Why this ride
On the way it passes Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster, Chuxi Tulou Cluster, Gaobei Tulou Cluster and Fujian Tulou. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster and Fujian Tulou
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 484 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 56
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster
The tulou of southwestern Fujian look like something dropped from the sky, huge round or square earthen fortresses sitting among tea terraces and bamboo, with roofs that curve like turned-up eaves. Tianloukeng is a cluster of them in Nanjing County, in the hills inland from Xiamen, and the group is probably the most photographed in the region because it can be seen as a whole: a square tulou at the centre, surrounded by round ones, set on a slope so the roofs stagger like a bowl of dumplings.
Read the complete Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster is where the day begins. Next is Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster.
2. Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster
This is the Hakka country of southwestern Fujian, the hills of Nanjing and Pinghe counties, where villagers built vast earthen fortress-homes called tulou. The ones near Hukeng and Tianloukeng are among the finest, and they are set in valleys of terraced tea, bamboo groves and rice paddies in a green so deep it looks artificial after rain. Each tulou is a ring, square or sometimes oval of rammed earth walls up to a metre or more thick, three or four storeys tall, with one big gate and a single courtyard in the middle where families kept a well, a shrine and animals.
Read the complete Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chuxi Tulou Cluster.
3. Chuxi Tulou Cluster
In the mountains of western Fujian the villages are shaped like fortresses, and Chuxi is one of the classic examples. The tulou, or earthen buildings, here are huge rammed-earth rings and squares up to several storeys high, built by Hakka families over the centuries so that a whole clan could live, store grain and defend itself behind one thick wall. The Chuxi cluster, in the Yongding district, is part of the Fujian Tulou World Heritage group, and the buildings sit among terraced fields, bamboo and tea bushes in a valley that is green nearly all year.
Read the complete Chuxi Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Chuxi Tulou Cluster. Next is Gaobei Tulou Cluster.
4. Gaobei Tulou Cluster
In the green hills of south-western Fujian, in a corner of China that few foreign riders ever see, the Hakka people built round and square fortress houses of rammed earth, called tulou, and the cluster at Gaobei is the one usually shown first. The Hakka were migrants from the north who arrived in waves over centuries, and they were often unwelcome in settled areas, so they built for defence and for family unity, with each clan living inside a single enormous building. The outer walls, made of clay, sand and lime tamped hard between wooden boards, are often more than a metre thick, with few windows on the lower floors, and they keep the interior cool in summer and warm in winter.
Read the complete Gaobei Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gaobei Tulou Cluster, about halfway. Next is Fujian Tulou.
5. Fujian Tulou
Picture a giant ring of rammed earth, three or four storeys high, with almost no windows on the outside and a single heavy gate. Inside, galleries of wooden rooms face a courtyard with an ancestral hall at its heart, and up to several hundred members of one extended family once lived within those walls. That is a tulou, and the hills of south-western Fujian are dotted with them, round and square, some centuries old, many still inhabited.
Read the complete Fujian Tulou write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fujian Tulou sits at 169 km, about halfway. Next is back through Gaobei Tulou Cluster.
6. back through Gaobei Tulou Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gaobei Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Gaobei Tulou Cluster comes up about 396 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Chuxi Tulou Cluster.
7. back through Chuxi Tulou Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chuxi Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 428 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Chuxi Tulou Cluster. Next is back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster.
8. back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster, late in the day. Next is Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster.
9. Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 484 km.
Leg by leg
Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster to Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster
Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster → Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster to Chuxi Tulou Cluster
Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster → Chuxi Tulou Cluster is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chuxi Tulou Cluster to Gaobei Tulou Cluster
Chuxi Tulou Cluster → Gaobei Tulou Cluster is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gaobei Tulou Cluster to Fujian Tulou
Gaobei Tulou Cluster → Fujian Tulou is 154 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Fujian Tulou to back through Gaobei Tulou Cluster
Fujian Tulou → back through Gaobei Tulou Cluster is 154 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Gaobei Tulou Cluster to back through Chuxi Tulou Cluster
back through Gaobei Tulou Cluster → back through Chuxi Tulou Cluster is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chuxi Tulou Cluster to back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster
back through Chuxi Tulou Cluster → back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster to Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster
back through Hokgkeng Tulou Cluster → Tianloukeng Tulou Cluster is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.