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 Mentougou it runs 159 km to Mentougou; allow about 2 h 32 of riding. The stops in between: Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal, Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal, Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial and back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 28 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
The Empress Dowager Cixi is said to have spent money meant for the Chinese navy on rebuilding the Summer Palace, and the story is captured in stone: a marble boat moored permanently at the edge of Kunming Lake, a ship that will never sail. Whether the tale is entirely fair to her is debated, but the palace itself is beyond argument, a vast imperial garden of lakes, hills, halls, pavilions, bridges and covered walkways on the north-western edge of Beijing, laid out in the eighteenth century under the Qianlong Emperor, burned by British and French troops in 1860, rebuilt and burned again in 1900, and restored once more. It was listed by UNESCO in 1998 as a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.
Read the complete Summer Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Summer Palace is where the day begins. Next is Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal.
The Grand Canal of China is the longest man-made waterway in the world, and for centuries it carried the grain, silk and taxes of the south to the capital in the north. The Tonghui section, built in 1292 by the engineer Guo Shoujing under the Yuan dynasty, brought water from springs in the hills to the north-west of Beijing and gave the canal its final link to the city, running from the capital to Tongzhou, where barges unloaded. The old Beijing section follows the line of the river through the city, passing lakes, bridges and old neighbourhoods, and it forms part of the UNESCO listing of the Grand Canal, listed in 2014.
Read the complete Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal.
For centuries, Beijing depended on grain shipped from the south along the Grand Canal, the longest artificial waterway in the world, and Tongzhou was where the boats arrived. The Tonghui canal connected Tongzhou with the capital, carrying grain, timber and goods to the city's markets and granaries. The Grand Canal, built and rebuilt over more than two thousand years, was listed by UNESCO in 2014, and the Tongzhou section is its northernmost part. Today, the waterfront has been landscaped into parks, with walkways, bridges and the old Ranteng pagoda rising above the water.
Read the complete Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal. Next is Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial.
The Temple of Heaven was where the emperor of China, as Son of Heaven, performed the annual ceremonies of prayer for a good harvest. It was built in the early fifteenth century under the Yongle emperor, the same ruler who raised the Forbidden City, and its layout expresses a view of the cosmos: the altar is round, for heaven, set within a square park, for earth. The great Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, with its triple blue-tiled roof and wooden pillars, rests on a marble terrace and was built without nails.
Read the complete Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial, about halfway. Next is back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal sits at 110 km, about halfway. Next is back through Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal comes up about 130 km into the recorded legs. Next is Summer Palace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Summer Palace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Summer Palace closes the day.
Summer Palace → Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal → Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal → Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial → back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal → back through Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old Beijing City Section of Tonghui Canal → Summer Palace is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.