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.
A 342 km round trip from Songyang - roughly 4 h 34 in the saddle. The stops in between: Site of Dingding, Site of Shihao Section of Xiaohan Ancient and back through Site of Dingding. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Ask most people where kung fu comes from and they will name this temple, even if they have no idea where it is. The Shaolin Temple stands at the foot of Mount Song in Henan province, central China, near the city of Dengfeng. It was founded at the end of the fifth century for an Indian monk, and tradition says that Bodhidharma, the legendary founder of Chan, or Zen, Buddhism, meditated in a cave on the mountain above for nine years. The monks' martial arts became famous over the centuries, and today Shaolin is as much a brand as a monastery.
Read the complete Architectural Complex of Shaolin Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Architectural Complex of Shaolin Temple is where the day begins. Next is Site of Dingding.
Luoyang was a capital for so many Chinese dynasties that locals like to say it holds the history of thirteen of them, and the Dingding Gate was the grand southern entrance of the outer city in the Sui and Tang periods, when Luoyang was one of the largest cities in the world. Through it passed officials, merchants, pilgrims and ambassadors, many of them travelling on the routes that linked China with Central Asia and beyond, which is why it forms part of the UNESCO listing of the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor, inscribed in 2014. Excavations revealed the foundations of the gate and the road surface, with ruts and even footprints of people and animals, now protected inside a modern museum building that echoes the shape of the original gate.
Read the complete Site of Dingding Gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site of Dingding comes up 90 km in. Next is Site of Shihao Section of Xiaohan Ancient.
The Silk Road is often imagined as a line across a desert, but in places it was a road cut into rock. The Xiaohan ancient road runs through the mountains of Henan province, linking Luoyang, the Han and Tang capital, with the west through the narrow pass at Hangu. The Shihao section is a stretch of the road that survives in the loess hills, with ruts cut into the stone by wheels. UNESCO listed it as part of the Silk Roads network in 2014.
Read the complete Site of Shihao Section of Xiaohan Ancient write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
180 km in you reach Site of Shihao Section of Xiaohan Ancient. Next is back through Site of Dingding.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site of Dingding Gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Site of Dingding, late in the day. Next is Architectural Complex of Shaolin Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Architectural Complex of Shaolin Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Architectural Complex of Shaolin Temple. That is the ride.
Architectural Complex of Shaolin Temple → Site of Dingding Gate is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site of Dingding Gate → Site of Shihao Section of Xiaohan Ancient is 118 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Site of Shihao Section of Xiaohan Ancient → back through Site of Dingding Gate is 118 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Site of Dingding Gate → Architectural Complex of Shaolin Temple is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.