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 273 km round trip from Suzhou - roughly 3 h 57 in the saddle. It goes by way of The Retreat & Reflection Garden, Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal, Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal and back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal. Expect gradients and long views.
Suzhou has been famous for its gardens for centuries, and the Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty, known in Chinese as Huanxiu Shanzhuang, is one of the nine that UNESCO lists among the classical gardens of the city. It lies in the western part of town, a short way from the old centre, and it is quieter than the more famous gardens on the tourist trail. The name suggests a mountain retreat that holds beauty within it, and the design delivers on that: a pond at the centre, pavilions around it and a large rockery of weathered limestone that is the best-known feature.
Read the complete The Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty is where the day begins. Next is The Retreat & Reflection Garden.
The name says almost everything. Tuisi Garden, the Garden of Retreat and Reflection, was built in the 1880s in the water town of Tongli by an official named Ren Lansheng after he was dismissed from his post, and he called it after the old idea that a man out of office should withdraw and think about his faults. What he actually created was one of the most graceful small gardens in the region: pavilions and halls arranged around a pond as if they were floating on it, with rockeries, covered walkways and windows that frame views like paintings.
Read the complete The Retreat & Reflection Garden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Retreat & Reflection Garden comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 83 km into the recorded legs you reach Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal. Next is Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal.
The Grand Canal of China is the longest artificial waterway in the world, a chain of canals and rivers linking Beijing with Hangzhou that was begun in sections well over two thousand years ago and unified under the Sui dynasty in the seventh century. Its southernmost stretch, the Jiangnan Canal, crosses the flat, watery plain between Jiaxing and Hangzhou, and this section is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site. Grain, silk and salt moved north along it for centuries, and the towns that line its banks grew rich on that traffic.
Read the complete Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal, about halfway. 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 sits at 177 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Retreat & Reflection Garden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Retreat & Reflection Garden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Retreat & Reflection Garden comes up about 247 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty closes the day.
The Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty → The Retreat & Reflection Garden is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Retreat & Reflection Garden → Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal → Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal → back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal → back through The Retreat & Reflection Garden is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Retreat & Reflection Garden → The Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.