Sites of Cizao Kilns and Shihu Dock starting at Jinjiang

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Sites of Cizao Kilns

   A thousand years ago, Quanzhou was one of the greatest ports in the world, the place Marco Polo called Zaitun, where ships from Persia, Arabia, India and Southeast Asia came to trade for silk, tea and porcelain. The ceramics that filled those ships were made in kilns in the hills around the city, and the Cizao kilns, near Jinjiang, were among the most important. Long dragon kilns, built up the slopes of the hills, were fired with wood, producing huge quantities of pottery for export. Shards from Cizao have been found across Asia and as far away as East Africa. Since 2021 the kiln sites have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China.

   Read the complete Sites of Cizao Kilns write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sites of Cizao Kilns is where the day begins. Next is Luoyang Bridge.

2. 2. Luoyang Bridge

   The Luoyang Bridge, also called the Wanan Bridge, spans the Luoyang River in Quanzhou prefecture, Fujian, a few kilometres from where the river meets the sea. It was built in the eleventh century, in the Northern Song dynasty, under the direction of Cai Xiang, the local governor and a noted calligrapher. It is a long stone beam bridge, with huge granite slabs laid across stone piers shaped like boat prows, so that the current is split rather than resisted. It was a real engineering achievement, because the estuary has strong tides, and the builders used an unusual technique: oysters were encouraged to grow on the piers and cement them to the foundation, a living mortar that strengthened the structure over the years.

   Read the complete Luoyang Bridge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Luoyang Bridge comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Statue of Mani in Cao'an Temple.

3. 3. Statue of Mani in Cao'an Temple

   Hidden in the hills behind the coast of Fujian is a small stone temple with a figure that should not exist. Cao'an is the last surviving Manichaean temple in the world, and its main statue shows Mani, the third-century Persian prophet who founded a religion that once stretched from Spain to China, in the form of a serene Buddha-like figure with long white hair and eyebrows. It was carved in the fourteenth century, during the Yuan dynasty, from a single piece of local stone, and its identity was recognised only in the twentieth century, when scholars matched it with texts.

   Read the complete Statue of Mani in Cao'an Temple write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Statue of Mani in Cao'an Temple. Next is Shihu Dock.

4. 4. Shihu Dock

   In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Quanzhou was one of the busiest ports in the world. Arab, Persian, Indian and Italian merchants lived in the city, which Marco Polo knew as Zayton, and ships loaded with silk, porcelain and tea left for the Indian Ocean. The port stood on the Fujian coast of southern China, at the mouth of the Jin river, and the whole system of temples, mosques, bridges, docks and kiln sites was listed by UNESCO in 2021 as Quanzhou, Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China.

   Read the complete Shihu Dock write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Shihu Dock, about halfway. Next is back through Statue of Mani in Cao'an Temple.

5. 5. back through Statue of Mani in Cao'an Temple

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Statue of Mani in Cao'an Temple write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Statue of Mani in Cao'an Temple sits at 122 km, about halfway. Next is back through Luoyang Bridge.

6. 6. back through Luoyang Bridge

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Luoyang Bridge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Luoyang Bridge comes up about 149 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sites of Cizao Kilns.

7. 7. Sites of Cizao Kilns

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Sites of Cizao Kilns write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sites of Cizao Kilns closes the day.