Getting our bikes to London
I’m back in the UK, one week to go, catching up with friends and family and planning to go pick up my bike which is currently in Farnham – how it ended up there is a long story…
I’ve been in Shijiazhuang – the capital city of Hebei, China since November and it was always in the back of my mind that I would somehow have to get our two sponsored bikes from LKLM from Shenzhen to London. I knew I had three weeks in Hong Kong before I flew out to London on the 28th March so I just thought I would deal with it when I was there. Little did I know it would prove more difficult than I anticipated.
I flew down from SJZ on the Sunday 8th March and had organised with LKLM that I would go and collect the bikes on the Monday. I had emailed them asking them if they could pack them in boxes which we could then easily get across the border and onto a plane that way, the problem was that only Will from the company could speak English and he was away, although my Mandarin is a lot better than it was trying to explain what we were trying to do and the fact that “No I cannot cycle them both down from Shenzhen” by myself, was proving a bit tricky, not only that they were adamant that if they put them in their cardboard boxes 1. We wouldn’t be able to carry them and 2. We would be taxed going out of China. I was a bit sceptical but I didn’t want to take chances so I talked it through with Dad and we decided to take things into our own hands.
I got in contact with Ed who owns Buxum Boxes who said that we could borrow two of his tourmalet boxes, which we could then bring up to Shenzhen, put the bikes in and wheel them across the border. The fact that we had two second hand bike boxes that were very manoeuvrable on their extremely impressive wheels it was problem solved.
So we drove up to Sheung Shui after collecting the boxes, and wheeled the box towards the MTR Station. We could see security watching us and we were obviously a bit to slow because one of them caught us before we got through the barrier and said that we can’t take them on the train as they were too big. The guard was really nice about it and we explained what we were trying to do and asked what we should do. There are 5 border crossings between HK and The Mainland, but the problem is you can’t drive over unless you have a permit and you can’t even drive up to the border as it is a restricted area. So the guy told us we could get a taxi from where we were to the Lok Ma Chau crossing. To my amazement we managed to get both boxes in the back of one taxi.
We got through the border no problem with both boxes in tow and after a bit of haggling with those illegal car hire people who you always say to yourself beforehand ignore, ignore, ignore and then somehow find yourself in their car – the reason we initially followed her was that she had assured us that both boxes could fit in the car rather than having to take two taxis (with a smaller boot than those in HK) …well both boxes could fit at the expense of either me or my Dad not, what was she thinking! Anyway I got a bit pissed off and after some arguing in Chinese we got two cars for an okay price.
We reached LKLM luckily before Huang Jun (the Boss) and Flora (the Manager) were heading out for lunch and joined them for some really good spicy Sichuan food. We made our way back to the warehouse – they weren’t too keen on dismantling the bikes and fitting them into the boxes, but it was the best thing to do as we couldn’t really cycle it across and if we had, once we had crossed the border we’d still have to get it into the car and then onto a plane so better we did it there and then. It took a while but eventually we had two bike in boxes and all was good. One of their mechanics drove us back to the border and from there we headed home. The boxes had wheels that meant the boxes were very portable and we had no problem wheeling 64kg worth of bike and box across the Lok Ma Chau border crossing (well apart from the mainlanders and their lifts...see below) had we put them in cardboard boxes I see what they mean about not being able to move them.
So that was the easy part, I had two boxes and two bikes in my living room in HK and now how to get them to London in under two weeks! Luckily a good friend of ours, Rachel was heading back to London the following evening – so that was one bike accounted for. Beth picked it up from Heathrow at 5am – the next problem was that we now had to get that box back to HK as it was only on loan from Ed who needed it asap as was moving back to the UK and had his own bikes to bring back. To make life more difficult Beth was going back home to Nottingham the following day so I then had to arrange for the box to go to a friend of mine, Al, to look after until I found someone flying back to HK.
A week went by and still no success for either bike going out or box coming back. I was flying on Jet Airways and it was going to cost me 70USD per every Kilo over my baggage allowance, and I still had to take all the panniers, tent, stove and my things back. So carrying a 20kg steel touring bike was not really an option. After a number of desperate emails. Chris my ex-rugby coach who works for EGS Survey said that two of his colleagues were flying back that Sunday and then heading down to Bordon, Hampshire ... perfect! My cousin is in Farnham that would make picking it up easy, not only that, Ed had said I could drop off the empty box at his distributor in Farnham, even better! So my bike flew out with BA thanks to Debbie and Stephen, with no problems other than it didn’t fit in the back of the taxi from Heathrow and they had to put the back seats down leaving Debbie to lie next to it!
Facebook saved the day again after making a desperate plea for anyone heading back to HK from London in the next week to contact me – not knowing what it was they were signing up for I quickly got a few responses and Ed’s box came back with Pippa.
So there it is after a logistical mission and a half with everything seeming to go wrong and plans changing 24/7, two days before I myself flew out I had managed to get two bikes to the England, if not London, one box to Farnham and one box back to Hong Kong. The even better news is that the bikes look great, very sturdy touring bikes, so far so good!
Many thanks to all those that were involved, LKLM, Ed and his Buxum Boxes, Chris, Debbie and Stephen from EGS Survey, Rachel, Pippa, Al and Michael who currently has my bike.
Next time I get sponsored bikes from Shenzhen I think I’ll start cycling from there!
Julia x
This is us trying to get into the only lift in the building on Shenzhen side trying to get up to 3rd floor immigration, take away the wheel chair, everyone else was perfectly able and had next to no luggage, just too lazy to get on the escalator 50m away. Had to wait almost 10 mins before we decided to take on the stairs - got up two floors to find that the door out was locked. The security guard laughed at us, saying he couldn't open it, he was nice enough to help carry them down though!
