exotic.

Well, folks, guess what we encountered this morning….

I’ve been receiving many emails from our CSC blog readers, and one in particular said she enjoyed seeing the food photos. Well, Dr. Gippee, here’s what was on the table for our light lunch this afternoon…

And here’s what was on the table for dinner this evening!

More good stuff…Lu having fun with one of the RX1 motorcycles in the soft stuff out in the Gobi dunes…

And how about these photos of “Gobi” Gresh…

Here’s my selfie with Deng, our expedition photographer…

Here’s one from the saddle of my RX3 on our ride through the Gobi…

We’re in Dun Huang tonight, the western-most point of our ride across China. This is the wrap map on our chase vehicle, with the red arrow denoting our location…

And here are a few photos riding around Dun Huang this evening…

That’s it for now.   You can tell we’re having fun.    More to follow, so stay tuned…