At the end of June the watch recorded three rides for me: 57.14 kilometres on the 24th, 60.26 on the 25th, 55.10 on the 28th. That comes to 172.5 kilometres, all of it in Taiyuan, all of it along the Fen River.
None of the numbers below are from memory. I copied them out of the workout records, one line at a time1.
| Date | Time of day | Distance (km) | Avg speed (km/h) | Avg heart rate (bpm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 June (Mon) | 11:45–21:13 | 57.14 | 8.5 | 126 |
| 25 June (Tue) | 14:02–20:43 | 60.26 | 9.0 | 124 |
| 28 June (Fri) | 14:27–18:30 | 55.10 | 13.5 | 146 |
Moving time, elapsed time, climbing, and the temperature and humidity of each day are spread through the sections below and gathered in the fold at the end. The table was getting too wide to read; four rows could not carry that much.
The lane first, so the rest makes sense.
The Lane Itself
The riverside cycleway runs down both banks of the Fen, laid out in two parallel strips. It starts in the north at the Shanglan ford bridge over the Fen, and its southern end is two kilometres past Yingbin Bridge. It opened on 1 May 2021, and the length announced that year was 75 kilometres; the two ends have been extended since, and the official figure quoted now is 85 kilometres2.
Each lane is five metres wide, five to eight on some stretches, with two metres of planting on either side. The surface is not asphalt but coloured ceramic granules — hard-wearing, bright, waterproof — which reads reddish in flat light and pales a shade under a hard sun3. Along the whole route there are more than thirty entrances and exits, most of them joining the bridges across the Fen and the footbridges along the east and west riverside roads; eleven viewing and rest platforms; fifty-two bicycle assist systems for pushing a bike up; and eight hundred and seventy-seven street lamps across both banks4.
The rules are posted at the main entrances, and they are simple enough: the lane is for non-assisted bicycles only, with electric bikes and every other kind of vehicle banned; keep right and never ride against the flow; fifteen kilometres an hour is the ceiling; riders must be at least twelve, and under eighteen only with an adult; no passengers5. I read the sign at the entrance almost every time, mostly to check that I was on the right lane.
24 June (Monday): 57.14 Kilometres, 6 Hours 41 Minutes of Riding
Away at 11:45, done at 21:13. The record says 6 hours 41 minutes 42 seconds of moving time, but the elapsed time is 9 hours 27 minutes 41 seconds — two hours forty-six minutes of that was standing still: junctions, red lights, buying water, getting out of the sun, and one stretch of sitting by the river where I lost track of how long I sat.
The watch logged 25°C and 28% humidity. That day Taiyuan’s high was 29°C and the low 15°C, so the morning was still pleasant; after noon there was nothing left but the sun.
The 257 metres of climbing is the most of the three days. There is no real hill to speak of in Taiyuan; almost all of that height came from footbridges, bridge approaches and the few road interchanges on the way — a flat stretch, then a ten-odd-metre ramp, stacked up until it totalled this.
An average of 8.5 kilometres an hour sounds slow. But this city has more traffic lights than road. The truth of riding in town is that no matter how hard you push, you cannot outrun the next junction.
25 June (Tuesday): 60.26 Kilometres, Barely a Stop
The interesting thing about this one is the gap between two numbers: 6 hours 38 minutes 04 seconds of riding, 6 hours 40 minutes 47 seconds elapsed. A difference of two minutes forty-three seconds. From leaving at 14:02 to getting home at 20:43, I was on the bike nearly the entire six and a half hours and stopped for under three minutes in total.
60.26 kilometres is the longest of the three, at 9.0 km/h and an average heart rate of 124, two beats below the previous day. Climbing: 193 metres. It was 30°C with humidity down at 22%, a dry heat in which sweat evaporates as it appears. It did not feel bad. It just meant drinking very fast, one bottle after another.
