消防车走天下 How do you solve a problem like China? (China Itinerary, and some important introductions).

When Steve first spoke of his plan of driving a Fire Engine around the world, we all knew immediately it was going to happen. This was Steve, his talk is never cheap and the “Why” was clear.

So the idea was quickly accepted, over a few pints as these things often are, and the attention quickly turned to “which way”.

Steve had already produced a wipe clean map, wipe able pens from his bag as if to emphasis that it was possible, he was serious and the rest of the evening was spent drawing routes all over it.

It was always going to be East of course. It was the logical direction to chase the summer sun and it was a long drive before we hit any water. Not to mention Phileas Fogg, Michael Palin and the Long Way Round boys had all gone East.

But which way East? Hours were spent poured over maps, discussing the route in the company of numerous friends and family and he was permanently in possession of the map.

A big map of the world was subsequently purchased and permanently spread over the FTFE HQ’s dinner table. Black lines were drawn in and rubbed out time and time again. Everything was considered. I can remember one evening David Orders turning up and proclaiming no one would take this expedition seriously unless we “manned up” and drove straight across the Andes and through the Amazon. He picked up a black marker and promptly drew a horizontal line through the middle of South America……

It soon became clear that due to the obvious issues in the Middle East meant that Russia looked the likely or only option. There was a route through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India that was technically possible on paper but the area is so volatile and concerns were raised over the number of borders we would have to cross making it an admin nightmare. So pretty much the route that the expedition is now following was agreed and presented by Steve to his father Garth for the very first time for sign off. A nervous Steve didn’t leave anything to chance for this meeting. He had to have all the answers. Garth Moore was a man that did a proper job and would need to see a detailed outline to take Steve seriously – clearly he knew Steve very well. However Steve needn’t have been concerned as Garth thought it was incredible.

So over the next few months, with some assistance Steve did a massive amount of research. He spoke to just about everybody that he could find that had done any kind of overland expedition for information and advice. There was of course no blue print for this expedition and no library book entitled “How to drive a fire engine around the world”. This really was pioneering stuff.

There were two bits of advice that Steve received on a regular basis, the first that I still think haunts him to this day are the immortal words “Have you thought of this?” which meant the to-do-list being added to or someone stating the obvious. The second was “Don’t do China”.

China had caused numerous headaches to expeditions in the past and many had come to an abrupt halt. This was due to bureaucracy and cost. You can’t just turn up at the border with a VISA and the paperwork. You need to know the people on the ground and it needs to be planned months in advance (6 months to be precise) to ensure all the permits are in place. Steve was painstaking in his research and found a company called NAVO (Nature Adventure Voyage Off-road).

http://www.navo-tour.com/en/aboutus/

To give you an idea of their experience of the last ten overland expeditions that have gone into China driving their own vehicle(s) six have gone with NAVO and the other four had to request NAVO’s help. NAVO began accepting foreign tourists to do the special tourism since 1993. Most guests were from Europe and the United States. They have embarked on diversiform adventure tour, such as Trekking, Self-driving, off-road travel, photography tour, bird-watching tour, Motorcycling tour, learning martial arts tour, etc. Moreover, they are always ready to accept challenges and arrange more special kinds of tours in China. Perfect for FTFE!

Since the autumn of 2009 we have been discussing the expedition with Li Zhuoyun (Karen Lee) who is based at NAVO’s head office in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

Karen, whose vital stats are below, has worked tirelessly exchanging many emails with me and Steve to ensure that the mountain of paperwork and itinerary, were in place to submit an application to the Chinese Government for the necessary permits.

Our first application was refused but some incredible work (and it really needed to be) by Kate Bartishel (Crew member stage 6) liaising with her DVLA contact (who provided excellent advice, support and guidance) meant that the China stage was saved and our second application was successful.

The Vladivostok-Tokyo-Bangkok route that was seriously being looked into could be put on ice. (But remains a contingency – no tempting fate here!).

Ben Lloyd is a good friend of mine and in his own words is an “Ex fund manager having mid life crisis”.

He has lived in china for the last two years learning Mandarin. Last autumn we dispatched Ben as our man on the ground to go and meet with Karen at the NAVO offices in Chengdu and discuss the expedition. This gave us an additional level of comfort, as I’m sure you can appreciate that NAVO was a company that we could trust.

