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.
A 246 km round trip from Songyang - roughly 3 h 50 in the saddle. It goes by way of Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han, Site of Dingding, Site of Han’gu Pass of Han Dynasty in Xin’ and back through Site of Dingding. It climbs into the mountains.
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 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Site of Dingding.
Luoyang was a capital for so many Chinese dynasties that locals like to say it holds the history of thirteen of them, and the Dingding Gate was the grand southern entrance of the outer city in the Sui and Tang periods, when Luoyang was one of the largest cities in the world. Through it passed officials, merchants, pilgrims and ambassadors, many of them travelling on the routes that linked China with Central Asia and beyond, which is why it forms part of the UNESCO listing of the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor, inscribed in 2014. Excavations revealed the foundations of the gate and the road surface, with ruts and even footprints of people and animals, now protected inside a modern museum building that echoes the shape of the original gate.
Read the complete Site of Dingding Gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Site of Dingding. Next is Site of Han’gu Pass of Han Dynasty in Xin’.
The Hangu Pass is one of the legendary places of Chinese history. According to tradition, it was at the old Hangu Pass, guarding the narrow road between the Central Plain and the Wei valley, that the philosopher Laozi, leaving China on the back of an ox, was asked by the gatekeeper to write down his wisdom before passing, and the result was the Tao Te Ching. That pass lies further west, near Lingbao. In 114 BC, under the Han dynasty, the pass was moved east to Xin'an county, near Luoyang, and it is the remains of this later Han pass, with its gate, walls and stretches of ancient road, that form part of the Silk Roads World Heritage site, on the route between the capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang and on towards Central Asia.
Read the complete Site of Han’gu Pass of Han Dynasty in Xin’ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site of Han’gu Pass of Han Dynasty in Xin’, about halfway. Next is back through Site of Dingding.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site of Dingding Gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Site of Dingding sits at 164 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 188 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Songye Temple Pagoda closes the day.
Songye Temple Pagoda → Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han → Site of Dingding Gate is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site of Dingding Gate → Site of Han’gu Pass of Han Dynasty in Xin’ is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site of Han’gu Pass of Han Dynasty in Xin’ → back through Site of Dingding Gate is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Site of Dingding Gate → back through Site of Luoyang City from the Eastern Han is 25 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 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.