A personal benny

A personal Benny!

We have been asked by many travellers and overlanders how we arranged a permit for driving China. Well from our experience we can say it wasn¡¯t easy. We tried to obtain one via the CITS, the Chinese tourist board. They immediately told us, rules had changed and that it was only possible in a group of more cars. As we are driving on our own this was out of the question. Our main goal remained Beijing, China and not India, the destination of many other overlanders

Then we contacted a friend of Elles in China who contacted some travelagencies. Then the e-mailing started. We were send a packaged tour, which included a schedule for the weeks to drive in China. Financially it hits our budget as well and that¡¯s why sponsors came in very handy. Then we haggled over the guide.

Chinese regulations state you need a guide all the way. We have no idea if this is to create jobs or just to make sure you stay on the right track. We tried several times to get around the guide but with no luck. Then we looked at it from a different perpective. A guide in China can be very useful as english isn¡¯t spoken in most of the country. He also can give us valuable information on where to go and what to see. So the next few weeks ¡®Benny¡¯ (he is chinese) will accompany us on the back seat. This could be fun, this could be…. So follow us the next few weeks with our personal Benny