Badaling and Western Qing Tombs

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Badaling

   Badaling is the part of the Great Wall that most of the world has seen, and for good reason. The Ming dynasty rebuilt and strengthened the wall here in the sixteenth century, at a pass in the mountains northwest of Beijing, to guard the approach to the capital through the Juyong Pass. The wall climbs steeply over the ridges, with watchtowers at intervals, and the view from the top, with the line of stone snaking away over bare hills, is as epic as the photographs suggest. Restored in the 1950s, it was the first section opened to visitors, and later received many foreign leaders, including Richard Nixon in 1972.

   Read the complete Badaling write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Badaling is where the day begins. Next is Summer Palace.

2. 2. Summer Palace

   The Empress Dowager Cixi is said to have spent money meant for the Chinese navy on rebuilding the Summer Palace, and the story is captured in stone: a marble boat moored permanently at the edge of Kunming Lake, a ship that will never sail. Whether the tale is entirely fair to her is debated, but the palace itself is beyond argument, a vast imperial garden of lakes, hills, halls, pavilions, bridges and covered walkways on the north-western edge of Beijing, laid out in the eighteenth century under the Qianlong Emperor, burned by British and French troops in 1860, rebuilt and burned again in 1900, and restored once more. It was listed by UNESCO in 1998 as a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.

   Read the complete Summer Palace write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Summer Palace comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Western Qing Tombs.

3. 3. Western Qing Tombs

   Ninety minutes from Beijing, where the North China Plain runs into the Taihang mountains, a line of tombs lies in a landscape of old pines. These are the Western Qing Tombs, in Yi County of Hebei province, the burial ground of four Qing emperors, including Yongzheng, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Guangxu, along with a crowd of empresses, concubines and princes. The Qing had a second great cemetery, the Eastern Tombs, on the other side of Beijing, and the two were laid out according to feng shui principles with hills behind and open ground in front.

   Read the complete Western Qing Tombs write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 202 km into the recorded legs you reach Western Qing Tombs. Next is back through Summer Palace.

4. 4. back through Summer Palace

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Summer Palace write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Summer Palace, late in the day. Next is Badaling.

5. 5. Badaling

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Badaling write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Badaling. That is the ride.