Why this ride
On the way it passes Fujian Tulou, Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang, Sites of Dehua Kilns and back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hekeng Tulou Cluster and Sites of Dehua Kilns
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 554 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 16
- 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. Hekeng Tulou Cluster
Hekeng is a hamlet in Nanjing County, tucked into a steep valley where a river drops through a series of small gorges, and its tulou stand among terraces and bamboo thickets so close to the water that you can hear the stream from the courtyards. The setting is the thing to notice. Unlike the lowland villages, Hekeng lies hard against the hills, and the buildings are packed along the slope in a way that seems almost improvised, with narrow lanes and stone steps between them. The cluster includes a number of earthen houses, among them a large round one and several square ones, built by families of the Hakka and local Minnan communities from the nineteenth century onward.
Read the complete Hekeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hekeng Tulou Cluster is where the day begins. Next is Fujian Tulou.
2. 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 comes up about 147 km into the recorded legs. Next is Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang.
3. 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
about 203 km into the recorded legs you reach Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang. Next is Sites of Dehua Kilns.
4. Sites of Dehua Kilns
Dehua, a county in the mountains of Fujian province, in south-eastern China, has been making porcelain for over a thousand years. Its white porcelain, known in the West as blanc de Chine, is famous for its pure, creamy white colour and its fine figures, especially statues of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, and other Buddhist and Taoist figures. The ancient kiln sites of Dehua, including long dragon kilns built on hillsides, are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, inscribed in 2021.
Read the complete Sites of Dehua Kilns write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sites of Dehua Kilns, about halfway. Next is back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang.
5. back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang sits at 277 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 407 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hekeng Tulou Cluster.
7. Hekeng Tulou Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hekeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hekeng Tulou Cluster closes the day.
Leg by leg
Hekeng Tulou Cluster to Fujian Tulou
Hekeng Tulou Cluster → Fujian Tulou is 147 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 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang to Sites of Dehua Kilns
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang → Sites of Dehua Kilns is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sites of Dehua Kilns to back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang
Sites of Dehua Kilns → back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang to back through Fujian Tulou
back through 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 Hekeng Tulou Cluster
back through Fujian Tulou → Hekeng Tulou Cluster is 147 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.