For the October holiday here in China everyone gets about a week off from work and school. The first thought would be, “hey, let’s go somewhere and see some touristy stuff!”. Except that’s about the worst thing to do because that’s exactly what everyone else thought too. So unless you want to go to super-crowded tourist sites the next best thing is to stay home. But that’s boring too. So a few buddies and I decided that getting on the motorbikes and getting out into the countryside would be a great way to spend our holiday. We set out early on the first, 5 guys and 3 girls; 2 motor scooters, 1 motorcycle, and 2 side-car motorbikes. I had my motor scooter along with Jiafei on back. Fortunately we were able to pack light and strap our bags to the rack on one of the sidecars, that really took some pressure off my little bike and made it much easier to drive.

Unfortunately we didn’t get too far before one of the sidecar bikes had a spark plug problem. A lot of sputtering, loud backfiring and a new spark plug later and we were on the road again heading south through the Qinling Mountains. Once you can get over the first peak and down the other side most of the tourist traffic is lost and you’re on your own through the twistys.

While the mountains were no problem for the big 750cc sidecar bikes, they posed a bit of a problem for me on a weighed down 125cc bike. So on the steep inclines I actually kicked Jiafei off to sit on the jump seat of a sidecar bike so I could make it up the hill! She didn’t like that too much, but it beats walking!

» Read more: Shaanxi & Gansu Motorcycle Ride