Dear friends of the XWORLD Adventure Tour 2008/2009
breathtaking high mountain passes, wonderful river landscapes, the Great Wall of China, the "Forbidden City" and the Olympic Games - we invested a great deal of time in planning our coming stages through China and selected the very best routes through the "Central Empire. It therefore comes as a great shock to us, and those who were looking forward to their XWORLD stages: China has
suddenly refused us entry.
The official explanation: Before and during the Olympic Games and the following Paralympics, entry with our vehicles is not possible, even though we already had permission. All for nothing: we were told that we could only drive on Chinese soil in September/October.
For us this means that we will have to re-arrange the 11th Stage, which was planned from Ulan-Bator to Peking (26 July to 9 August). The starting point remains unchanged, however we will be driving on a modified round trip whose destination will also be Ulan Bator. From there, the participants will fly directly to Peking, where they will visit the events concerning the Olympic Games. The stages 12 to 18 - which should have taken the participants from Peking via Kashgar, Tibet, Chendu and Shanghai to Hong Kong will unfortunately be cancelled completely.
We wish to assure you that for us these changes are more than annoying, but are unfortunately unavoidable. We have done everything in our power to convince the Chinese authorities to allow us to enter the country - unfortunately to no effect.
We wish to apologise to you for the necessary changes. We will transfer the vehicles directly from Ulan Bator to Hong Kong, so that the 19th Stage (Start: 19. 19 November) of the XWORLD Tour can be continued as planned.
Your XWORLD Team