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.
A 365 km round trip from Ningbo - roughly 4 h 57 in the saddle. On the way it passes Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal, Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal, Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh and West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 64 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Ningbo is where three rivers meet, the Yao, the Fenghua and the Yong, and Sanjiangkou, the three rivers' mouth, is the heart of the old city. For more than a thousand years, Ningbo was one of the great ports of China, a place from which silk, porcelain and tea went to Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia, and where the monks and merchants of those countries landed. It was also the southern end of the Grand Canal, which connected it to Hangzhou and the north, and so it was a meeting point of river, canal and sea. Today, Ningbo-Zhoushan is the busiest cargo port in the world by tonnage, and the old waterfront is a neat, modern riverfront park.
Read the complete Ningbo Sanjiangkou write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ningbo Sanjiangkou is where the day begins. Next is Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal.
East of Hangzhou, the Grand Canal does not simply stop. A further waterway, the Zhedong Canal, carries on across the coastal plain of eastern Zhejiang through Shaoxing and Yuyao to Ningbo and the sea, linking the inland canal system to one of China's great ports. This point sits on the Ningbo section, in a flat, intensely worked landscape of rivers, locks, villages and factories between Yuyao and the city.
Read the complete Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal comes up 50 km in. Next is Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal.
The Grand Canal is usually thought of as the great waterway linking Beijing and Hangzhou, but it did not stop there. From Hangzhou, the Zhedong Canal, the canal of eastern Zhejiang, continued east through Shaoxing, Shangyu and Yuyao to the port of Ningbo, linking the inland waterway system with the sea and maritime trade. The Shangyu to Yuyao section, a waterway of rivers and canals through the flat, fertile plain south of Hangzhou Bay, is part of the Grand Canal World Heritage site, inscribed in 2014. Along it, boats carried rice, silk, tea and porcelain for centuries, and towns grew up along its banks with bridges, locks and warehouses.
Read the complete Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
100 km in you reach Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal. Next is Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh.
Shaoxing is a city built on water. Its canals, bridges and narrow stone-paved lanes have made it one of the most photogenic towns in eastern China, and the Zhedong Canal, which links Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Ningbo, is its great artery. The canal belongs to the Grand Canal system, the longest artificial waterway in the world, which UNESCO listed in 2014. The Zhedong section carried grain, silk, tea and travellers for more than a thousand years, and in Shaoxing you can still see black-awninged boats, arched stone bridges and old warehouses along the banks.
Read the complete Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh, about halfway. Next is West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou.
There is a Chinese saying that in heaven there is paradise, and on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou. The West Lake, on the western edge of Hangzhou, has inspired poets, painters and garden designers for more than a thousand years, and its blend of water, hills, causeways, pagodas and temples became a model for landscape gardens across China, Japan and Korea. UNESCO inscribed it as a cultural landscape in 2011. The Su causeway, built by the poet-governor Su Dongpo in the eleventh century, and the Bai causeway, named after the Tang poet Bai Juyi, cross the lake, lined with willows and peach trees.
Read the complete West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou sits at 201 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh comes up 251 km in. Next is back through Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
301 km in you reach back through Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal. Next is back through Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal, late in the day. Next is Ningbo Sanjiangkou.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ningbo Sanjiangkou write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 365 km.
Ningbo Sanjiangkou → Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal → Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal → Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh → West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou → back through Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh → back through Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Shangyu-YuyaoSection of Zhedong Canal → back through Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal → Ningbo Sanjiangkou is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.