London to China. Access and Visa info please!

[IrregularIrishman]

fair enough - I bow to your greater knowledge. Obviously a guided CTC tour is a world away from what you did. We only went from the Gobi up to the centre and then back to UB, not the wild west. We did encounter one aggressive native who thought we scared his horses on our bikes and proceeded to ride his horse at us, but our guides soon sent him packing.
I thought Jenny Graham who set the record for solo female RTW said Mongolia was one of her favourite countries.

Apologies, I did not meant to come across as dismissive - I've also heard many other cyclists speak about how wonderful it was. And I believe if I had avoided any aggression, I would have left with a similar impression as the scenery and adventure really are extraordinary.

I think it all comes down to luck in the end; out of all the blogs I've read of people traversing the country, approximately half of them have detailed a dangerous incident. Those that are lucky enough to avoid these problems are likely to sing the praises of the country, and the other half will be like me and highlight the dangers.

But for me - considering how few cycle tourers traverse the country, compared the amount of incidents I've heard and read about - the risk of something happening is just too high to be worth the reward of cycling independently there.

Either way, the best of luck with your own journey. I know how much of a commitment something like this takes, so congrats on taking the leap. It will be a once in a lifetime experience

[robing]

fair enough - I bow to your greater knowledge. Obviously a guided CTC tour is a world away from what you did. We only went from the Gobi up to the centre and then back to UB, not the wild west. We did encounter one aggressive native who thought we scared his horses on our bikes and proceeded to ride his horse at us, but our guides soon sent him packing.
I thought Jenny Graham who set the record for solo female RTW said Mongolia was one of her favourite countries.

Apologies, I did not meant to come across as dismissive - I've also heard many other cyclists speak about how wonderful it was. And I believe if I had avoided any aggression, I would have left with a similar impression as the scenery and adventure really are extraordinary.

I think it all comes down to luck in the end; out of all the blogs I've read of people traversing the country, approximately half of them have detailed a dangerous incident. Those that are lucky enough to avoid these problems are likely to sing the praises of the country, and the other half will be like me and highlight the dangers.

But for me - considering how few cycle tourers traverse the country, compared the amount of incidents I've heard and read about - the risk of something happening is just too high to be worth the reward of cycling independently there.

Either way, the best of luck with your own journey. I know how much of a commitment something like this takes, so congrats on taking the leap. It will be a once in a lifetime experience

No need to apologise, no offence taken. I suppose in a country as sparsely populated as Mongolia, you are very exposed if you do run in to trouble as there's nowhere to hide and no-one to come to your aid. Thanks, I'm thinking of it as my gap year that I never did when I was younger! I did once do a RTW backpacking trip in my 20s, but it was only 4 months so a bit rushed. Often I find with an extended trip, it's sorting out all the stuff at home which seems more daunting. For the cycling, I just need my bike, panniers, tent and get going!

[IrregularIrishman]

Interesting post irregirish.

My 3 Chinese visas were all obtained abroad in the good old days. Hong Kong in the 80s just after they started doing independent ones and then two in Bangkok in the 2009&10. Those last 2 were a doddle, fill in a form, give it to a travel agent with £25 and 3 days later a visa. Minimal questions on the form and no evidence required. Travel as you like and easily extendable for another 30 days. There was also an easy fiddle to get a 6 month student visa from a Chinese college after a day or two studying. As I said, the good old days.

The Beijing Olympics saw a beginning of an end to all that as the Chinese Govt clamped down, then further reacting to harsh rules by Western Govts, brought reciprocal conditions. (Edited)

However, the new 2 year visa is a bit of an anomaly as from what I can work out you only need supply all that info on application for first trip. After that you are free to enter within the 2 year period for up to 90 days. Almost worth a week's hols in Hainan to get it.

Personally, the whole Stans thing has never appealed to me. Again in the old days when that was all part of Russia, the normal route was South via Iran, Pakistan and India. I know that Iran and Pak are out now, but why is India ignored nowadays. I s'pose the purist want to cycle all the way, but missing out on India is missing one of the most fascinating countries in the world. Also you can now cycle across Burma to link up with SEAsia. Six month visa for India, online visa for Burma and free entry to Thailand. Why look for walls to bang your head against.

That's really interesting to hear. I wasn't aware it had been that much easier before the Olympic Games, it's a real shame that they've introduced so many hurdles to jump through now. I do remember that it used to be possible to extend your 30 day visa twice, giving you 90 days in the country. This was a more recent crackdown as far as I know. As of 2015 it was easy to extend it once, but all cyclists attempting to extend it twice were rejected.

The two year visa is a great solution to all these problems. As far as I remember, US citizens can even get a 10 year visa in the same manner!

Regarding the two routes from Europe to South East Asia, I believe the biggest barrier has always been the India-Myanmar border. Additionally, only being able to apply for a Pakistan visa in your home country adds another complication. Thankfully, as you say, the Myanmar land border is open now so I imagine we will see more cyclists start to go this way - especially considering the hassle cyclists are facing these days in Xinjiang.

I should add that I have zero regrets about picking the Central Asia-China route. Central Asia was one of the biggest highlights of whole trip, with Tajikistan my favourite country of the whole trip too. I learnt some basic Russian before leaving home which I think was part of the reason I enjoyed it so much. Either way, I did my trip as a stubborn purist, setting myself the goal of cycling the whole way so being forced into a bus going over the Khunjerab Pass wasn't an option and neither was a flight to India. So banging my head against the walls of Central Asian bureaucracy was just one of the challenges I had to overcome to achieve this. India will always be there to come back to (as will the KKH in Pakistan), it just didn't make sense for me to include them in that particular journey.

[simonhill]

If you want s really wonderful anomaly, back in about the 2010s, UK visas for China were probably the most expensive in Europe. The Chinese had introduced a visa handling service which added the extra to the standard price. This was a direct reciprocal response to what the UK was doing.

A Visa in London was £75 (or maybe 50) for UK citizens. In Belgium for example it was £25 ish, the standard price.

However in Edinburgh, for people living in Scotland it was also £25. The Chinese authorities hadn't worked out that Scotland was part of the UK.

[willswitchengage]

Below is a post I copied from the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree, made about a month ago.
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/ ... fa?page=40

Worth noting is that the old Chinese visa had to be used within 3 months of issue. The new one is valid for 2 years. As it's a 2 year multi entry you only go through the hoops for bookings etc for the application. Subsequent visits aren't checked as you already have a visa.

The post:

I (UK citizen) obtained a Chinese Tourist Visa in London last week. I'd booked flights to Hong Kong and 60 days worth of accommodation (booking.com). I was granted a 2 year, multiple entry visa with a 90 day stay limit. The visa arrived in 3 days. The cost was about £150 (GBP).

I'd previously (about 3 years ago) obtained a tourist visa in Ulaan Baatar on an overground trip from London to Hong Kong. The only tourist visa available in UB was a 30 day single entry visa. It was easy to obtain but needed travel and accommodation bookings. The cost was $50 (US).

So, my lesson learned, is that if you need a more flexible/longer visa then it's still currently better to apply in your country of origin! But if not, it's probably cheaper to get the visa whilst travelling though it'll probably take a few days of "effort".

Hope this helps someone.

Thanks for this (and others). I notice that a 24 month unlimited entry visa is what is being discussed most recently - is this what is typically issued to UK tourists nowadays? I note that Realrussia (who sorted my past Russian visa with zero hassle - no bookings etc required) offer a Chinese visa service for a smidge under £200... and it gets you a 2 year visa. When i originally started researching the topic it seemed that people were issues short term visas with a defined number of entries.