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.
From Quanzhou it runs 362 km to Quanzhou; allow about 5 h 08 of riding. The stops in between: Sites of Dehua Kilns, Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang and back through Sites of Dehua Kilns. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Quanzhou was one of the greatest ports in the world, though few outsiders have heard of it. In the Song and Yuan dynasties, between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries, ships from Arabia, India, Persia and Southeast Asia loaded silk, porcelain and tea here, and Marco Polo, who called it Zaiton, claimed that for every ship of pepper that reached Alexandria, a hundred reached this harbour. The word satin may even come from Zaiton. In 2021, UNESCO listed the remains of this maritime city as Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China.
Read the complete The Old City write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Old City is where the day begins. Next is Sites of Dehua Kilns.
Dehua, a county in the mountains of Fujian province, in south-eastern China, has been making porcelain for over a thousand years. Its white porcelain, known in the West as blanc de Chine, is famous for its pure, creamy white colour and its fine figures, especially statues of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, and other Buddhist and Taoist figures. The ancient kiln sites of Dehua, including long dragon kilns built on hillsides, are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, inscribed in 2021.
Read the complete Sites of Dehua Kilns write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sites of Dehua Kilns comes up about 105 km into the recorded legs. Next is Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang.
In the green hills of Anxi county, inland from the port city of Quanzhou in Fujian, the Xiacaopu site preserves the remains of an iron industry that flourished during the Song and Yuan dynasties, roughly from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. Archaeologists found furnaces, slag heaps, ore-roasting pits and workshops on a hillside, evidence of large-scale production. The iron produced here was shipped down the rivers to Quanzhou and exported to Southeast Asia and beyond, and that is why the site is part of the World Heritage listing of Quanzhou, Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, inscribed in 2021. At that time, Quanzhou was one of the largest ports in the world, visited by Arab, Persian and Indian merchants, and described by Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta.
Read the complete Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 181 km into the recorded legs you reach Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang. Next is back through Sites of Dehua Kilns.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sites of Dehua Kilns write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sites of Dehua Kilns, late in the day. Next is The Old City.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Old City write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Old City. That is the ride.
The Old City → Sites of Dehua Kilns is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sites of Dehua Kilns → Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xiacaopu Iron Production Site of Qingyang → back through Sites of Dehua Kilns is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sites of Dehua Kilns → The Old City is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.