The flat country west of Tianjin looks like nothing much, a plain of poplars, canals, fish ponds and warehouses, but under it lies the engineering that fed imperial Beijing. The Grand Canal ran from the Yangtze delta to the north, and here the northern and southern branches met the rivers that flow into the Haihe and out toward the sea. This confluence, the junction of the Bei Canal and the Nan Canal, is part of the section of the canal that UNESCO listed in 2014, and it gives you a sense of how important water was to the Chinese state.
There is no grand monument to see, which is rather the point. What you find are embankments, water, a few old landing places and the quiet routine of a working waterway. Grain, salt, silk, timber and tribute passed along this line for centuries, and the capital depended on it. Tianjin grew up as a port because of this junction, and it later became one of the places where the great powers pushed their way into China in the nineteenth century.
The riding is flat and fast. Roads in the Tianjin and Hebei plain are straight and wide, lined with trees and busy with trucks, and the corners are few, so you spend most of your time watching traffic and wind. The wind can be strong, especially in spring when dust blows in from the north-west. Autumn is the best season, with clear skies and golden poplars along the canal, while summers are hot and humid and winters cold and dry.
Hangou, the nearest village, is small, about two kilometres away, and you should plan for fuel and food in the larger towns around Tianjin, where there are plenty of petrol stations and noodle shops. Try the local Tianjin snacks if you pass through the city, including the fried dough twists and the steamed stuffed buns the city is known for.
On the ride, this stop is a counterpoint to the Ming Tombs, which are far to the north, in the hills outside Beijing. One shows how the state moved its food, the other where it buried its emperors, and between them you get quite a rounded picture of the empire.