Deus exmachina

"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.