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.
308 km from Beijing to Beijing, about 4 h 06 of riding. On the way it passes Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, Western Qing Tombs and back through Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian.
In the 1920s and 1930s, excavations in the limestone caves of Dragon Bone Hill at Zhoukoudian, south-west of Beijing, uncovered the remains of early humans who lived here hundreds of thousands of years ago. They became known as Peking Man, a population of Homo erectus, and in 1929 the Chinese archaeologist Pei Wenzhong found a nearly complete skull. The fossils caused a sensation, offering evidence of early humans in Asia and their use of fire. Then, in 1941, during the Japanese occupation, the original bones were packed for shipment to the United States and vanished; their fate remains one of the great mysteries of archaeology. The site is listed by UNESCO, and a museum displays casts and later finds.
Read the complete Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Western Qing Tombs.
Ninety minutes from Beijing, where the North China Plain runs into the Taihang mountains, a line of tombs lies in a landscape of old pines. These are the Western Qing Tombs, in Yi County of Hebei province, the burial ground of four Qing emperors, including Yongzheng, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Guangxu, along with a crowd of empresses, concubines and princes. The Qing had a second great cemetery, the Eastern Tombs, on the other side of Beijing, and the two were laid out according to feng shui principles with hills behind and open ground in front.
Read the complete Western Qing Tombs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 152 km into the recorded legs you reach Western Qing Tombs. Next is back through Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, late in the day. Next is Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial. That is the ride.
Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial → Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian → Western Qing Tombs is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Western Qing Tombs → back through Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian → Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.