Travel to or from China overland

[Saigon]

Hello all,

Have you ever travelled to or from China by land?

[Tomtomtom69]

From Myanmar?

Only possible at Mu-se/Ruili with a permit issued by MTT.

Fairly soon though, likely in a few months, this border crossing will be upgraded to international status and allow permit free crossings with only a passport (and if required) a visa for Myanmar/China.

[technologybytes]

Chinese drivers seem to have no difficulty driving into Thailand and back, but China does not appear to allow Thailand registered cars into China without a special permit issued to organised tours.

Its the same with motorcycles.

[menzies233]

Chinese drivers seem to have no difficulty driving into Thailand and back, but China does not appear to allow Thailand registered cars into China without a special permit issued to organised tours.

Its the same with motorcycles.

It certainly seems that way - There are loads of Chinese vehicles around the North. Try doing it from here to China, it is a totally different ball game and will cost an arm and a leg if even given the permits. You have top be accompanied by an authorised guide, it takes months to get all the paperwork and you are not allowed on certain roads.

[johnnyj]

Chinese drivers seem to have no difficulty driving into Thailand and back, but China does not appear to allow Thailand registered cars into China without a special permit issued to organised tours.

Its the same with motorcycles.

It certainly seems that way - There are loads of Chinese vehicles around the North. Try doing it from here to China, it is a totally different ball game and will cost an arm and a leg if even given the permits. You have top be accompanied by an authorised guide, it takes months to get all the paperwork and you are not allowed on certain roads.

thats more what it is about, Actually getting a vehicle in isn't the tricky part, its about being able to travel around on your own recognizance which the chinese govt. aren't fans of,

the guides are around $100 to $150USD per day last time I checked (which was a while ago) when I was looking at options crossing over from laos by motorbike.

I had a mate a number of years ago who rode into china from inner mongolia, but he was heading to Beijing then flew to SK with his bike.

[Minnie the Minx]

Chinese New Year forget it.

They will look up where your pigeons are roosting faster than you can say xie xie.

You didn't state from what destination to where exactly so I can't help you. They though I was a drug runner for a few years hopping the border before I got Chinese PR. Now I blow them all a kiss present passport and drive through and all is well.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh it's you again, Ni hao blah blah.

Word of advice, do not travel CNY. Ever. Madhouse.

[Minnie the Minx]

You need dual plates too.

No visa on arrival, check PSB for more info.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-security-bureau-contact-details-in-china

[Tomtomtom69]

Chinese drivers seem to have no difficulty driving into Thailand and back, but China does not appear to allow Thailand registered cars into China without a special permit issued to organised tours.

Its the same with motorcycles.

That is true and quite unfair.

However, they are NOT allowed to transit Myanmar en-route to Thailand as Myanmar does not allow entry to Chinese vehicles. The only exceptions are for local trips within a 10km radius of the border. Unless of course they too go on an organized tour with guide.

Vietnam also does NOT allow entry to Chinese vehicles. Organized tours with lead vehicle and guide is the only exception to this, but in recent times Vietnam has not approved large caravan tours of Chinese registered vehicles. Individual ones could make it across but in practice don't as it's quite difficult and expensive to organize the permits and guide etc.

Only Laos allows them in freely. So any Chinese vehicles seen inside Thai borders have transited via Lao territory.

I agree that China should allow Thai cars and motorcycles across, at least to Yunnan and Guangxi provinces as they are supposed to as part of the 2003 GMS CBTA agreement. They have definitely not lived up to their end of the bargain on this matter.

I have heard that China may open up it's borders to Thai vehicles fairly soon though, for a period of up to 15 days. Fingers crossed as to when this will happen though.

[Saigon]

Thank you all.

I hope the Burmese - Chinese borders are officially open to the foreign tourists as soon as possible.

FYI, I've seen a car with a Chinese (blue) license number twice in Thailand, once in Vietnam and

many times in Laos.

[phuketrichard]

in the past week have seen 3 cars with Chinese plates here in Phuket

one was a camper van and he was parked on kalim beach cooking breakfast :-)

Often see Chinese plated cars down here and whenever i am up north see them all the time