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.
From Luoyang it runs 373 km to Luoyang; allow about 5 h 21 of riding. The stops in between: Sites of Dehua Kilns, Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang and back through Sites of Dehua Kilns. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The Luoyang Bridge, also called the Wanan Bridge, spans the Luoyang River in Quanzhou prefecture, Fujian, a few kilometres from where the river meets the sea. It was built in the eleventh century, in the Northern Song dynasty, under the direction of Cai Xiang, the local governor and a noted calligrapher. It is a long stone beam bridge, with huge granite slabs laid across stone piers shaped like boat prows, so that the current is split rather than resisted. It was a real engineering achievement, because the estuary has strong tides, and the builders used an unusual technique: oysters were encouraged to grow on the piers and cement them to the foundation, a living mortar that strengthened the structure over the years.
Read the complete Luoyang Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Luoyang Bridge is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 107 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 183 km into the recorded legs you reach Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang. Next is back through Sites of Dehua Kilns.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sites of Dehua Kilns write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sites of Dehua Kilns, late in the day. Next is Luoyang Bridge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Luoyang Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Luoyang Bridge. That is the ride.
Luoyang Bridge → Sites of Dehua Kilns is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sites of Dehua Kilns → Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang → back through Sites of Dehua Kilns is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sites of Dehua Kilns → Luoyang Bridge is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.