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 Songyang it runs 345 km to Songyang; allow about 5 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han, Longmen Grottoes, The Grand Canal and back through The Grand Canal. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The Songyue pagoda is the one that any historian of Chinese architecture will point you toward, and it stands in the grounds of an old temple at the foot of Mount Song, five kilometres from Songyang. It is a tall brick pagoda with twelve sides, a shape found almost nowhere else, rising in tiers of tightly packed eaves to a slender top. By most accounts it dates from the early sixth century, which makes it the oldest brick pagoda in China, and one of the oldest standing buildings in the country.
Read the complete Songye Temple Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Songye Temple Pagoda is where the day begins. Next is Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han.
Luoyang, in Henan province, is one of the four great ancient capitals of China, a city that served as the seat of more than a dozen dynasties over a thousand years. East of the modern city, in the fields along the Luo river, lie the remains of the capital of the Eastern Han dynasty, which ruled from Luoyang from the first to the early third century AD, and of the later Wei, Jin and Northern Wei capitals built on the same site. The site is part of the UNESCO-listed Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor, inscribed in 2014.
Read the complete Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Longmen Grottoes.
South of Luoyang, the river Yi cuts through a narrow gap between two limestone hills, and for about a kilometre the cliffs on both sides are honeycombed with caves, niches and carvings. Over around four centuries, starting in the late fifth century under the Northern Wei dynasty and continuing through the Tang, Buddhist sculptors carved tens of thousands of statues into the rock, from tiny figures a few centimetres high to colossal Buddhas. The Longmen Grottoes were listed by UNESCO in 2000 and are among the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art.
Read the complete Longmen Grottoes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 110 km into the recorded legs you reach Longmen Grottoes. Next is The Grand Canal.
Luoyang is one of China's ancient capitals, a city with over a thousand years of imperial history pressed into its soil, and the Grand Canal is part of the reason why. In the early seventh century the Sui emperor Yang ordered a system of canals dug to link the Yellow River plain with the rice country of the south, and Luoyang became its great hub. Grain from the Yangtze delta was shipped here and stored in enormous underground granaries; one of them, the Hanjia granary inside the city, is part of the UNESCO listing of the Grand Canal and you can see the excavated grain pits today.
Read the complete The Grand Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Grand Canal, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Longmen Grottoes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Longmen Grottoes sits at 172 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Grand Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Grand Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Grand Canal comes up about 203 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Longmen Grottoes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Longmen Grottoes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 234 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Longmen Grottoes. Next is back through Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han, late in the day. Next is Songye Temple Pagoda.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Songye Temple Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 345 km.
Songye Temple Pagoda → Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han → Longmen Grottoes is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Longmen Grottoes → The Grand Canal is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Grand Canal → Longmen Grottoes is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Longmen Grottoes → back through The Grand Canal is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Grand Canal → back through Longmen Grottoes is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Longmen Grottoes → back through Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han → Songye Temple Pagoda is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.