Jianglangshan and Gaoling Porcelain Clay Mining Site

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Jianglangshan

   Jianglangshan looks as though somebody took a giant knife to a block of red sandstone and left three slices standing. The Three Sisters, tall, narrow slabs of rock rising well over three hundred metres above the valley, are the icon of the site, and the cliffs behind them, steep and layered in warm reds and browns, are typical of the landform called Danxia. The word means rosy clouds, and the landscape is a kind of red-bed desert eroded by wind and rain into peaks, gorges and walls. UNESCO listed a group of Danxia sites in south China in 2010, and Jianglangshan, in Zhejiang, is one of the six.

   Read the complete Jianglangshan write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Jianglangshan is where the day begins. Next is Mount Sanqingshan National Park.

2. 2. Mount Sanqingshan National Park

   Sanqingshan is a mountain where granite has been carved into figures. Tall pillars and spires of grey rock rise out of a sea of cloud, shaped by wind and water into forms that Chinese visitors have named for centuries: the Goddess, a pillar that looks like a woman with a tall coiffure, the Python, a slender tower that leans out over the valley. The peaks reach to about 1,800 metres, the highest, Yujingfeng, just under 1,820, and the mist that gathers in the valleys turns the whole range into a landscape out of a classical painting.

   Read the complete Mount Sanqingshan National Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Mount Sanqingshan National Park comes up about 102 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gaoling Porcelain Clay Mining Site.

3. 3. Gaoling Porcelain Clay Mining Site

   Few words travelled the world quite like kaolin. It comes from Gaoling, which means High Ridge, a hill village in Jiangxi province where a pure white clay was dug for centuries and sent to the porcelain kilns of Jingdezhen. French missionaries in the eighteenth century took samples of this clay back to Europe, and the Chinese place name became the English and French word for the key ingredient in porcelain. So this ordinary-looking hillside is where one of the most famous materials in the world got its name.

   Read the complete Gaoling Porcelain Clay Mining Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 245 km into the recorded legs you reach Gaoling Porcelain Clay Mining Site. Next is back through Mount Sanqingshan National Park.

4. 4. back through Mount Sanqingshan National Park

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mount Sanqingshan National Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Mount Sanqingshan National Park, late in the day. Next is Jianglangshan.

5. 5. Jianglangshan

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Jianglangshan write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Jianglangshan. That is the ride.