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 291 km round trip from Ningbo - roughly 3 h 53 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh, West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou and back through Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh. 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.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 89 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 145 km into the recorded legs you reach West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou. 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, late in the day. Next is 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 at Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal. That is the ride.
Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal → Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh → West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou is 56 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 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hangzhou Xiaoshan - Shaoxing Section of Zh → Ningbo Section of Zhedong Canal is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.