Traveling to Qiandao Lake by RV | Road trip | Easter 2021 | Day 1

First day and first time of road trip China. As usual we got late start and needed to boondocking for night at service station

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Petri 大P

Traveling to Qiandao Lake by RV TRIP day 1

As usual, we packed the car in a rush and tried to get on the road as fast as we could. Where is my driving license? I still have not found it as I write this blog. Wonder what the penalty in China is for not having your driving license with you? Able to rent the RV with wife’s driving license as required, I wonder what she does with it as she never drives here? We did not let this stop us and drove to the shop (if you can call it a shop, check the Easter 2021 Road Trip day 0 blog). KIA Sorento 2.2CRDi is a big car, but in this case, two adults/ two kids/ and a dog + one week changing clothes/food + we took our bed sheets which are taking up a lot of space. Next time we will leave them at home.

Bedsheet RV — Bringing the bed sheet as we preferred to use our own. Rentals can provide them upon agreement.

Driving out Shanghai RV — Finally on the road and getting out of Shanghai traffic

Control panel Chinese RV — Help I need a translation. Found the rental and RV, made all the pre-checks. As usual, I missed half of the information due to the language barrier and translator issues. The Control panel is fully in Chinese, so the responsibility for using it is purely on the wife 🙂

KIA sorento packed with campin stuff — KIA is packed. Needs a lot of packing skills

Guard dog in RV — Our dog, Hockey will follow us. He takes his job seriously and barks when someone approaches. Good way to have peaceful sleep. I dont know what breeds it is in him but must be multiple

KIA was packed full and headed for the road to reach the rental promptly. Of course, while driving, our cleaning lady sent a picture of the kids’ luggage in their room waiting to be picked up. This means we need to drive back thru Shanghai. Additional 40km on the elevated road back and forward. Hah, what a wonderful start to the day.

Warning for the roads in China

Some words of warning for the highways in China. Try to avoid driving in the dark and when it is raining. We have seen a huge risk of accidents in these weather conditions, and the highway will be jammed. The evening after dusk with rainfall, there were four accidents in a short distance, the road was blocked for extended periods, and travel time exceeded what we planned.

Crawling at 30-40km/h. The white flashing lights are cameras and take pictures of everyone when driving on the road. Not only when you are overspeeding. Very annoying.

Night stay at Tonglu (桐庐)Service Station in

Due to this, we decided to stay overnight at the service station parking lot. KFC shone in the night, welcoming us with “Eat me!”

It would be much safer to continue the trip in the morning. As a relief, these big service stations have restaurants/shops and toilets in use 24/7, and security is always available. Mention, nice to have a Latte in the morning fresh from Starbucks.

This would be the end of the first day of our journey of 8 days. Continuing the second day soon when arriving at Qiandao Lake with beautiful views and fresh air!

Sign for service station on our road trip in China — Hard for me to understand any of this. Meaning large trucks here and passenger cars there 🙂

Service station shops China — Many shops inside so this is a great stay for overninght

KFC Service Station China — Sometimes junk food is nice

Dad sleeping RV — Amazing, i could fit here. Tested now, OK for 100kg

Service station temp check — Service station entrance.Checking temp. and green code before entering

Early morning wake up and prepare to continue the Traveling to Qiandao Lake by RV

Mountains on the way to Qiandao — Getting closer to Qiandao Lake.The weather is not the best but we enjoy to be on the road again

Starbucks at service station in China — Many of the big service station have international shops. Good to have morning coffee from Startbucks

Service station Tonglu brushing teeth — Parked far away from trucks. Still even traveling needs to brush the teeth

After waking up at Tonglu Service Station and enjoying Starbucks + morning brushing my teeth, we headed for the road again. Roads were much more empty, and we could drive at average speed. For RV in China, I have not checked out the speed limit, so I drive 80-90km/h. That is also the comfortable and economical speed as the pots and pans keep noise.