Location: Mengla
Miles: 1400
The contrast between the Laos and Chinese side of the border is like chalk and cheese. Laos has a small immigration building on the left. China has built a huge, modern complex – open only last year and empty apart from us, as we echo our way towards passport control. We are greeted very politely, in English. Once stamped in, we have to bring the bikes past the police check and the first glint of frustrating and utterly ridiculous Chinese rules. As we roll up to the check point our guide waves frantically to stop. We don’t’ understand and she shouts “push the bikes”. Yes, we were not allowed to ride the bikes to the checkpoint, but we were forced to push them, stop to be checked and continue to push them for another 20 yards past the checkpoint, at which point, we were allowed to ride them again. WELCOME TO CHINA!
Miles: 1400
The contrast between the Laos and Chinese side of the border is like chalk and cheese. Laos has a small immigration building on the left. China has built a huge, modern complex – open only last year and empty apart from us, as we echo our way towards passport control. We are greeted very politely, in English. Once stamped in, we have to bring the bikes past the police check and the first glint of frustrating and utterly ridiculous Chinese rules. As we roll up to the check point our guide waves frantically to stop. We don’t’ understand and she shouts “push the bikes”. Yes, we were not allowed to ride the bikes to the checkpoint, but we were forced to push them, stop to be checked and continue to push them for another 20 yards past the checkpoint, at which point, we were allowed to ride them again. WELCOME TO CHINA!
We had a mad dash to Mengla to get to the Vehicle Inspection Station before 11.30am for officials to ensure our bikes were roadworthy. We speed along a brand new dual carriageway only to effect an emergency stop for two workers carrying a length of steel pipe across the whole two lanes at about neck level. Two minutes later we swerve to avoid a small tractor in the fast lane driving towards us. It’s madness and hysterically funny at the same time. We are not new to China and these situations are absolutely typical of everyday ride on the road. It’s not if they happen; it’s when they happen!
A transport official looks incredulous at our bikes, doesn’t know what to do to check them and signs off the paper anyway. We are away by lunch time northwards and through a mountainous terrain, terraced with tea bushes. The roads are quick at first – we are on a first class new road and it winds its way between misty green peaks. Our first stop is Pu-Er, famous as the starting point of the Ancient Tea and Horses Caravan route – and of course it’s tea. Shops selling bricks of tea, with special tea ceremonies, line the roads around the town. We seem to be the only foreign faces here and an early evening stroll through town, brings curious looks and school kids all shouting “hello” and then turning and giggling like mad when they get a reply and a wave. The main square is full of lines of OAPs doing tai chi, teenagers skateboarding and young families pushing prams and the main streets are wide and modern, with row upon row of glitzy clothes and shoe shops. 
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