Few capitals in Korea's history have left so little room for an ordinary traveller. Kaesong, the Goryeo capital from the early tenth century to the late fourteenth, stands in the south of North Korea, a few kilometres from the demilitarised zone and the village of Panmunjom, and its Namdae Gate, the great southern gate of the old city, is the best-known monument of the place. The gate was first raised in 1394, just after the Goryeo dynasty fell, and it has been repaired many times, most recently after wartime damage. It stands in the middle of a traffic circle, with its heavy tiled roof and a bell nearby.
I should be honest about the riding: there is none for visitors. Independent travel in North Korea is not possible, and any foreigner who sees Kaesong does so on a controlled tour, in a bus, with guides. So this is a stop for the armchair, the history reader and the map. What can be said is that the surrounding country is hilly and wooded, with ridges around Mount Songak to the north, and that the town sits in a bowl of low mountains in the same landscape as the border area to the south. The old industrial park that once employed North Korean workers for South Korean firms was closed in 2016.
Goryeo, which gave Korea its name in the West, was a medieval Buddhist state famous for its celadon pottery, its printing with movable metal type, and its resistance to Mongol invasions. Kaesong was a rich merchant town, and it was also the home of Korea's early ginseng trade, which still defines the town's reputation. In 1392 the general Yi Seong-gye, who founded the Joseon dynasty, seized power, and on the stone bridge of Seonjukgyo in Kaesong the loyalist scholar Jeong Mong-ju was killed, leaving a stain on the stone that guides say never fades. The historic monuments of Kaesong were added to the World Heritage list in 2013.
For food, Kaesong has a name for an elaborate spread of small dishes, often served in brass bowls, and for sweet cakes and pickles. The main roads in the area are wide and often empty of traffic, and the countryside is a patchwork of terraced fields and pine hills.