The Great Wall and Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. The Great Wall

   The Great Wall is not one wall but many, built and rebuilt over two thousand years by different dynasties, and the section north-west of Beijing is the one most people picture. The stone and brick wall you see here was largely built by the Ming dynasty from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when a strong frontier was needed against the peoples of the steppe. Watchtowers stand on the crest every few hundred metres, and the wall climbs and falls along the ridges of the Yanshan mountains, with signal towers on the high points that once passed warnings by fire and smoke.

   Read the complete The Great Wall write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The Great Wall is where the day begins. Next is Summer Palace.

2. 2. 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

   Summer Palace comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 121 km into the recorded legs you reach Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian. Next is back through Summer Palace.

4. 4. back through Summer Palace

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   back through Summer Palace, late in the day. Next is The Great Wall.

5. 5. The Great Wall

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The Great Wall write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at The Great Wall. That is the ride.