Planned Route

Part one:  E.U.

The departure point: My present living place & the location of my school - Midhurst, West Sussex, England. 

Route:  Midhurst - London - Dover - Calais (Fr.) - Dunkerque - Belgium - Amstandam ( Holland)- Boxeemer (see one family adopted one Chinese girl) -  Hamburg (Germany) - Copenhagen (Denmark) - Goteborg (Sweden) - Stockholm - Turku(Finland) - Espoo  - Helsinki 

Distance: 2,500 KM around, will take 1 and ½ months (start on 20th April and be in Espoo on 1st June)

*1. Borders. As the holder of the Chinese passport, I need one Schengen visa to travel in E.U. countries.  There are many borders in this part of Europe, but it’s not difficult to cross.  Cross Finland-Russian border from Hamina - Viipuri. 

*2. I need to take ferry to cross English Channel between Dover and Calais, cross Helsingor of Denmark to Helsingborg of Sweden, and cross Baltic Sea from Stockholm and Turku.  (Ferry Companies www.cross-channel-ferries-france.co.uk, www.scandlines.dk, www.vikingline.se www.silja.com ) 

Denmark is consisted by three islands.  The good news is that bridges have connected them.  So I just need to take ferry from island of Zealand to Sweden.   (Ferry companies: Scandlines, Sundbusserne, HH Ferries)

*3. I need to be Espoo (Finland) on 1st June and meet another bike partner - Jukka Karvonen ( www.kolumbus.fi/jukka.karvonen).  This part is the so-called safest developed Europe, the most expensive place and the most difficult beginning of this whole trip.

Part Two:  Russian Federation and Kazakhstan

Russian Route: St. Petersburg - Moscow (See Mathias, Baggio ) - Nizhniy Novgorod - Kazan - Ural Mountains - Yekatermburg - Tumen - Omsk

Kazakhstan Route: Paylodar - Semipalatinsk  - Dostyk or Khorgos Pass to Xinjiang China

Distance: 5,000km around, will allow 2 and a half months (start in the beginning of June and be in Xinjiang in the middle of August)

I will apply for 3 months visa for Russia and 2 months visa for Kazakhstan.  There are many borders to cross between the line of these two countries.  I will choose the border crossing according to the expiry date of my visas.

*1. The experienced cyclist Finnish Jukka knows more about the roads in Russian than I do.  So I will mostly rely on Jukka to choose the roads. 

*2. Russian-Kaza borders: A. Astrakham - Atyrau, B. Samara - Oral, C. Chelyabinsk - Kostanay, D. Krgan - Petropaviovsk, E. Omsk - Pavlodar, F. Rubtsovsk - Semey.  Which way I will enter in Kazakhstan depends on the valid of my visas for Russian and Kazakhstan.  The passes D & E sounds much chance.

*3. Friends warn me the disadvantages of traveling in these two countries, like traffic, road gangs.  "I will die if I live".  Everywhere could be dangerous for every people.  I will watch out for the drunken drivers, the people said road gangs.  Anyway I will be alert always.  Actually Mathias told me his good impressions of the Russian hospitalities.  (http://biphome.spray.se/mgranqvist/apt2002/index.htm)

*4. Most of the roads are OK.  They are not extremely bad.  Friends told me that I need to take more than one day’s water and food with me cause some uninhabited area in Kazakhstan.  (Coraz around the world by cycle :  www3.utsidan.se/corax-e, World on wheels : www.worldonwheels.info.  )

Part Three: China!

Route: Shihezi - Urumqi - Turpan - Dunhuang - Hami - Yumen - ZhangYe - Yingchuan - Baotou - Hohhot - Beijing

Distance 4,000km, need 2 months more (start in the end of August and be in Beijing in the beginning of November)

*1.  Borders: A. Torugart Pass (Central Asia's most exciting but unpredictable pass), B. Zharkent - Korgas - Yining, C. Dostyk,  (Pass B & C open year-round and easy to pass)  D. Bakhty - Tacheng, E. Maykapchigay - Burqin F. Chita - Manzhouli (The guards at Pass D & E have not used to see foreigners.)    As a Chinese passport holder, I will be OK for most of passes (there are 13 passes in Xingjiang). I would prefer Pass B & C, D, which will be easy for my international bike friends to pass.  If I could not get Kaza's visa, I will choose Pass F via Lake Baikal, and avoid entering Mongolia.

*2.  China is a huge land.  The west China is amazing and mysterious to me. One relative in Shihezi can supply a shower for me.  I plan to take a week to see some places in Xinjiang.  I want my steps to be everywhere, the hostile and shifting Taklamakan desert (Go-in-and-you-won't-come-out), the remote salt lake of Lop Nur, the Jungar basin, Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, Kashgar Market (Technicolor sea of people, animals and pony carts), Kashgar Old Town (the exotic eastern feel of the fabled Silk Road oasis), Turpan (a desert oasis, the lowest and hottest spot in China), Sayram Lake (beautiful lake set on the grasslands between Yining and Urumqi), Heavenl Lake (alpine scenery that looks like a Swiss postcard), Hotan (traditional Uyghur old town), Karakul (stunning turquoise lake), Hanas Lake (gorgeous in the autumn and inhabited by semi nomadic Kazaks) etc. 

*3. The road is quite well in China.  Near Dunhuang, I will come cross the west end of 5,000 km long the Great Wall.  Cycling with part of the Great Wall to Beijing will be another highlight of this bike trip.

*. Thanks the Lonely Planet tourist books for information and www.lib.utexas.edu/maps for maps.