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 Fangshan it runs 201 km to Fangshan; allow about 3 h 18 of riding. The stops in between: Summer Palace, Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal, Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal and back through Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal.
The ride follows Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian → Summer Palace for 46 km.
In the 1920s and 1930s, excavations in the limestone caves of Dragon Bone Hill at Zhoukoudian, south-west of Beijing, uncovered the remains of early humans who lived here hundreds of thousands of years ago. They became known as Peking Man, a population of Homo erectus, and in 1929 the Chinese archaeologist Pei Wenzhong found a nearly complete skull. The fossils caused a sensation, offering evidence of early humans in Asia and their use of fire. Then, in 1941, during the Japanese occupation, the original bones were packed for shipment to the United States and vanished; their fate remains one of the great mysteries of archaeology. The site is listed by UNESCO, and a museum displays casts and later finds.
Read the complete Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian is where the day begins. Next is Summer Palace.
The Empress Dowager Cixi is said to have spent money meant for the Chinese navy on rebuilding the Summer Palace, and the story is captured in stone: a marble boat moored permanently at the edge of Kunming Lake, a ship that will never sail. Whether the tale is entirely fair to her is debated, but the palace itself is beyond argument, a vast imperial garden of lakes, hills, halls, pavilions, bridges and covered walkways on the north-western edge of Beijing, laid out in the eighteenth century under the Qianlong Emperor, burned by British and French troops in 1860, rebuilt and burned again in 1900, and restored once more. It was listed by UNESCO in 1998 as a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.
Read the complete Summer Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Summer Palace comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal.
The Grand Canal of China is the longest man-made waterway in the world, and for centuries it carried the grain, silk and taxes of the south to the capital in the north. The Tonghui section, built in 1292 by the engineer Guo Shoujing under the Yuan dynasty, brought water from springs in the hills to the north-west of Beijing and gave the canal its final link to the city, running from the capital to Tongzhou, where barges unloaded. The old Beijing section follows the line of the river through the city, passing lakes, bridges and old neighbourhoods, and it forms part of the UNESCO listing of the Grand Canal, listed in 2014.
Read the complete Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal sits at 133 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Summer Palace comes up about 154 km into the recorded legs. Next is Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian closes the day.
Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian → Summer Palace is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Summer Palace → Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal → Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal → back through Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal → back through Summer Palace is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Summer Palace → Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.