Friday – Sunday on various dates – check Calendar of Rides – or suggest your own
3 days
RMB 3500 (may depend on group size)
Meet up points:
Hong Kong (Zhu Hai and Kaiping meet ups also possible if coming from elsewhere).
In the late 1800’s – people from the four counties in the Pearl River Delta of Canton, began to defy the emperor, abandoning the sacred mission to grow rice, weave silk, and generally be good peasants – instead setting sail down the Pearl for Macau and Hong Kong. There they boarded ships for the Gold Mountain otherwise known as San Francisco.
The gold rush was on.
Some hit it rich, and with fortunes in their pockets, began a mini-reversal of the great South China diaspora.
Along with new ideas, they brought with them a taste for gold-rush-era architecture – lots of flounce and baroque mixed with corinthian columns, overlaid onto traditional Chinese forms. Venetian archways were wildly popular and suited the muggy climate.
Bandits had for a long time been a problem in the Pearl River Delta – and all of this newly imported bullion was like an open invitation to children into the lolly shop.
Towers called diaolou were built to watch out for them – baroque ones – that also let everyone know the returnees status as worldly and cosmopolitan peoples..
These are a few of the Diaolou.
They had a little hey-day from the Gold Rush through Art Deco to fall into disrepair with the depression, and later the war with the Japanese, becoming immensely unfashionable after the 1949 communist revolution,
Highlights of the trip
Two days of flat, easy back road riding along farmers pathways in the rice fields and bamboo groves of an almost forgotten backwater of the Pearl River Delta.
Two wheel exploratory of the the east-west 1920’s art-deco inspired architectural gems of the returned-ChineseDiaolou watchtowers, and Yanglou Mansions.
Stylishly-retro accommodation in a refurbished 1980’s lighting factory.
Delicious Chikanese snacks, Taishanese and Cantonese feast.
Itinerary
Friday Meet up at Kowloon Station at 5pm or make your own way to Kaiping – we’ll pick you up from the train or bus stations.
Check in to our cool countryside Inn. Its an old watch factory in a Diaolou Village setting, lovingly converted into a boutique hotel.
Saturday Introduction to the Diaolou with a rambling cycle exploratory of the Diaolou most local to us. For lunch we head to Majianglong Lou – one of the UNESCO restored Diaolou clusters – with some of the most iconic towers of region. we loop through the Guangdong Green way onto braided farmers pathways down along the edge of the Tan River – an everglades environment where you navigate by the watchtowers poking their way out of the tangled Riverine vegetaion.
Sunday: Cycle to the famed Li gardens, Zili village – afternoon transfers to Kaiping bus / train station
Included: Meals from Saturday morning, twin-share accommodation (single supplement available for RMB 300 per night), mountain bike, two days guided cycling, private transfers to and from Zhuhai.
Getting there
Kaiping is on the Western Pearl River Delta.
Its a 3 hour train ride from West Kowloon Changing at Guangzhou – 1 hour to Guangzhou , 1 hour to transfer ( and eat) , and 1 hour on to Kaipingnan Station.
It’s a four hour bus ride from Hong Kong via the Shenzhen Bay Border crossing.
It’s two hours South West of Guangzhou Airport in a private car (800 RMB) or 4 hours by public transport.
It’s 1hr 40 minutes from Zhuhai which is just across the border from Macau – both have airports.
Its about an hour by car from Zhongshan which is a 90 minute ferry ride from the China ferry terminal in Hong Kong. Last ferry is at 8PM.
And about forty minutes from Jiangmen – where some of the cross border buses from Hong Kong terminate slightly later (departing 20.45 from Prince Edward and 20.40 from Causeway Bay).
Return Options
The trip finishes at 4 pm with drop offs at Kaiping Bus Station for 5pm. (there are buses to Guangzhou and Shenzhen and Hong Kong and Zhu Hai from Zici station).
We may also put on a car for an airport run. This will be jigged around peoples actually schedules , but plan for Zhu Hai as your airport, as its more likely that we can split the costs for people all going in the one direction.
Contact bruce@bikeaways.com to reserve your place.
