CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A 414 km round trip from Xiamen - roughly 5 h 31 in the saddle. It goes by way of Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu, Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks, Sites of Dehua Kilns and back through Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks. The line favours views over speed.
Kulangsu, or Gulangyu, is a small island across a narrow strait from the city of Xiamen, and the first thing to know is that you will have to leave your motorcycle behind: no motor vehicles are allowed on the island apart from a few electric service carts. You get there by ferry, and that is part of the charm. Once on the island, the noise of the city disappears, replaced by the sound of footsteps on narrow lanes, birdsong and, quite often, piano music drifting from an open window. Kulangsu is known as the island of pianos, with a long tradition of music and a piano museum.
Read the complete Kulangsu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kulangsu is where the day begins. Next is Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu.
Medieval travellers called it Zaitun, and to Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta it was one of the greatest ports in the world. Quanzhou, on the coast of Fujian facing Taiwan, flourished under the Song and Yuan dynasties as a hub of maritime trade, where Arab, Persian, Indian and Southeast Asian merchants lived alongside Chinese traders, and ships left laden with silk and porcelain. In 2021 UNESCO inscribed a group of sites as Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, including temples, mosques, tombs, kilns, bridges and docks that together tell the story of this cosmopolitan city.
Read the complete Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks.
In the Song and Yuan centuries, roughly a thousand years ago, Quanzhou on the coast of Fujian was one of the busiest ports on the planet. Arab, Persian, Indian and Southeast Asian merchants lived here, ships loaded silk, porcelain and tea for the Indian Ocean, and Marco Polo, who knew it as Zayton, described a harbour crowded with vessels. The Zhenwu Temple stands on a small rise by the estuary of the Jin river, where officials once made sacrifices to the god of the sea before the fleets sailed, and the old docks along the shore nearby are part of the World Heritage Site inscribed in 2021 as Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China.
Read the complete Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sites of Dehua Kilns, about halfway. Next is back through Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks sits at 267 km, about halfway. Next is back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu comes up about 356 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kulangsu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kulangsu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kulangsu closes the day.
Kulangsu → Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu → Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks → Sites of Dehua Kilns is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sites of Dehua Kilns → back through Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks → back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu → Kulangsu is 58 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.