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.
205 km from Yongning to Yongning, about 3 h 17 of riding. The stops in between: Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks, Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu, Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions and back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu. Expect gradients and long views.
On a hill above the coast south of Quanzhou, in China's Fujian province, a slender stone pagoda has watched the sea for some nine centuries. The Wanshou Pagoda on Baogai mountain, near the town of Shishi, was built in the Southern Song dynasty and served as a landmark for sailors approaching the port of Quanzhou, then one of the busiest harbours in the world. Locals call it the Aunt Pagoda, after a legend that tells of a woman who climbed the hill every day to wait for her husband to return from the sea.
Read the complete Wanshou Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wanshou Pagoda is where the day begins. Next is Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks.
In the Song and Yuan centuries, roughly a thousand years ago, Quanzhou on the coast of Fujian was one of the busiest ports on the planet. Arab, Persian, Indian and Southeast Asian merchants lived here, ships loaded silk, porcelain and tea for the Indian Ocean, and Marco Polo, who knew it as Zayton, described a harbour crowded with vessels. The Zhenwu Temple stands on a small rise by the estuary of the Jin river, where officials once made sacrifices to the god of the sea before the fleets sailed, and the old docks along the shore nearby are part of the World Heritage Site inscribed in 2021 as Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China.
Read the complete Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu.
Medieval travellers called it Zaitun, and to Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta it was one of the greatest ports in the world. Quanzhou, on the coast of Fujian facing Taiwan, flourished under the Song and Yuan dynasties as a hub of maritime trade, where Arab, Persian, Indian and Southeast Asian merchants lived alongside Chinese traders, and ships left laden with silk and porcelain. In 2021 UNESCO inscribed a group of sites as Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, including temples, mosques, tombs, kilns, bridges and docks that together tell the story of this cosmopolitan city.
Read the complete Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu. Next is Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions.
Before the sailing season, officials and merchants climbed a hill above Quanzhou to ask the gods for wind. The Jiuri mountain inscriptions, carved on cliff faces and boulders between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, record these prayers, and they are among the most unusual documents of China's maritime past. They were written by local officials of the Song dynasty, and they appeal to the sea gods and to the spirits of the mountain to send a favourable monsoon, so that the trade ships bound for Southeast Asia, India and Arabia could set out in safety and return. Standing before a rock face carved with neat columns of characters, you are reading a note that someone left when the world's biggest port was run by hand and weather.
Read the complete Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions, about halfway. Next is back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu sits at 130 km, about halfway. Next is back through Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks comes up about 182 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wanshou Pagoda.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wanshou Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wanshou Pagoda closes the day.
Wanshou Pagoda → Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks → Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu → Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jiuri Mountain Wind-Praying Inscriptions → back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yu → back through Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zhenwu Temple and Estuary Docks → Wanshou Pagoda is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.