Aside from organizing and packing about 100 pounds of carvings, textiles, Vietnamese snake wine and other various souvenirs we have acquired along our journey to ship back home, we have had a little down time and this has enabled me to calculate just how much money we spent getting our trucks into and driving them through China.
The final cost of obtaining permission to get into China and "self-drive" our own vehicles through "Big Red One," came to about $5,600. This included obtaining the necessary national and provincial authorizations, the Chinese number plates for the Toyotas, Chinese drivers licenses for Steve and myself, the required guide to accompany us while in China and a 30 second vehicle safety inspection. (The safety inspection was bogus because before we even arrived, the Chinese government required us to have one done at an authorized testing center which we did in Bangkok for about $30 per vehicle, so I guess we could have just burned that 1,600 Bhat… it would have been more fun)
In addition to the paperwork cost, we could not drive anywhere in China without paying road tolls. By the time it was all said and done, we spent another $350 per vehicle for tolls on expressways where we could only drive 45 kilometers per hour because of the congestion and on provincial highways that although not as congested, prevented us from driving much faster because of the surface conditions. Parking the trucks in the bigger cities was not as big of a deal as we anticipated, but it still cost about another $50 in parking fees. Petrol was actually comparatively cheap in China, costing us only about 18.2 Yuan per gallon ($2.43) but since we ended up driving just under 3,500 miles (5,600 km) to cross China, it cost us about $1,160 to quench the collective thirst of the Thundra and Little Pepe.
Finally if you take into account the wear and tear on the vehicles (flat tires and the noticeable dent on the side of the Thundra from and eager yet unskilled motorcycle driver) you can probably add another $1,000 to the total. In the end, driving our own two vehicles through China cost us a buck or two. We only were authorized to spend three weeks in China, but the $8,570 we forked out to do so cost us more than we have spent on the entire expedition excluding vehicle shipping costs. I guess I could also calculate the cost to our own personal health as a result of air quality in China and the stress involved in getting in, as well as the opportunity cost of sitting around and waiting for countless hours for more paperwork to get processed after we arrived, but I don’t even know where to begin with that.
Believe it or not, in conversations with other people who have driven their own vehicles through China or were planning to do so, the cost to TWBR was actually a bargain. An Australian couple spent over $15,000 on their paperwork alone, and our original quote from the Chinese International Travel Service (CITS) was $160,000 so I guess we could have spent a lot more. So if you are ever planning on a road trip through China in your own car, you had better have some Benjamins in your bank account.
Authentic Chinese driver’s license – $1,750
Chinese military number plates for your trucks – $2,400
Driving your own car through China – Probably not worth it
