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.
185 km from Shilin to Shilin, about 3 h 02 of riding. It goes by way of Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’, Chengjiang Fossil Site and back through Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Out of the red earth of eastern Yunnan, about eighty kilometres south-east of Kunming, rise the grey stone pinnacles of the Shilin, the Stone Forest, a landscape of limestone that looks like a petrified woodland. The rock was laid down as sediment in a shallow sea around two hundred and seventy million years ago, and then raised, split and carved by rain into towers up to thirty metres high, with sharp ridges and narrow alleys in between. The Naigu area is the older, blacker part, where the stone has been darkened by lichens and weathering, and it is quieter than the main tourist area. The Shilin karst is part of the South China Karst, which UNESCO listed in 2007.
Read the complete Shilin Karst - Naigu Stone Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shilin Karst - Naigu Stone Forest is where the day begins. Next is Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’.
Shilin means Stone Forest, and the name is accurate: for several square kilometres on the Yunnan plateau, grey limestone pillars as tall as ten-storey buildings stand in clusters, like petrified trees. The rock was laid down in a shallow sea more than two hundred and fifty million years ago, then lifted, dissolved by rain and groundwater, and carved into needles, towers and narrow corridors. It forms part of the South China Karst, a UNESCO World Heritage listing that includes some of the world's most spectacular limestone scenery. Shilin lies about eighty kilometres from Kunming, at an altitude of roughly 1,700 metres, so the air is mild and spring-like for much of the year.
Read the complete Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’ comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chengjiang Fossil Site.
About 518 million years ago, in a shallow sea where Yunnan now stands on a high plateau, a sudden mud slide buried a community of soft-bodied animals so quickly that their outlines survived as fossils. Those fossils, found in the Maotianshan Shale near Chengjiang, are among the most important ever found, because they capture the Cambrian explosion, the rapid appearance of most major animal groups. They include early arthropods, worms with spiny legs and some of the oldest known relatives of vertebrates, preserved with details like eyes, guts and gills. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a small museum and viewing area explain what scientists have found.
Read the complete Chengjiang Fossil Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 90 km into the recorded legs you reach Chengjiang Fossil Site. Next is back through Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’, late in the day. Next is Shilin Karst - Naigu Stone Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shilin Karst - Naigu Stone Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Shilin Karst - Naigu Stone Forest. That is the ride.
Shilin Karst - Naigu Stone Forest → Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’ is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’ → Chengjiang Fossil Site is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chengjiang Fossil Site → back through Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’ is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Shilin Karst - ‘Suogeyi Village’ → Shilin Karst - Naigu Stone Forest is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.