Why this ride
260 km from Xunzhong to Xunzhong, about 4 h 22 of riding. On the way it passes Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang, Fujian Tulou and back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Sites of Dehua Kilns and Fujian Tulou
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 260 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 22
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Sites of Dehua Kilns
Dehua, a county in the mountains of Fujian province, in south-eastern China, has been making porcelain for over a thousand years. Its white porcelain, known in the West as blanc de Chine, is famous for its pure, creamy white colour and its fine figures, especially statues of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, and other Buddhist and Taoist figures. The ancient kiln sites of Dehua, including long dragon kilns built on hillsides, are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, inscribed in 2021.
Read the complete Sites of Dehua Kilns write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sites of Dehua Kilns is where the day begins. Next is Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang.
2. Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang
In the green hills of Anxi county, inland from the port city of Quanzhou in Fujian, the Xiacaopu site preserves the remains of an iron industry that flourished during the Song and Yuan dynasties, roughly from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. Archaeologists found furnaces, slag heaps, ore-roasting pits and workshops on a hillside, evidence of large-scale production. The iron produced here was shipped down the rivers to Quanzhou and exported to Southeast Asia and beyond, and that is why the site is part of the World Heritage listing of Quanzhou, Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, inscribed in 2021. At that time, Quanzhou was one of the largest ports in the world, visited by Arab, Persian and Indian merchants, and described by Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta.
Read the complete Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fujian Tulou.
3. Fujian Tulou
Picture a giant ring of rammed earth, three or four storeys high, with almost no windows on the outside and a single heavy gate. Inside, galleries of wooden rooms face a courtyard with an ancestral hall at its heart, and up to several hundred members of one extended family once lived within those walls. That is a tulou, and the hills of south-western Fujian are dotted with them, round and square, some centuries old, many still inhabited.
Read the complete Fujian Tulou write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 131 km into the recorded legs you reach Fujian Tulou. Next is back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang.
4. back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang, late in the day. Next is Sites of Dehua Kilns.
5. Sites of Dehua Kilns
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sites of Dehua Kilns write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Sites of Dehua Kilns. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Sites of Dehua Kilns to Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang
Sites of Dehua Kilns → Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang to Fujian Tulou
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang → Fujian Tulou is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fujian Tulou to back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang
Fujian Tulou → back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang to Sites of Dehua Kilns
back through Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang → Sites of Dehua Kilns is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.