The Great Wall and Summer Palace

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 Ming Tombs.

2. 2. Ming Tombs

   North of Beijing, where the plain meets the first ridges of the Jundu mountains, thirteen emperors of the Ming dynasty lie buried in a broad valley chosen for its perfect feng shui: mountains behind, a gentle slope, water in front. The first to be buried here was the Yongle emperor, the ruler who moved the capital to Beijing and built the Forbidden City in the early fifteenth century; his tomb, Changling, is the largest and best preserved, with a magnificent hall supported by enormous columns of nanmu wood. UNESCO lists them with the other imperial tombs of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

   Read the complete Ming Tombs write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Ming Tombs comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Summer Palace.

3. 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 Ming Tombs.

4. 4. back through Ming Tombs

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ming Tombs write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Ming Tombs, 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.