CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
164 km from Kowloon to Kowloon, about 2 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Zone 2, Historic Centre of Macao, Zone 1 and back through Historic Centre of Macao. It crosses from Hong Kong SAR China into Macao SAR China - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Hong Kong looks like a city built by someone who ran out of flat land and decided to go up. The skyscrapers of Central and Kowloon crowd the shoreline of Victoria Harbour, with green mountains rising immediately behind, and the effect, especially at night, with the towers lit in colour and the ferries crossing the black water, is startling. Kowloon, on the mainland side, is the older, grittier half, with dense neon-lit streets, street markets and the old Star Ferry terminal, and more than two million people live in its small area.
Read the complete Hong Kong write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hong Kong is where the day begins. Next is Zone 2.
Macau is a small piece of land with an outsized past, and the old peninsula is where it is most visible. Portuguese traders settled here in the sixteenth century, and the city stayed under Portuguese administration until 1999. Its centre still has the feel of a Mediterranean town transplanted to the coast of China, with pastel colonial houses, wave-patterned pavements and the Largo do Senado, a square of cream and yellow buildings with a fountain in the middle.
Read the complete Zone 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zone 2 comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of Macao.
The southern end of the Macau peninsula is where the city began. Here the Barra hill rises above the harbour, and at its foot stands the A-Ma Temple, a collection of small shrines and courtyards climbing the rock among boulders carved with red inscriptions. It is dedicated to the goddess of seafarers, and legend says that the name of Macau itself comes from it, since the first Portuguese sailors heard the name A-Ma Gau, the bay of A-Ma, and used it for the whole place. Fishermen's boats still bob in the harbour in front.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Macao write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Macao. Next is Zone 1.
For four hundred years Macau was a trading post, handed back only in 1999, and the legacy shows in the streets: pastel-coloured colonial buildings, black and white wave-patterned paving in Senado Square, and small Catholic churches next to Taoist temples. Its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the most famous fragment, the carved stone façade of the Ruins of St Paul's, stands at the top of a flight of steps, all that is left of a church that burned in 1835.
Read the complete Zone 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zone 1, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Macao.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Macao write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of Macao sits at 120 km, about halfway. Next is back through Zone 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zone 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zone 2 comes up about 87 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hong Kong.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hong Kong write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hong Kong closes the day.
Hong Kong → Zone 2 is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Zone 2 → Hong Kong is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.