The group of us with our bikes parked in front of Forbidden City.
Same place as above photo, different angle. Having motorbikes here is "illegal," (notice the police wagon in the back)
Section of the Great Wall at Shan Hai Guan
This was our destination. Where the great wall enters the Sea. 老龙头 Old Dragon Head
Mountains to the Northwest of Beijing
Section of the Great wall in the middle of the mountains. Very remote. Very nice.
On top of the mountains in Beijing
The pictures above are from 2 different trips. The first trip was 4 days and about 800 kilometers of riding to a place called Shan Hai Guan. This is the place where the great wall enters the sea. They call this part 老龙头 Lao Long Tou which means old dragon's head since that is what is resembles. We rode 350 kilometers on the first day and made it to Shan Hai Guan on a miracle. Our bikes were having a lot of problems but that is part of the "fun" and experience. The bad part was that out of 4 bikes, it was the bike I was riding that had all the problems! No worries, the other guys that did this trip before said that they would have problems but there is always someone who can fix it along the way (for cheap)!The first night we arrived late and just checked into a hotel. The second night we camped out next to the great wall. That was a great time, of course we cooked some food and drank beers (maybe not in that order). We camped out on some guys land but he was cool, he brought us fire wood and recommend us to wake up at 4am to hike further up to the wall and see the sun rise. Out of 8 of us, 4 of us managed to wake up. We hiked, then hiked some more....too bad it was a cloudy morning. We didn't see the sun rise after all.
We decided to start our journey back to Beijing on the third day so we would have two days to make it back. The ride back was amazing, we didn't have any problems with the bikes! We continued riding towards the horizon into the redest sunset I had ever seen. (thanks to the Beijing pollution!).
A few of the other pictures are from a day trip we took around the mountains to the northwest of Beijing. It was a perfect day, perfect company and of course I LOVE RIDING. I miss my bike back home... or guess i don't have a bike since I sold it to help afford to come here! I am now accepting donations. I love you mom and dad (wink wink)! hahah
