Practical, first-hand answers to the questions our guests ask most — paying online via Stripe or on the road with Alipay and TenPayGo, fixing GPS map offsets, taking bikes on trains, and riding in China with confidence. Written and checked by the CycleQuest China team.
Guides
Route guide
Eight routes our Yangshuo team has ridden and GPS-recorded, all starting from our shop on the Yulong River: what each is like on the ground, which suits your time and legs, when to go, and when a guide is worth it.
Read guide: Yangshuo Cycling Routes: Eight Mapped Bike Rides from Easy River Loops to Full-Day ClimbsNavigation & GPX
Why your GPS track looks 400 metres off the road in China, how the GCJ-02 ("Mars Coordinates") datum shift affects Garmin, Wahoo, Komoot, Strava and Google Maps, how to use AMap Global in English, and how to load our WGS-84 GPX routes without getting lost.
Read guide: Cycling Navigation in China: How to Fix the GPS Map Offset on Garmin, Wahoo, Komoot and AMapTravel logistics
Can you take a road or mountain bike on a Chinese high-speed train? Why the 130 cm luggage rule blocks most packed bikes, which two rail lines actually run the 12306 Bike-on-Board service, how to ship a bike box hotel-to-hotel with SF Express, and why e-bike batteries never fly or ride the rails.
Read guide: Taking a Bike on China's High-Speed Trains, Domestic Flights and SF Express: The 130 cm Rule ExplainedBike rental
Most "e-bike rental" signs in Yangshuo don't say what you're actually renting. Here's the difference between an electric bicycle and an electric moped, why visitors can't legally ride anything faster than 25 km/h, how renting from our Xiatangzhai shop works, what the deposit and insurance cover, and a five-minute check to do before you ride off.
Read guide: Renting an E-Bike in Yangshuo as a Foreign Visitor: Licences, the 25 km/h Rule, Deposits and What to CheckPayments
Online card payment via Stripe is paused for now: pay at our store counter with Alipay, TenPayGo or WeChat Pay, or message us and we will sort out payment with you. Here is how payment works with us, plus our step-by-step Alipay setup guide for foreign visitors for village cafés and shops on the road.
Read guide: How to Pay for Your Bike Booking & Set Up Alipay in China — Step by StepPayments
TenPayGo is Tencent's standalone payment app for visitors to China. It offers fast email sign-up and fee-free payments under ¥200, but it is strictly engineered for registered merchant checkouts. It does not support peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, personal QR codes, or WeChat mini-programs. Here is how it behaves on the road in Yangshuo and Guilin, why roadside fruit stalls and table ordering fail, and how to set up your payment backup.
Read guide: TenPayGo: Tencent's New Payment App for Foreign Visitors — What It Does and When to Use It
