CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 Changping it runs 262 km to Changping; allow about 4 h 01 of riding. The stops in between: Badaling, Summer Palace, The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D and Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
60 km on Badaling → Summer Palace.
North of Beijing, where the plain meets the first ridges of the Jundu mountains, thirteen emperors of the Ming dynasty lie buried in a broad valley chosen for its perfect feng shui: mountains behind, a gentle slope, water in front. The first to be buried here was the Yongle emperor, the ruler who moved the capital to Beijing and built the Forbidden City in the early fifteenth century; his tomb, Changling, is the largest and best preserved, with a magnificent hall supported by enormous columns of nanmu wood. UNESCO lists them with the other imperial tombs of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Read the complete Ming Tombs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ming Tombs is where the day begins. Next is Badaling.
Badaling is the part of the Great Wall that most of the world has seen, and for good reason. The Ming dynasty rebuilt and strengthened the wall here in the sixteenth century, at a pass in the mountains northwest of Beijing, to guard the approach to the capital through the Juyong Pass. The wall climbs steeply over the ridges, with watchtowers at intervals, and the view from the top, with the line of stone snaking away over bare hills, is as epic as the photographs suggest. Restored in the 1950s, it was the first section opened to visitors, and later received many foreign leaders, including Richard Nixon in 1972.
Read the complete Badaling write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Badaling comes up 34 km in. Next is Summer Palace.
The Summer Palace is the Qing court's idea of escaping the city, and even with the modern capital spread out around it, the idea still works. The core is Kunming Lake, a large artificial basin, with Longevity Hill rising from its northern shore and covered in halls, pavilions and the tall Tower of Buddhist Incense. The Qianlong Emperor shaped the garden in the mid eighteenth century, reportedly to celebrate his mother's birthday, and modelled parts of it on the scenery around West Lake in Hangzhou. British and French troops burned it during the Second Opium War in 1860, and the Empress Dowager Cixi rebuilt it later in the century, which is where the famous story comes from that she paid for it with money meant for the navy. The marble boat moored at the lakeshore, which cannot sail, has become the punchline of that tale.
Read the complete Summer Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
68 km in you reach Summer Palace. Next is The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D.
The Forbidden City is the largest palace complex in the world, and from 1420 to 1912, it was the home of twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was built by the Yongle emperor, who moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, and who used tens of thousands of craftsmen and hundreds of thousands of labourers to finish it in about fourteen years. It covers about seventy-two hectares, with some nine hundred buildings, surrounded by a moat and a high wall. The name comes from the fact that ordinary people were forbidden to enter without permission, on pain of punishment.
Read the complete The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D, about halfway. Next is Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal.
For centuries, Beijing depended on grain shipped from the south along the Grand Canal, the longest artificial waterway in the world, and Tongzhou was where the boats arrived. The Tonghui canal connected Tongzhou with the capital, carrying grain, timber and goods to the city's markets and granaries. The Grand Canal, built and rebuilt over more than two thousand years, was listed by UNESCO in 2014, and the Tongzhou section is its northernmost part. Today, the waterfront has been landscaped into parks, with walkways, bridges and the old Ranteng pagoda rising above the water.
Read the complete Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal sits at 136 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D comes up 170 km in. Next is back through Summer Palace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Summer Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
204 km in you reach back through Summer Palace. Next is back through Badaling.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Badaling write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Badaling, late in the day. Next is Ming Tombs.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ming Tombs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 262 km.
Ming Tombs → Badaling is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Badaling → Summer Palace is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Summer Palace → The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D → Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal → back through The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D → back through Summer Palace is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Summer Palace → back through Badaling is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Badaling → Ming Tombs is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.