Deus exmachina

Put that car in the garage and jump on the back of a motorcycle. We're going for a ride. Yang Feiyue reports on a new jet set.

Liu Lu is just as at ease two-wheeling it down the highway as she is ambling down the catwalk.

And for her, motorcycling, just like the finest piece of high fashion, is as much about what you see as what you feel.

Liu, a 25-year-old model who lives in Beijing, is part of a growing band that has renounced the locked-in feel of four-wheeled travel in favor of the freedom they feel two wheels give them.

For Liu that freedom includes being able to hot-foot it to work, zigzagging through the infernal traffic jams that Beijing throws up every day, running down the road to do a bit of shopping and - glory of glories - hitting the great, wide open road and sniffing the breeze on epic journeys of 1,000 kilometers or more.

One person who can claim some of the credit for all this is her boyfriend who introduced her to the two-wheeled life.

"He's is in the motorcycle stunts business, and I always think that when he's on a bike he looks really cool," she says.

After learning the basics of riding, and with a highly adventurous streak, it was not long before her itchy feet were begging her to mount her bike and head into the distance. So three years ago she embarked on a 1,500-kilometer trip that took her from Arxan city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to Mohe, the country's northernmost county, in Heilongjiang province.

"The great thing about being on a motorcycle is that you can really lap up nature along the way," she says.

On that trip, she rode with 12 friends across the vast prairies of Hulun Buir and Genhe Wetland in Inner Mongolia.

"The close feel of cypresses on both sides of the road, big white clouds in the blue sky and their reflections in rivers, as well as different cultures and customs along the way still linger in my mind."

You cannot pigeonhole motorcycle riders, because they come from all walks of life, says Wang Hongwei, CEO of jiche.com, a Beijing-based website devoted to motorcycles.

"Be they white-collar workers or college students, their riding is born of a free and adventurous spirit."

They can come from anywhere in the country, too, but of course many come from big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen Chongqing, Chengdu and Xi'an.

More than 11.1 million motorcycles were sold in China in the first seven months of this year, the most popular brands including Haojue and Wuyang-Honda. The top 10 brands accounted for about 55 percent of those sales.

"On a motorcycle you really have the sense being on the road," Wang says, adding that the most important thing for many riders is being in contact with nature rather than enjoying comfort, and the satisfaction is heightened by a sense of being in control.

For motorcyclists the machine feels like an extension of themselves, he says, and they can feel all the sensations as the wheels run along the road.

One highly popular destination for motorcyclists in China is Tibet, and every year tens of thousands of them from all parts of the country converge on the region, drawn by its natural beauty.

Many choose the Sichuan-Tibet highway, which in some parts is prone to being littered with debris during the rainy season from August to September, but for some riders the very risks that this poses are a challenge, Wang says.

"Facing hardship on the way, feeling the greatness of nature and the raw relationships between friends and strangers, and finding meaning in life are all a kind of initiation ritual," Wang says.

"That's something you will not feel if you go by car, air or train."

Other popular destinations for motorcyclists are Qinghai, Yunnan and Hainan provinces and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Fixing routes beforehand is a must, because many Chinese cities ban or restrict the use of motorcycles on certain urban roads or on highways.

Weather also needs to be taken into account, Wang says, citing Tibet as an example. Anyone riding there ought to avoid doing so in August and September when road conditions are precarious because of possible landslides and debris on the road, he says.

He also strongly advises riders to wear protective clothing and stick rigidly to speed limits and other road rules because the slightest miscalculation or unforeseen circumstance can have fatal consequences.

"Regular maintenance and check-ups before long-distance travel are another must."

Dealers in big-brand motorcycles such as BMW, Harley-Davidson and Ducati regularly organize motorcycle tours, and some motorcyclists organize trips after getting to know one another through online forums.

"There are relatively few motorcycle clubs in China," Wang says, adding that he believes motorcycling will become increasingly popular, especially in big cities, despite the present restrictions.

One attraction is that it is easier to learn to ride a motorcycle and get a riding license than to learn to drive and get a driver's license, he says.

Liu says it took her only a matter of minutes to learn how to ride a motorcycle, and her two wheels have been indispensable in helping her get to photo shoots on time.

"There are so many traffic jams in Beijing that often I could easily be late for work if I drove a car or took a taxi."

Liu says she now makes a habit of going on a motorcycle trip of about 2,000 kilometers once a year. Last month, she says, she spent a fortnight or so traveling from Xi'an, Shaanxi province, to Dunhuang in Gansu.

"When we got to Dunhuang it started to hail and the sensation of hail raining on me at four thousand meters above sea level was amazing."

At weekends or after work, Liu threads her way through heavy traffic and rides in suburban Beijing.

"When you're racing along on the motorcycle you can throw all of your work cares to the wind. It's great fun."

Liu says her top priority is safety, and she pays keen attention to changes in road conditions. She has never had a fall, she says.

Novice females should ride a smaller motorcycle because women are normally not as tall and as strong as men, she says. They can then slowly build up to bigger models.

Bitten by the motorcycle bug, Li Qi, 27, of Hunan province, quit a job in the media in Hainan province a year ago and returned to the capital of Hunan, Changsha, to work at the local branch of BMW Motorrad, a brand of the German car and motorcycle maker. The company sold 400 motorcycles in the first eight months of this year, more than double the number sold in the corresponding period last year, he says.

"Getting into the motorcycle business has made me very happy," Li says, adding that he can now mix work with pleasure, in the best of ways.

His love of motorcycles began nine years ago, the first motorcycle he owned being a rusty secondhand model costing 1,000 yuan ($157) in 2008. These days he gets around on a sparkling BMW model that cost him more than 20,000 yuan.

He has no other hobbies, and he does not frequent bars, he says, and he learned how to ride like a professional the hard way.

It involved a three-day trip from Zhuzhou in Hunan to Lipu county in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, an odyssey that remains fresh in his memory.

"I went there to join a kind of motorcycle celebration event in 2009."

He was unwilling to spend big sums on what he thought was unnecessary gear, such as gloves and raincoat, which cost more than 1,000 yuan at the time, he says. It rained for much of the 600-kilometer trip and the cheap raincoat he wore failed to prevent him from being drenched.

"It was so freezing I couldn't feel any part of my body, and I really don't know how I made it home."

As a novice, he did not know how to use the clutch properly either, and that put him at risk many times, he says.

Now that he is a highly competent rider and has a very good machine he can travel much greater distances with relative ease.

Li now goes on three long-distance trips to places such as Hainan and Qinghai Lake in northwestern Qinghai province every year, each trip covering about 5,000 kilometers, taking about a fortnight to complete and costing him 10,000 yuan.

On these trips, he and other riders generally stay in hotels, but an extra dimension of adventure is added when they camp out near the sea or on grasslands or on mountains sometimes, particularly when less than a handful of riders are in the group.

"The charm of motorcycle travel is that I can go to many places that you can't reach by other means of transport," Li says. "Being exposed to the Gobi desert and other kinds of landscape along the way really is something else."

Li says that unlike being at the wheel of a car, a motorcycle offers him a stronger sense of being the master of his machine and demands more technical skills and stamina.

"When people ask me why anyone would spend this much on a motorcycle, I tell them that if they really want to understand what it's all about they need to jump on a bike and find out for themselves."

Luan Shu contributed to the story.

Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn

Liu Lu participated in a motorcycle endurance match in Inner Mongolia autonomous region’s Baotou city in August. Provided To China Daily

Li Qi took a break in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan autonomous prefecture on his trip from Changsha to Qinghai Lake in July. Provided To China Daily

(China Daily 09/19/2015 page15)