Why this ride
From Beijing it runs 137 km to Beijing; allow about 2 h 01 of riding. The stops in between: Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal, Summer Palace and back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial and Summer Palace
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 137 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 01
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal → Summer Palace
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 45 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 46 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial is where the day begins. Next is Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Summer Palace.
3. Summer Palace
The Summer Palace is the Qing court's idea of escaping the city, and even with the modern capital spread out around it, the idea still works. The core is Kunming Lake, a large artificial basin, with Longevity Hill rising from its northern shore and covered in halls, pavilions and the tall Tower of Buddhist Incense. The Qianlong Emperor shaped the garden in the mid eighteenth century, reportedly to celebrate his mother's birthday, and modelled parts of it on the scenery around West Lake in Hangzhou. British and French troops burned it during the Second Opium War in 1860, and the Empress Dowager Cixi rebuilt it later in the century, which is where the famous story comes from that she paid for it with money meant for the navy. The marble boat moored at the lakeshore, which cannot sail, has become the punchline of that tale.
Read the complete Summer Palace write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Summer Palace. Next is back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal.
4. back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal, late in the day. Next is Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial.
5. Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial to Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal
Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial → Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal to Summer Palace
Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal → Summer Palace is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Summer Palace to back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal
Summer Palace → back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tongzhou Section of Tonghui Canal to Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial
back through 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.