What hurt by the end was not the legs but the lower back and the palms. However thick the padding, six and a half hours without leaving the saddle means your backside has to work it out for itself.
28 June (Friday): 55.10 Kilometres, the Fastest Day
Away at 14:27, home at 18:30, four hours and three minutes. The clock and the workout time almost coincide on this one — there was no long stop anywhere in it. I worked it out myself from 14:27 to 18:30, which comes to exactly 4 hours 03 minutes, and that matches the 4:03:26 in the record.
All three extremes of the three days land on this ride: 13.5 km/h, the fastest average; 73 metres of climbing, the least; 146 beats per minute, the highest. A flat route and a rider pushing hard, added together, look like that.
It was also the hottest day of that week. In the weather service’s review of 24 to 30 June, the week averaged 25.4°C, and the extreme high of 35.3°C fell on the 28th. The watch logged 32°C when I set off. Half past two in the afternoon is the worst possible time of day to ride a bicycle, and I chose it anyway6.
The Three Rides Side by Side
Expanded: the raw readings from the three workout records (copied as they stand)
- 24 June — Outdoor Cycle, 57.14 km; 11:45–21:13; workout time 6:41:42, elapsed 9:27:41; active calories 1,046, total 1,550; total climbing 257 m; average speed 8.5 km/h; average heart rate 126 bpm; 25°C, 28% humidity.
- 25 June — Outdoor Cycle, 60.26 km; 14:02–20:43; workout time 6:38:04, elapsed 6:40:47; active calories 1,007, total 1,504; total climbing 193 m; average speed 9.0 km/h; average heart rate 124 bpm; 30°C, 22% humidity.
- 28 June — Outdoor Cycle, 55.10 km; 14:27–18:30; workout time 4:03:26; active calories 908, total 1,222; total climbing 73 m; average speed 13.5 km/h; average heart rate 146 bpm; 32°C, 27% humidity.
- Three days together — 172.50 km, 17 hours 23 minutes 12 seconds of riding, 2,961 active calories, 523 metres of climbing. All three recorded as Outdoor Cycle on an Apple Watch.
The same river, the same direction, and three distances within five kilometres of each other. Split apart, they are three quite different ways of riding: on the 24th I drifted and stopped; on the 25th I simply travelled; on the 28th I pushed.
So 172.5 as a total does not say much. The two figures that do are how much I stopped and how much I climbed. NoteThe more stopping, the lower the average; the less climbing, the closer the route stayed to the water.
The Stretch by the Water Is the Reason for This Lane
The best part of the cycleway is not in the data.
Ride down to the river and there is water on one side and city on the other, the two lanes running parallel, east bank and west. Through the urban stretch of the Fen, the channel is fifty metres across at its narrowest and up to three hundred at its widest, divided into twelve impounded levels by four weirs, seven rubber dams and two sluice gates, with twenty-four bridges of various kinds crossing it7. Riders do not need to hold any of that in mind. You just take it level by level, the water sometimes right beside you and sometimes well below.
After half past six, with the sun down, the wind comes off the water and the air cools earlier here than in the streets. This lane is busy in the evening: eight hundred and seventy-seven lamps lit all the way along, and every few hundred metres someone cycling, running, or out for a walk. On the 24th I did not finish until after nine at night, and most of that last hour and a bit was spent drifting along the river — it was cool there; the ride back into the city was the uncomfortable part.
Further up, the Fen River Scenic Area runs from the Shanglan ford bridge in the north to two kilometres past Yingbin Bridge in the south, forty-three kilometres in all, about twenty square kilometres in total; Victory Bridge divides it, with seventeen kilometres of natural wetland to the north and twenty-six kilometres of impounded landscape water to the south7. I never reached the end of the wetland stretch. I only went back and forth between bridges.
What Is Left on the Map
Eighty-five kilometres is the two lanes added together, from the ford bridge at Shanglan in the north to two kilometres past Yingbin Bridge in the south.
