CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
645 km from Dushanzi to Kuqa, about 9 h 00 of riding. It goes by way of Hashilegen Pass, Nalati and Bayinbuluke. The highest point is about 3,400 m. Hashilegen Pass is open in summer only - check it is open before you set off. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
226 km on Dushanzi → Hashilegen Pass.
88 km on Hashilegen Pass → Nalati.
Dushanzi is where the desert gives way to the mountains in northern Xinjiang, a city of oil refineries and chemical plants at the foot of the Tian Shan, and its main interest to riders is that it is the northern end of the Duku Highway. That road climbs south across the range, passing through snowy summits, high grasslands and canyons, before dropping into the Tarim Basin at Kuqa, a journey of roughly five hundred and fifty kilometres through some of the most dramatic scenery in China.
Read the complete Dushanzi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dushanzi is where the day begins. Next is Hashilegen Pass.
Hashilegen Pass lies high in the central Tian Shan at roughly 3,400 metres, where the Duku Highway climbs to the divide and the world turns to rock, snow and sky. The scenery is wide and austere, with glaciers on the high peaks, meltwater streams across the alpine meadows and the occasional herder's felt tent.
Read the complete Hashilegen Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hashilegen Pass comes up 199 km in. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Nalati, mostly downhill.
Nalati, known in Kazakh as Narat, is a high grassland on the northern slopes of the Tian Shan in Xinjiang, in the far west of China, and it is one of those landscapes that looks like a painter's idea of mountain summer pasture. Rolling green meadows spread beneath snowy peaks, dotted with spruce forest and herders' yurts, and the air is cool and thin at around two thousand metres. The Kazakh herders who move their sheep, horses and cattle up here every summer are the people who made the grasslands what they are.
Read the complete Nalati write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
398 km in you reach Nalati. Next is Bayinbuluke.
Bayinbuluke is a vast, high grassland basin in the Tian Shan of Xinjiang, around two and a half thousand metres up, and the second largest grassland in China. The Kaidu River winds across it in great loops, and in evening light it looks like a silver snake draped over an emerald carpet. The Torghut Mongols graze their sheep and horses here, and herds of yaks and cattle dot the slopes.
Read the complete Bayinbuluke write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bayinbuluke, late in the day. Next is Kuqa.
Kuqa lies on the northern rim of the Taklamakan Desert, in Xinjiang, at the southern foot of the Tian Shan, and it has been a stop on the Silk Road for two thousand years. Known in Chinese chronicles as Kucha, it was the capital of an oasis kingdom that grew rich on trade and became a major centre of Buddhism in the first millennium. Its musicians and dancers were famous across Asia, and the monk Kumarajiva, born here in the fourth century, became one of the great translators of Buddhist texts into Chinese. Today the Uyghur town has a rebuilt old quarter, a big mosque, a Sunday market and a good deal of melons, apricots and grapes.
Read the complete Kuqa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Kuqa. That is the ride.
Dushanzi → Hashilegen Pass is 226 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Hashilegen Pass → Nalati is 88 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Nalati → Bayinbuluke is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bayinbuluke → Kuqa is 381 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.