Quanzhou tour a world-class test

Tough course covers three stages, eight counties in Fujian province

You ride for a reason.

The Tour de France is the world's most grueling cycling race, and standing atop the podium under the Arc de Triomphe on the final day is like being crowned at the Olympics.

On the Tour of Qinghai Lake, road cycling's highest-level race in China, riders challenge the country's remote and exotic midwest - some areas of which have not even been reached by the most experienced travelers.

Now there's a new addition to that tradition.

The Tour of Quanzhou Bay opens at the source of the Maritime Silk Road. The city in China's southeastern province of Fujian has one of the richest religious and ethnic blends in the country. For centuries, it was used by merchants traveling the ancient Maritime Silk Road - and traces of the past are clearly visible today.

Now Quanzhou is looking forward. It hopes to use sports as one of the methods to propel its economic development and to revive the Maritime Silk Road to open its doors to the outside world even wider.