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.
340 km from Beicang to Beicang, about 4 h 47 of riding. The stops in between: Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal, Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial, Summer Palace and The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
This part of the ride is 32 km of Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial → Summer Palace.
The flat country west of Tianjin looks like nothing much, a plain of poplars, canals, fish ponds and warehouses, but under it lies the engineering that fed imperial Beijing. The Grand Canal ran from the Yangtze delta to the north, and here the northern and southern branches met the rivers that flow into the Haihe and out toward the sea. This confluence, the junction of the Bei Canal and the Nan Canal, is part of the section of the canal that UNESCO listed in 2014, and it gives you a sense of how important water was to the Chinese state.
Read the complete Sanchkou Section of Bei Canal and Nana Can write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sanchkou Section of Bei Canal and Nana Can is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 98 km into the recorded legs. Next is Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial.
The Temple of Heaven was where the emperor of China, as Son of Heaven, performed the annual ceremonies of prayer for a good harvest. It was built in the early fifteenth century under the Yongle emperor, the same ruler who raised the Forbidden City, and its layout expresses a view of the cosmos: the altar is round, for heaven, set within a square park, for earth. The great Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, with its triple blue-tiled roof and wooden pillars, rests on a marble terrace and was built without nails.
Read the complete Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 122 km into the recorded legs you reach Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial. 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.
Summer Palace, about halfway. 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 sits at 183 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 194 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 225 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial. Next is back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal, late in the day. Next is Sanchkou Section of Bei Canal and Nana Can.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sanchkou Section of Bei Canal and Nana Can write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 340 km.
Sanchkou Section of Bei Canal and Nana Can → Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal → Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial → Summer Palace is 32 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 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing D → back through Summer Palace is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Summer Palace → back through Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial → back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal → Sanchkou Section of Bei Canal and Nana Can is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.