Ben will be joining the expedition as an honoree crew member travelling a few days from Xi’an to Chengdu where he is organizing for us to visit a school and enjoy a typical Sichuan hot pot. Ben’s vital stats are below

In addition to managing the complex application process the legendary Karen, and NAVO’s involvement with FTFE goes much deeper.

NAVO’s head office in Chengdu is on the route, and Karen and the team are hosting a celebration dinner for us when we arrive.

Karen has also arranged for us to visit the firehouse in Chengdu to meet the fire fighters there and park Martha next to a Chinese Fire Engine. Karen describes comparing them both as “a very interesting thing”

NAVO gave FTFE a discount on the cost of their service and have donated £500 to FTFE.

NAVO have very kindly paid the vehicle deposit that must be paid when we enter China, rather than leaving the crew to find £10,000 GBP. This will be paid back by the Chinese government three months after our exit and NAVO are only charging us a tiny amount of interest for the cost of the loan and the admin involved.

Lastly, it is a stipulation of our government permit that we are accompanied by a guide the entire time we are in China. NAVO have provided the guide and I’m delighted to introduce a man you’re going to be seeing a lot of, Honouree crew member Mr Sun Ji  

I asked Mr Sun Ji to introduce himself and say a few words;

“I’m Sun Ji, who will be a part of your team in China, it’s my pleasure and lucky to experience this kind of journey with you, I think it will be very special. Wonderful to hear that your whole journey is carbon neutral. I learnt inform from the attachments in your email and from the website, I should say I respect every fire fighters who save people from emergency, I used to want to be a fireman but it’s difficult in China. Your charity journey to memory a man who devotes his life in this profession and also raises money for helping more people is so meaningful. As I’m working for some NGOs (charities) in China, I will assist you to do some activities with them if you want.”

Mr Sun Ji will arrive at Beijing in 5^th Sep to start the enormous amount of paperwork involved which will take him 2 days.

He will then arrive at to Erenhot (Mongolia/China border crossing) on 7^th or 8^th September to meet the crew on 9^th September.

FTFE crew, HQ and NAVO are closely monitoring the traffic situation between Erenhot and Beijing that Chris Moore (Crew member stage 1) alerted the team to. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11062708

Paul Barham

The vital statistics for Karen and our honoree crew members for FTFE does China

 

Sun Ji

Age:30

Height:70kg

Profession: environment and culture protection

Sporting Loves & Achievements: badminton, hiking

Most Annoying Habit: wasting food and smoking a lot

Most Overused phrase: haven’t 

Favourite Sandwich:sandwich with many vegetable but actually prefer Chinese food of course

Favourite Fire Engine: I haven’t as I don’t know about it

Top skills for the Expedition :Chinese-speaking and some work experience in charity field

Biggest Fear: Snake and woman crying

Top 3 items to take: money, computer and cloth

Top 3 songs for the radio: love county music and a Chinese singer’s all song, whose name is Xuwei

Reasons for going: it’s a meaningful journey

Li Zhuoyun (Karen lee)

Age: 26

Height: 46kg

Profession: adventure tour in China (Trekking, self-driving, Charity tour, Volunteer project program)

Sporting Loves & Achievements: Swimming

Most Annoying Habit: So far, no.

Most Overused phrase: Are you crazy?

Favourite Sandwich: Chief sandwich  

Favourite Fire Engine: Our team’s fire engine will be absolutely my favorite one.

Top skills for the Expedition: Know about the rules of how to run self-driving tour in China and can help to arrange the expedition.  

Biggest Fear: Acrophobia

Top 3 items to take: what a pity that I need to stay in the office to deal with the paper work.

Top 3 songs for the radio:  ‘Because u love me” of Celine Dion, “The one you love” of Glenn Frey and ‘You are not alone’ of Michael Jackson

Reasons for going: I was moved by the story of the fireman who saved so many people’s life.

Ben Lloyd （杰明）

Age 31

Height 6ft 3

Profession Ex fund manager having mid life crisis.

Sporting Loves & Achievements – Loves any and every sport. Triathlon, Adventure races, Isle of Man record holder (javelin). 

