Why this ride
345 km from Gaoyou to Gaoyou, about 5 h 01 of riding. It goes by way of Qingkou Complex, Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion and back through Qingkou Complex. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal and Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 345 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 01
- 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. Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal
Gaoyou is a small canal city in central Jiangsu, set between two big lakes, and it has been a staging post on the Grand Canal for over two thousand years. The Gaoyou and Shaobo lakes lie on either side of the waterway, and the old canal embankment runs between them, a long ridge of earth and stone that carried the boats north and south. At this point the Huaiyang section meets the Yangzhou stretch, the part of the canal that ran from the Yangtze north to the Huai river, and it was one of the busiest stretches of the whole system.
Read the complete Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal is where the day begins. Next is Qingkou Complex.
2. Qingkou Complex
Qingkou is the place where China's engineers tried, for centuries, to make two very different rivers behave. Here, near Huai'an in northern Jiangsu, the Grand Canal met the Huai River, and from the twelfth century until the middle of the nineteenth, the Yellow River also took over the Huai's lower course, bringing enormous loads of silt. The canal crossed this unstable junction, and getting boats safely across it, while controlling floods and keeping the water level right, was among the hardest tasks in the entire waterway.
Read the complete Qingkou Complex write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Qingkou Complex comes up about 131 km into the recorded legs. Next is Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion.
3. Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion
Huai'an was a city made by water, and the water was money. Where the Grand Canal met the Huai river, and for centuries the Yellow River as well, the city stood at the most delicate junction on the whole waterway, a knot of channels, locks and dykes that controlled the flow of grain from the south to Beijing. The government posted an official here to supervise it, the Governor-General of Grain Transport, and the site of his headquarters, the Caoyun mansion, preserves the remains of that bureaucracy. It lies in the old Qingjiangpu district, and it belongs to the Grand Canal's UNESCO listing, which came in 2014.
Read the complete Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 168 km into the recorded legs you reach Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion. Next is back through Qingkou Complex.
4. back through Qingkou Complex
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Qingkou Complex write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Qingkou Complex, late in the day. Next is Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal.
5. Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal to Qingkou Complex
Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal → Qingkou Complex is 131 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Qingkou Complex to Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion
Qingkou Complex → Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion to back through Qingkou Complex
Site of Caoyun Governor’s Mansion → back through Qingkou Complex is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Qingkou Complex to Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal
back through Qingkou Complex → Yangzhou Section of Huaiyang Canal is 141 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.