When I was a kid, read a lot about Genghis Khan and a visit to the Genghis Khan mausoleum was planned for a long time.... Genghis Khan (Chingis / Chinghis Khan), born Temüjin, was the founder and Great Khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. After founding the Mongol Empire and being proclaimed "Genghis Khan," he started the Mongol invasions that resulted in the conquest of most of Eurasia. These included raids or invasions of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, Caucasus, Khwarezmid Empire, Western Xia and Jin dynasties. These campaigns were often accompanied by wholesale massacres of the civilian populations – especially in the Khwarezmian controlled lands. By the end of his life, the Mongol Empire occupied a substantial portion of Central Asia and China. Pretty impressed while in the actual tomb (altar room) one of the rather large Mongolian tomb guards handed me a blue Mongolian scarf to carry along while continuing my Khan Run 2014 journey.....
Get your kicks on route G109 from Ordos (Nei Mongolia) to Datong (Shanxi) over 550k's and 14hr. riding, everyone warned me about that dangerous stretch of road but had to see it for myself once in my life. If you never go ~ you will never know.... Thousands of overloaded coal truck stuck in traffic jams or fighting for every road space and possible spot available speeding along. They are overloaded and leave nasty grooves in the asphalt and quite dangerous to ride between the grooves due to spillage of motor oil and diesel, feels like riding on ice.... Lets name this post "daily life on China highway G109" and pics say more than a thousand words.....
G109 National China Highway.... dusty ~ dirty ~ dangerous but there is only one way to get out of this - I know what is behind and don't ever want to do that again, so up and onwards I rode along the groovy highway.....
As many know, TIC = This Is China and The Middle Kingdom called China works in mysterious ways and the "safety rules & regulations" in some provinces (Inner Mongolia / Shanxi) require re-filling a motorcycle out of tin buckets (flimsy leaking tin cans most of the times of all sizes and shapes). Remember the slogan "Safety First" please as the petrol station attendant fills up the flimsy and filthy tin cans with petrol and one has to fill up 10-20m away from the petrol pumps. Not an easy task as its quite difficult to fill the petrol tank that sits high on import bikes like a Ducati-MTS and BMW-GS12 with full and heavy leaking tin cans. Well ~ while strolling through a Chinese style supermarket the other day in Baotou found a great device to protect the paint work from scratching and some petrol spillage.... TOILET SEAT MATS and they had them in fashionable pink colour, bought a bunch of them and made some locals happy and smiling along the route....
Datong (Shanxi), two night stop over to catch up with work projects and a bit of a decent clean up and sightseeing.... Don’t let first appearances deceive you – gritty, polluted and unattractive it may be, but Datong is the main jumping-off point for two of northern China’s most spectacular sights. The phenomenal Yungang Caves and the gravity-defying Hanging Temple can both be chalked off in a single day,... Here we are at the famous Hanging Temple out at the mountains.... The Hanging Temple, also Hanging Monastery or Xuankong Temple is a temple built into a cliff (75m above the ground) near Mount Heng in Hunyuan County, Datong City, Shanxi province, China. The closest city is Datong, 65 kilometers to the northwest. Built more than 1,500 years ago, this temple is notable not only for its location on a sheer precipice but also because it is the only existing temple with the combination of three Chinese traditional religions: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. The structure is kept in place with oak crossbeams fitted into holes chiseled into the cliffs. The main supportive structure is hidden inside the bedrock. The monastery is located in the small canyon basin, and the body of the building hangs from the middle of the cliff under the prominent summit, protecting the temple from rain erosion and sunlight. Coupled with the repair of the dynasties, the color tattoo in the temple is relatively well preserved. December 2010, it was listed in the “Time” magazine as the world's top ten most odd dangerous buildings.
