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.
414 km from Hangzhou to Hangzhou, about 5 h 55 of riding. It goes by way of Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F, Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal, Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal and The Retreat & Reflection Garden. It strings together lakeside roads.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 35 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
There is a Chinese saying that in heaven there is paradise, and on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou. The West Lake, on the western edge of Hangzhou, has inspired poets, painters and garden designers for more than a thousand years, and its blend of water, hills, causeways, pagodas and temples became a model for landscape gardens across China, Japan and Korea. UNESCO inscribed it as a cultural landscape in 2011. The Su causeway, built by the poet-governor Su Dongpo in the eleventh century, and the Bai causeway, named after the Tang poet Bai Juyi, cross the lake, lined with willows and peach trees.
Read the complete West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou is where the day begins. Next is Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F.
Five thousand years ago, a society on the Yangtze delta built dams. The Liangzhu culture, which flourished around 3300 to 2300 BC in what is now Zhejiang province, built a huge water management system in the hills and plain northwest of modern Hangzhou, and UNESCO listed it in 2019 together with the ruins of the Liangzhu city. The system included high dams in the mountains, low dams on the plain and a network of canals and reservoirs, and it is among the oldest large-scale hydraulic engineering works known.
Read the complete Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal. 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.
Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal, about halfway. 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 sits at 207 km, 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 comes up about 264 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 315 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal. Next is back through Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F, late in the day. Next is West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 414 km.
West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou → Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F → Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal is 61 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal → Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal → The Retreat & Reflection Garden is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Retreat & Reflection Garden → back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nanxun Section of Jiangnan Canal → back through Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jiaxing-Hangzhou Section of Jiangnan Canal → back through Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Area of Low-dam on the Plain-Causeway in F → West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.