Why this ride
On the way it passes Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster, Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster, Fujian Tulou and Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Chuxi Tulou Cluster and Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 534 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 45
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Chuxi Tulou Cluster
In the mountains of western Fujian the villages are shaped like fortresses, and Chuxi is one of the classic examples. The tulou, or earthen buildings, here are huge rammed-earth rings and squares up to several storeys high, built by Hakka families over the centuries so that a whole clan could live, store grain and defend itself behind one thick wall. The Chuxi cluster, in the Yongding district, is part of the Fujian Tulou World Heritage group, and the buildings sit among terraced fields, bamboo and tea bushes in a valley that is green nearly all year.
Read the complete Chuxi Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chuxi Tulou Cluster is where the day begins. Next is Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster.
2. Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster
This is the Hakka country of southwestern Fujian, the hills of Nanjing and Pinghe counties, where villagers built vast earthen fortress-homes called tulou. The ones near Hukeng and Tianloukeng are among the finest, and they are set in valleys of terraced tea, bamboo groves and rice paddies in a green so deep it looks artificial after rain. Each tulou is a ring, square or sometimes oval of rammed earth walls up to a metre or more thick, three or four storeys tall, with one big gate and a single courtyard in the middle where families kept a well, a shrine and animals.
Read the complete Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster.
3. Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster
The tulou of southwestern Fujian look like something dropped from the sky, huge round or square earthen fortresses sitting among tea terraces and bamboo, with roofs that curve like turned-up eaves. Tianloukeng is a cluster of them in Nanjing County, in the hills inland from Xiamen, and the group is probably the most photographed in the region because it can be seen as a whole: a square tulou at the centre, surrounded by round ones, set on a slope so the roofs stagger like a bowl of dumplings.
Read the complete Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster. Next is Fujian Tulou.
4. Fujian Tulou
Picture a giant ring of rammed earth, three or four storeys high, with almost no windows on the outside and a single heavy gate. Inside, galleries of wooden rooms face a courtyard with an ancestral hall at its heart, and up to several hundred members of one extended family once lived within those walls. That is a tulou, and the hills of south-western Fujian are dotted with them, round and square, some centuries old, many still inhabited.
Read the complete Fujian Tulou write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fujian Tulou, about halfway. Next is Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang.
5. Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang
In the green hills of Anxi county, inland from the port city of Quanzhou in Fujian, the Xiacaopu site preserves the remains of an iron industry that flourished during the Song and Yuan dynasties, roughly from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. Archaeologists found furnaces, slag heaps, ore-roasting pits and workshops on a hillside, evidence of large-scale production. The iron produced here was shipped down the rivers to Quanzhou and exported to Southeast Asia and beyond, and that is why the site is part of the World Heritage listing of Quanzhou, Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, inscribed in 2021. At that time, Quanzhou was one of the largest ports in the world, visited by Arab, Persian and Indian merchants, and described by Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta.
Read the complete Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang sits at 191 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fujian Tulou.
6. back through Fujian Tulou
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fujian Tulou write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fujian Tulou comes up about 328 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster.
7. back through Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 478 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster. Next is back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster.
8. back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster, late in the day. Next is Chuxi Tulou Cluster.
9. Chuxi Tulou Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chuxi Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 534 km.
Leg by leg
Chuxi Tulou Cluster to Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster
Chuxi Tulou Cluster → Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster to Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster
Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster → Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster to Fujian Tulou
Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster → Fujian Tulou is 150 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Fujian Tulou to Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang
Fujian Tulou → Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang to back through Fujian Tulou
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang → back through Fujian Tulou is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fujian Tulou to back through Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster
back through Fujian Tulou → back through Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster is 150 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster to back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster
back through Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster → back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster to Chuxi Tulou Cluster
back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster → Chuxi Tulou Cluster is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.