West of Datong, the monumental Yungang Caves, a set of Buddhist grottoes carved into the side of a sandstone cliff, are a must. Built around 400 AD at a time of Buddhist revival, the caves were the first and grandest of the three major Buddhist grottoes, the other two being the Longmen Caves in Luoyang and the Mogao Caves in Gansu. These are the best preserved, but prepare to be disappointed by their surroundings – the atmosphere has for years been blighted by nearby coal mines, and the benefits afforded by the recent addition of parkland have been eroded by a huge and even more recently built shopping mall. However, it’s still well worth the trip. Arranged in three clusters (east, central and west) and numbered east to west from 1 to 51, the caves originally spread across an area more than 15km long, though today just a kilometre-long fragment survives. If it’s spectacle you’re after, just wander at will, but to get an idea of the changes of style and the accumulation of influences, you need to move sequentially between the three clusters. The earliest group is caves 16–20, followed by 7, 8, 9 and 10, then 5, 6 and 11 – the last to be completed before the court moved to Luoyang. Then followed 4, 13, 14 and 15, with the caves at the eastern end – 1, 2 and 3 – and cave 21 in the west, carved last. Caves 22–50 are smaller and less interesting.
Yungang Caves Side-note: some cave areas were blocked off and under restoration / renovations during my September 2014 visit....
Tour + Bus + Hotel = Rotel, the hotel on wheels.... ROTEL TOURS, met them early morning just outside the Holiday Inn hotel in Datong (Shanxi) while departing Datong for the final stretch back to Capital City Beijing... The 50-year-old German company Rotel Tours operates these coaches in many countries around the world and appeal to budget-conscious travellers who want to see the sights but don’t like “roughing it” too much … a soft bed, solid walls to keep out the beasties, etc. The Rotel holidays are described by the organizers as journeys for active people, regardless of age.... Rotel Tours - Mit dem rollenden Hotel die Welt entdecken - Rotel-Tours
Arrived back in Capital City Beijing taking the rather nice section of the G109 National Highway in mostly Hebei province and Beijing municipality, new asphalt road and very little traffic ~ no overloaded coal trucks.... Straight to Frost (Chef Jeff's) in Sanlitun area (55 Xingfucun Zhong Lu, 幸福村中路55号 / Tel: 64179148) for a well deserved outstanding tasty burger...... Distance travelled. let's just say a rear tyre cruising at higher speeds ~ no need for any tyre plugs, they won't save this tyre.... ...quick pit stop in Beijing for the "mooncake holidays" and a decent wash and clean, basic bike service incl. a new rear tyre and North China cruisin' continues...
Beijing Municipality Traffic Management Bureau http://www.bjjtgl.gov.cn launched a new campaign and enforces some regulations and restrictions to use motorbikes and tricycles within the 6th. Ring-Road of Capital City Beijing once again. They really cracked down hard on some days in September 2014 and the new campaign posters hang all over the city in various ways ~ about time again to get out of the city again... 1) 京A (Beijing A Plate) bikes on any Beijing Ring Road 2) 京B (Beijing B plate) bikes inside the 4th Ring Road, or on any Beijing Ring Road 3) Non-Beijing plates inside the 6th. Beijing Ring Road 4) 3-wheeled carts (not sidecars) 100 CNY traffic ticket fine and 3 points on divers license (that latter is what hurts as by 12 points the driver license is confiscated), riders and police reporting that traffic cams are being used as well.....
Another overnight run up North starting in Beijing with a mate visiting from Shanghai and he used a BMW GS1200LC for the ride... Good to get away from the big city Beijing once again, heading up North out of Beijing in the the general direction towards Fengning (G111 Highway), quick simple lunch at roadside restaurant in some unknown village.... After the lunch break continuing the ride to the Datanzhen area to look for some place to stay for the night.
Yurt hotel.... well ~ skip a visit to the "The former temporary palace of Genghis Khan in Fengning County, Hebei, China" park and adjacent hotel near Datanzhen and find something better. We stopped and stayed for a night as a thunderstorm and heavy rain was just starting in the late afternoon.... Check-in and check-out while parking the bikes stylish in the middle of the hotel lobby.....
more pics, Yurt hotel at "The former temporary palace of Genghis Khan in Fengning County, Hebei, China"... Extensive Baijou (Chinese booze) collection... Baijiu, also known as shaojiu, is an alcoholic beverage from China. It is sometimes infelicitously translated as "white wine", but it is in fact a strong distilled spirit, generally about 40–60% alcohol by volume (ABV).
