Look up from the car park at Beopjusa and you see an enormous bronze Buddha, thirty-three metres tall, standing in the open air against a backdrop of granite peaks. He is a modern figure, finished at the turn of the millennium, but the temple he guards is very old: tradition says the monk Uisin founded it in 553, bringing Indian scriptures back to Korea in a donkey's pack. Its main attraction, Palsangjeon, is a five-storey wooden pagoda with eight panels depicting scenes from the Buddha's life, rebuilt in the 1960s on an older design, and one of the few such wooden pagodas in Korea.
The mountains behind are the Songnisan range, a national park of bare granite ridges, oak and pine woods, with Mount Munjangdae at just over a thousand metres. The name Songni means leaving the profane world. A famous old pine near the entrance, called the Minister Pine, takes its name from a story that King Sejo, travelling to the temple in the fifteenth century, found a branch lowered to let his carriage pass, and gave it an official rank in thanks. It is a good story and a charming tree.
The rest of the region is satisfying riding country. The roads that lead into the Songni range from the lowlands wind up through forest and over passes, and the one known as Malti Pass is a favourite with Korean riders, with a long string of tight bends and views across the valleys. The surface is well kept, though it can be damp in the shade, and cameras watch the straights, so keep to the limits. At weekends, tourist buses and families fill the temple road, so a weekday morning is calmer. In autumn the whole valley turns red and yellow, and it is also the most crowded period.
Beopjusa is thirty kilometres from the nearest big town, and the village outside the gate has noodle restaurants and a few places for tea, but the nearest dependable fuel is in Boeun, a small town down the valley famous for its jujubes, the dried red dates sold in every shop. Take some home or try them as a hot drink. The ride goes on to Buseoksa, another mountain temple, on a route through hill country and farming valleys.