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On April 12 a tour party will depart from Sydney Airport for Guangzhou in China to start what many expect to be a trip of a life-time. They will be riding motorcycles through the Three Gorges area of China just before the area is flooded by the HUGE Three Gorges Dam.
The Tour has been organised by Michael Wu, an Australian citizen of Chinese birth who has run 8 previous motorcycle tours through various regions of China.
Michael has organised 20 Chinese motorcycles for tour members to ride and so far almost half of these have been spoken for by Kiwi Riders.
There is also a back-up van for passengers, and another small baggage van to follow the riders.
Price ex-Auckland is $NZ6367, and ex-Sydney it is $A5300. This is ALL INCLUSIVE (airfares, bikes, accomodation, meals, insurance, petrol, back-up vehicles, guides, interpreter).
If you are interested in an itinerary, please E-mail: Michael Esdaile:
Following are notes from the Three Gorges Tour organiser Michael Wu:
TOUR GENESIS
December 31, 2002: While collecting Chongqing-to-Dam mileage information to
answer your questions, I found that the Dam will begin to function on June
1, 2003, and the upper stream water level will rise 5-10 metres daily until
the projected high level.
Lots and lots of the well known places along the world famous Yangzi Gorges will be submerged permanently, and the Gorges will no longer look the same. I suddenly realized that to take a last minute biking trip all along the Yangzi Gorges (including the Minor Gorges along its branches) is much more necessary than to see than the 24-bends in Guizhou Province, on the Stillwell (or Burma) Road, the long, war-time support line to then Chinese capital Chongqing in Sichuan Province.
As the time is so close, I made myself busy reading all the details and worked out a biking itinerary along the Yangzi River, starting from Chongqing, visiting all the places. The plan incorporates biking to all the places and boating (with the bikes with us on the boat) through the most spectacular parts of the Gorges and the Minor Gorges. Also, we might as well penetrate inland to the mysterious Shen-nong-jia virgin forest mountain areas (beautiful places) where there are reportedly some man-like wild animals under investigation by both Chinese and American scientists. The tour will end visiting the near completion construction site of the Dam.
It needs to be done in early May, the latest.
I have also tried to find out if it's possible to get the bikes on rental
bases from some bike factory in Chongqing. It looks that we will have to
have two teams, the second one being responsible to ride the bikes in a
reverse direction back to the factory. For this, we need to get at least
20-some interested people.
Mike, [Esdaile] if you agree with my view, I will push my plan further with the tourist authority and the bike makers. And you should begin right now to try getting 20-some participants, Kiwis and/or Aussies.
January 20, 2003:
Everything for the tour has come or is coming to place.
The inexperienced (in terms of doing biking tours) tourist office has been
giving me info that always misses something and I have to call long distance
frequently to question further, and they have to dig it up before answering
me.
WEATHER:
The weather - the average temperature around that area is 18.8°C in April
and 22.1°C in May. Rain in April 134mm and 177mm in May, that means 25 per
cent more rain in May than in April.
DAYLIGHT HOURS:
Daylight hours - around 10 hours of daylight but we need to also count the
heavy pollution fog early morning and late afternoon on the horizon that
makes the "light hours" shorter. Also, riding along the country road, we
should allow time for poking into the villages chatting & picturing around,
even a cup of tea. (I had some nice close-up pics of old villager smoking
long bamboo pipe squatting under trees, young mother holding her baby
staring at me, etc, even their kitchen. On such a tour, you can feel just
like a National Geographic journalist).
CHONGQING:
It used to be a city, but a couple of years ago it was given the status like
the one for Shanghai or Beijing or Tianjin, and was given a lot of extra
territory, hence it now looks like a small province. The Chongqing Mayor now
has the same authority as the governor of Sichuan Province in the
China-hierarchyachy.
MOTORCYCLES:
China does not make 250-above-cc trail bikes. Only 150cc. My experience from
my 8 biking trips (with Aussies) to China is that road bikes are more
comfortable for long journeys and OK for mountain roads built for cars, even
unpaved. I am talking with a manufacturer who has some.
REGION & ROADS:
The link between Chongqing and the Dam (near Yi-chang) is zig-zagging but
new shortcuts here and there are being built all the time.
There has never been any urge for a Chongqing to Yichang direct road link; the cheap Yangzi River waterway is always there. Most of the roads are random local sections hooked together. It's only recent that a 128 km freeway has been built out of Chongqing (we will use through 85 km of it) and another special-use freeway between the Dam and Yichang city have been built.
A thoroughfare is now on the blueprint, but not ALONG the Gorges. One thing is clear, the new Dam will soon make the Chongqing-Yichang waterway like a "freeway", already the giant jet-boats are "flying" up and down the river.
The Gorges area is very scenic. In general, the Southern-Western regions of China have many big scenic mountain ranges and big fast rivers, making the geography very interesting, plus the southern half of China has a much longer history of civilization worth looking into details.
The distances marked in my preliminary itinerary are approximate, because maps give different figures and many road sections are not marked with distances at all, (I have four thick books of maps on my desk, one of them is just out in 2003). Local residents (contacted by telephone by tourist authority) give again different versions.
The road conditions are mostly a combination of paved & good dirt roads, except in the Shen-nong-jia virgin forest mountains that could be real wild. We must ride very carefully there. I am Not kidding.
AIR TRAVEL:
Both Hong Kong and Hanoi are no good for stopover, because it makes both the
segments Sydney-HK and HK-Chongqing international, therefore more inexpensive.
My idea is to fly Sydney-Guangzhou-Chongqing, so that we have one
international flight and one domestic. Also, hotel and food in Guangzhou
are more reasonable.
The airlines to go with is the China Southern Airlines all the way through. They would be happy to see us using them all the way and to give a better price.
BACK-UP:
Michael is organising a small back-up van to carry gear to keep the amount
needed on the bikes to a minimum (camera, wet-weather over suit or
leggings). He is also organising a small bus to carry spouses/parterns and
other interested parties who do not want to ride on a bike.