My three traces are each a long north–south line with a few side loops through the city attached. Which means 172.5 kilometres over three days is not the same as riding this lane end to end: west bank down, east bank back, and bridges, detours and the way home on top of that. Half the distance was spent getting to the river and getting away from it.
From one of the bridges I stopped on, I looked down at the lane: a bright thin line pasted along the water, with no visible end to the north and none to the south. The rest of it is out there. Some day I will start at the northern end and ride to the southern one, and not get off on the way.
At the End
A ride log turns into a list of numbers very easily. 57.14, 60.26, 55.10 do not look like much in a table — averages between eight and thirteen kilometres an hour, which for cycling is a little embarrassing.
But I did go out on all three days and come back on all three days. I came back with sore legs, empty bottles and wet clothes.
What stays is something else. Around four o’clock on the 28th, on a stretch of riverbank with no trees, with the sun straight overhead and the road surface glaring, I put my head down and pedalled for a quarter of an hour. Not one figure was recorded for that stretch.
Practical notes: The riverside cycleway runs along both banks of the Fen, from the Shanglan ford bridge in the north to about two kilometres past Yingbin Bridge in the south. It opened on 1 May 2021, is 85 kilometres long and five to eight metres wide. There are more than thirty entrances along it, most joining the bridges across the river and the footbridges on the riverside roads; fifty-two bicycle assist systems are fitted to the steeper footbridges, with a conveyor going up and a damper coming down. Non-assisted bicycles only — no electric bikes, no other vehicles; keep right, never ride against the flow; 15 km/h is the maximum; riders must be at least twelve, under-eighteens need an adult, and no passengers. In summer, avoid the hours between noon and three, carry enough water, and set off after half past six if you can; the lamps stay on for night rides, but take the bridge approaches and corners slowly.
Footnotes
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Distance, time of day, duration, average speed, climbing, average heart rate, temperature and humidity for all three rides come from three screenshots of Apple Watch Outdoor Cycle workouts. I have changed nothing but the wording; the time of day shown for 28 June is my own reading of the 14:27 to 18:30 span, since the screenshot gives only the workout time of 4:03:26. ↩
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Work on the cycleway began in September 2020 and it opened on 1 May 2021 with a stated length of 75 kilometres. Both ends have been extended since, and the official figure is now 85 kilometres. Across different years the same lane has been reported as 66, 75, 85 and 88 kilometres — a difference in how completed sections are counted, not an error. ↩
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The surface is coloured ceramic granules — hard-wearing, bright and waterproof — with two metres of planting on each side. In June 2022 the section north of Yingze Bridge was resurfaced with a red polymer ceramic coating. ↩
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More than thirty entrances; eleven viewing and rest platforms (five two-level viewing platforms and six single-level rest platforms); fifty-two bicycle assist systems; eight hundred and seventy-seven lamps across both banks. These figures come from the engineering brief published when the lane opened in 2021. ↩
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Based on the Fen River Scenic Area management committee’s trial public notice on the riverside cycleway, and on the management measures for the urban stretch of the Fen River Scenic Area. ↩
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The temperature and humidity in the three records are readings taken when each workout started, and they match the historical weather: 24 June was clear with a high of 29°C and a low of 15°C; 25 June was clear, 31°C and 17°C; and the extreme high for the week containing 28 June was 35.3°C, recorded on the 28th. ↩
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The Fen River Scenic Area runs from the Shanglan ford bridge south to two kilometres past Yingbin Bridge, forty-three kilometres in all and about twenty square kilometres in area, of which roughly 8.5 is planting and 11.5 water. Victory Bridge divides it: seventeen kilometres of natural wetland to the north, twenty-six kilometres of impounded landscape water to the south. The channel is some fifty to three hundred metres wide, divided into twelve impounded levels by four weirs, seven rubber dams and two sluice gates, with twenty-four bridges crossing it. ↩ ↩2
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