Planning...

How to Get Through China...

At present, the only way of travelling through China with your own vehicle (that we know of) is through a government agency. This was the single most expensive part of our trip, after buying the vehicle. After the initial shock of the cost, and managing to barter the price down a bit, we decided that it would be worth it as the only other option would be to ship from India round to South East Asia, not only missing out a huge overland chunk, but costing almost half the price anyway.

The agency that we opted for was the China Sea International Travel Service and our contact was Ms Liu Lifeng:

E-mail: cist-liu@263.net, Address: China Sea International Travel Service, E-06, Huayu Mansion, No. A3 Longtan Road, Chongwen District, Beijing 100061, China. Tel: 0086-10-67172699, Fax: 0086-10-6710234

They don't have a web site, but were very helpful and efficient in organising our trip via e-mail and came throroughly recommended by the Isoexped group (see Useful Links section), although I think the experience you have can depend very much on how co-operative your guide is. Travel through China is still very restricted and it would seem that the itinerary is designed to keep you constantly on the move (perhaps so you can't cause too much trouble or talk to too many people in any particular place). We specifically requested that a visit to the Great Wall be included in our itinerary and a stop-off to obtain our Laos visas before reaching the border, but we had to push for this. Once the agency had sent us a letter of invitation via fax the Chinese visa was very straightforward to obtain fro the embassy in London before we left.

Other groups have used the following agencies: CITS, CIST, Cultural Tours

The chances are that China will open up to the outside world in the future, especially with the 2008 Olympics, but unfortunately not before we wanted to travel.

OUR ROUTE THROUGH CHINA

NOTES PROVIDED BY CHINA SEA INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL SERVICE

1. According to regulations, for foreigners driving their own vehicles in China, we must apply for a route permit from the government (this route is very likely to be permitted, as last year, we had a group doing exactly the same route) and other permits related. And the tour must be escorted by a Chinese guide. When the route is permitted, you must follow the route day by day unless something unforeseen, such as a broken road, bad weather etc.
2. In order to save money for you, we will not send a car for the guide to escort you, but he will sit in your car. Please check whether you have a spare seat for the guide. We will provide for the guide the camping equipment, but if you stay in a hotel, please also pay for the guide.
3. We will get for you all the necessary permits from the government, documents for your car to enter and exit China and for drivers to drive in China. The guide will carry all these papers and will help you to go through the Customs and to deal with the police when they want to check all the permits. We are not allowed to give all these documents to you.
4. You need to confirm us this information 3 months in advance: the entry date and exit date (this is flexible up to 2 weeks on request), data of clients, full name, sex, nationality, occupation, date of birth and passport number, and data of the vehicle: brand, plate number, chassis number, engine number, color, how many CC for the power, date of production and the manufacturer.
5. You need to mail us one month in advance: 2 photos (2 inches) and copy of the international driving license of each driver, two photos of the vehicle.
6. You will do all the sightseeing if you want with your own vehicle, the guide will help you, but you will pay the entrance cost and so on.

In order to cut the cost of the tour we asked to camp wherever possible and asked for written confirmation that any hotels that we would have to stay in when in urban areas would not cost more than £20 a night for a double room (we had heard stories of groups being forced to stay in expensive 'government owned' hotels). The cost of the trip for a group of two, once we had asked them to take out all the hotels they had booked, came to $ each ($450 cheaper than the original price) including :

• an English speaking guide to go with us all the way
• permits application fee, cost of temporary Chinese driving license and plate, cost of sending the guide, such as transportation for the guide to meet us at the border and to return from the exit border

not including:

• petrol
• toll fee
• parking fee
• food and accommodation
• sightseeing

N.B. - Post Expedition Note

It has been brought to our attention that the Chinese regulations have recently been changed, and the latest information we recieved is that vehicles are only allowed into the country in groups of two or more. We cannot advise any further than this, but speculate that this requirement is for Tibet (hence why the company sent a seperate escort vehicle along with us when we made our Tibeten transit).