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.
From Xunzhong it runs 389 km to Xunzhong; allow about 5 h 02 of riding. On the way it passes Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions, Kulangsu and back through Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sites of Dehua Kilns is where the day begins. Next is Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions.
Before the sailing season, officials and merchants climbed a hill above Quanzhou to ask the gods for wind. The Jiuri mountain inscriptions, carved on cliff faces and boulders between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, record these prayers, and they are among the most unusual documents of China's maritime past. They were written by local officials of the Song dynasty, and they appeal to the sea gods and to the spirits of the mountain to send a favourable monsoon, so that the trade ships bound for Southeast Asia, India and Arabia could set out in safety and return. Standing before a rock face carved with neat columns of characters, you are reading a note that someone left when the world's biggest port was run by hand and weather.
Read the complete Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions comes up about 100 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 197 km into the recorded legs you reach Kulangsu. Next is back through Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions, late in the day. Next is Sites of Dehua Kilns.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sites of Dehua Kilns write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Sites of Dehua Kilns. That is the ride.
Sites of Dehua Kilns → Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions is 100 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions → Kulangsu is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kulangsu → back through Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions → Sites of Dehua Kilns is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.