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.
242 km from Quanzhou to Quanzhou, about 3 h 41 of riding. The stops in between: Wanshou Pagoda, Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu, Kulangsu and back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu. The line favours views over speed.
The bridges of Quanzhou were as astonishing as its port. In the Song dynasty, when the city grew rich on trade with Arabia, India and South-East Asia, its builders spanned the estuaries with long stone bridges set on huge foundations of boulders and oyster shells, and some of them are still standing. The Shunji Bridge, whose site is on our list, belongs to this tradition, and what remains is a place beside the river where engineers once solved a problem that seemed impossible: how to build a stone bridge across a tidal estuary with strong currents.
Read the complete Site of Shunji Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site of Shunji Bridge is where the day begins. Next is Wanshou Pagoda.
On a hill above the coast south of Quanzhou, in China's Fujian province, a slender stone pagoda has watched the sea for some nine centuries. The Wanshou Pagoda on Baogai mountain, near the town of Shishi, was built in the Southern Song dynasty and served as a landmark for sailors approaching the port of Quanzhou, then one of the busiest harbours in the world. Locals call it the Aunt Pagoda, after a legend that tells of a woman who climbed the hill every day to wait for her husband to return from the sea.
Read the complete Wanshou Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wanshou Pagoda comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu.
Medieval travellers called it Zaitun, and to Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta it was one of the greatest ports in the world. Quanzhou, on the coast of Fujian facing Taiwan, flourished under the Song and Yuan dynasties as a hub of maritime trade, where Arab, Persian, Indian and Southeast Asian merchants lived alongside Chinese traders, and ships left laden with silk and porcelain. In 2021 UNESCO inscribed a group of sites as Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, including temples, mosques, tombs, kilns, bridges and docks that together tell the story of this cosmopolitan city.
Read the complete Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu. Next is Kulangsu.
Kulangsu, or Gulangyu, is a small island across a narrow strait from the city of Xiamen, and the first thing to know is that you will have to leave your motorcycle behind: no motor vehicles are allowed on the island apart from a few electric service carts. You get there by ferry, and that is part of the charm. Once on the island, the noise of the city disappears, replaced by the sound of footsteps on narrow lanes, birdsong and, quite often, piano music drifting from an open window. Kulangsu is known as the island of pianos, with a long tradition of music and a piano museum.
Read the complete Kulangsu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kulangsu, about halfway. Next is back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu sits at 167 km, about halfway. Next is back through Wanshou Pagoda.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wanshou Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wanshou Pagoda comes up about 210 km into the recorded legs. Next is Site of Shunji Bridge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site of Shunji Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site of Shunji Bridge closes the day.
Site of Shunji Bridge → Wanshou Pagoda is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wanshou Pagoda → Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu → Kulangsu is 58 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kulangsu → back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu → back through Wanshou Pagoda is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wanshou Pagoda → Site of Shunji Bridge is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.