The New Motorcycle

In case you didn't see last Tuesday's post on our recent camping trip here in Xinjiang, we just invested in a new motorcycle.  It is a second-hand motorcycle that we're hoping to use to facilitate more travel within the province, particularly our area up here in the north.  I've already received a few questions about the motorcycle, both in my email and in the blog comments, so I thought I'd just answer a few of them quickly.

Frequently Asked Motorcycle Questions

#1  No sane person drives in China!  Have you gone insane?

Maybe.  Time will tell.  Lest you forget, we live in a relatively small city here in Xinjiang.  Less than 200,000.  Traffic here, although not as tame as in the U.S., is nothing compared to bigger cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, or even the capital of Urumqi.

#2  Do you have a death wish?

Ok, this sounds a bit similar to question #1, but I'll give it a proper answer.  It would have been a death wish if this was my first year living here, but it's not.  We're on year three and I honestly feel like I have a feel for the traffic flow here in China.  It's different, but there is order to what looks like chaos, I promise you.

#3  What kind of bike did you buy?

We bought a used HaoJue, a bike that is made by the same manufacturers who make Suzuki.  There were quite a few options for brands (JiaLing, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, HaoJue...to name a few) but the "western" brands were far too expensive for what we needed.  We basically chose based on the availability of good quaility second-hand bikes.  No need to buy new.  It's a 125 that doesn't have tons of power, but it does what we need it to.

#4 Do you wear helments?
Yes, mom, we wear helmets.  See the photo above?  That was just for you.

#5  Was it difficult getting your motorcycle license?

In short, yes.  The process wasn't difficult, just very time consuming.  I've heard it's easier in the bigger cities, but in our city I am the first foreigner who has applied for a license and received it, so I think they made me jump a few extra hoops just to cover their bases.  I'll probably go into more detail about motorcycle licenses later.

#6  Did you have to take your driver's test in Chinese?

Yes, I did.  Out here they don't offer it in English.  I studied pretty hard for a couple weeks - not the actual content but rather all of the characters I didn't know! 

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If I somehow missed a question feel free to ask in the comments below.