Most Annoying Habit Waking up early every day

Most Overused phrase  That’s awesome

Favourite Sandwich  Chicken and pesto

Favourite Fire Engine Mini Martha

Top skills for the Expedition  Can order dumplings and beer in Chinese

Biggest Fear-  Being beaten at badminton by an 8 year old girl

Top 3 items to take – Trainers, Instant Noodles, Tsingtao. 

Day	Date	Place	Distances	Notes	ROAD
thu	09.09.2010	Erenhot – arrive border	n/a	enter china, deal with the process in CIQ. Please be sure to arrive the border during Mon-Thur, because the process can’t be done in weekend.
fri	10.09.2010	Erenhot to Jining (wulanchabu)	341km	finish the process in the border and head to Jining ( Wulanchabu).	National road G208
sat	11.09.2010	Jining-Beijing	381Km	Arrive Beijing today. Beijing is very big and the distance depends on where you will stay.	National road G110/Or Express way .
sun	12.09.2010	Beijing	Rest	tourist day – go and see Tiananmen Square, the Fobidden Palace, and enjoy a beer in Sanlitun bar area.
mon	13.09.2010	Beijing	Rest	tourist day – visit Great Wall and then return for an evening in Beijing
tue	14.09.2010	BJ to Datong	358km	Drive to ‘see the Yungang grottos’ ,	National road G109/Or  Express way .
wed	15.09.2010	Datong to Mount Wutai	290km	visit hanging temple at Hunyuan on the way, stay overnight at the foot of Mt.Wutai	Provincial road
thu	16.09.2010	Mount Wutai-Pingyao	350km	visit Pingyao ancient town	National road G208/ Or Express way
fri	17.09.2010	Pingyao to Huashan	443km	Possible climb of Mt Huashan at night	Dayun Express way
sat	18.09.2010	Huashan to Xi’an	140km	Possible climb of Mt Huashan, visit terracota warriors	Natioal road G310/Or Express way
sun	19.09.2010	Xi’an	Rest	Xi’an
mon	20.09.2010	Xi’an to Guangyuan	433km	one day drive to Guangyuan	Xi’Han Express way
tue	21.09.2010	Guangyuan to Langzhong	150km	stay in Langzhong ancient town – old Chinese customs etc.	Natonal road G212
wed	22.09.2010	Langzhong to Chengdu	443km	celebratory evening meal with NAVO	National road G212+Cheng’nan express way
thu	23.09.2010	Chengdu – pandas – pengzhou	80km (approx)	8am start to see the Panda’s Research base. Then drive to Pengzhou in pm (about an hour away). Pm with school kids, eve with ben’s friends hot pot dinner.	Express way
fri	24.09.2010	Pengzhou to Chengdu	80km (approx)	Meet Chinese fire fighters and media interviews	Express way
sat	25.09.2010	Chengdu to Leshan/Mt. Emeishan	195km	chengdu-leshan about 2.5 hours driving time, and visit Leshan Giant buddha about 3 -4 hours , and then about 1 hours driving time to the foot of  Mt.Emei.	Express way
sun	26.09.2010	Mt. Emeishan(Golden summit)-Leshan -Zigong	260km	see the sunraise in Golden summit and back to the feet of Mt.Emei,  head to Zigong	Express way
mon	27.09.2010	Zigong-Yibing-Zhaotong	320km	visit the Zigong dinasor museum, and then head to Yibin.  The road condition is not very good.	Express way+national road
tue	28.09.2010	Zhaotong- Kunming	400km	very good road condition express way..	Express way
wed	29.09.2010	Kunming-Jianshui	260km	visit the ancient town.	Kunyu Express way
thu	30.09.2010	Jianshui-yuanyang	90km	Jianshui to Yuanyang, rest day at rice terraces.	Provincial road/Or express way
fri	01.10.2010	yuangyang-Yuxi-Yuangjiang	270km	about 6 hours driving,  From Yuan yang to Jianshui the road condition is not goo, but from Jianshui-Yuxi-Yuanjiang., the road condition is good with express way in most part.	Express way
sat	02.10.2010	Yuanjiang-Pu’er	231km	very good road condition express way.	Express way
sun	03.10.2010	Pu’er-Mengla	290km	very good road condition express way.	Express way
mon	04.10.2010	Mengla to Mohan (border exit)	52km	about 1 hour driving