The Grand Canal is usually thought of as the great waterway linking Beijing and Hangzhou, but it did not stop there. From Hangzhou, the Zhedong Canal, the canal of eastern Zhejiang, continued east through Shaoxing, Shangyu and Yuyao to the port of Ningbo, linking the inland waterway system with the sea and maritime trade. The Shangyu to Yuyao section, a waterway of rivers and canals through the flat, fertile plain south of Hangzhou Bay, is part of the Grand Canal World Heritage site, inscribed in 2014. Along it, boats carried rice, silk, tea and porcelain for centuries, and towns grew up along its banks with bridges, locks and warehouses.
The Cao'e River, which flows through Shangyu, takes its name from a legend: in the second century, a girl named Cao E threw herself into the river to search for the body of her drowned father, and she became a symbol of filial devotion, honoured by a temple on the riverbank. Yuyao, to the east, is the birthplace of Wang Yangming, one of the most influential philosophers of the Ming dynasty, and near the town lies the Hemudu site, where remains of a Neolithic culture that cultivated rice around seven thousand years ago were found, among the earliest known rice-growing communities in the world.
The plain here is densely populated and industrialised, with towns, factories, rice paddies and fish ponds crisscrossed by canals and roads. The riding is flat and busy, with heavy traffic of trucks, cars, electric scooters and tricycles, and it is not a place for pleasure riding. To the south, however, the hills of Shaoxing and the Siming mountains offer winding roads through bamboo forests and tea plantations. As everywhere in China, foreign riders need a Chinese licence and properly registered vehicle, motorcycles are often banned from city centres, and expressways are closed to them.
Shangyu, Yuyao and the nearby towns have fuel, shops and restaurants. The food of Zhejiang is light and delicate, with plenty of fish, shrimp and vegetables. Try Shaoxing wine, the famous yellow rice wine of the region, and the stinky tofu, a speciality of Shaoxing that tastes much better than it smells. Yuyao is also known for its yangmei, red bayberries, which ripen in early summer.