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 287 km round trip from Suzhou - roughly 4 h 03 in the saddle. The stops in between: Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal, Area of Yaoshan Site and back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Suzhou is a city of canals and gardens, and the Garden of Cultivation is one of the smaller and quieter examples of an art that the Chinese took to extraordinary lengths. A scholar's garden here was not simply a plot of flowers. It was a miniature world, a landscape of rocks, water, trees, pavilions and walls, arranged to suggest mountains and rivers and to make a visitor feel they had stepped out of the city. UNESCO listed the classical gardens of Suzhou in 1997, adding more in 2000.
Read the complete The Garden of Cultivation write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Garden of Cultivation is where the day begins. Next is Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal.
Nanxun is one of the water towns of the Yangtze delta, south of Lake Tai, where life has revolved around canals for more than a thousand years. In the nineteenth century, it became immensely rich through the silk trade, and its merchant families, known by nicknames like the four elephants and the eight bulls, built mansions that mixed Chinese courtyards with European columns, stained glass and Western-style furniture, an unusual blend you will not find in many other water towns. The canal running through the town is part of the Grand Canal, the immense waterway linking Beijing with Hangzhou, which UNESCO listed in 2014.
Read the complete Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Area of Yaoshan Site.
Five thousand years ago, on the plain north of Hangzhou, people built a city with a water system so sophisticated that archaeologists still marvel at it. This is the Liangzhu culture, and the Yaoshan site is one of its most intriguing pieces, thought to be a ritual platform where elites took part in ceremonies and where beautifully worked jades were buried. The Liangzhu people carved jade into discs called bi and tubes known as cong, with delicate, mask-like faces, and these objects were symbols of status and belief. The whole Liangzhu complex has been a UNESCO site since 2019.
Read the complete Area of Yaoshan Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 144 km into the recorded legs you reach Area of Yaoshan Site. Next is back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal, late in the day. Next is The Garden of Cultivation.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Garden of Cultivation write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Garden of Cultivation. That is the ride.
The Garden of Cultivation → Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal is 61 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal → Area of Yaoshan Site is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Area of Yaoshan Site → back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal → The Garden of Cultivation is 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.