Cool: Man Bikes 9,300 Miles From China To England!

In what can only be described as an incredible journey, a man completed a four-month, 15-country bike journey from China all the way to England.

Bike Journey From China To England

Josh Reid, 23, picked up a new bike directly from the factory in Shanghai…then decided to bike it all the way back to his home in Newcastle, England. It made for quite a journey.

Over four months, he averaged over 150 miles per day. On his vlog, he explains the challenges of biking through China:

I began at the end of July, in a heatwave, sleeping in hotels when forced to by Chinese police (they’re quite strict with independent travellers — although they also sometimes bought me food) but more usually I camped by the side of the road in a sleeping bag. I didn’t pack a tent: too heavy. I wanted to ride home fast. And in the end, I often clocked as many as 200 miles a day.

From Shanghai he biked to Xi’an, where he checked out the terracotta warriors before joining the Silk Road. His next stop was Almaty, Kazakhstan, his last glimpse of “normalcy” for many days. Next was Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, back into Kazakhstan, then through Georgia and into Turkey. From Turkey, he continued through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, German, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, and finally back to England.

The journey also included hitching passage onboard a freight ship across the Caspian Sea, his only “diversion” in order to avoid entering Iran.

You can watch a recount of his journey here:

CONCLUSION

I love spin class, but am not an outdoor bicyclist (I’m allergic to the sun after all…). Still, the idea of a intercontinental bike ride fascinates me. It looks like an incredible journey and a whole different kind of travel!

image: Josh Reid