Jeong Mong-ju was a scholar and loyal official of the Goryeo dynasty, and on the evening of April 1392 he was killed on a stone bridge in Kaesong by henchmen of Yi Seong-gye, the general who was about to found the Joseon dynasty. Jeong had refused to switch sides. Legend says that his blood stained the stone of the bridge, Seonjukgyo, and that it is still visible, and that bamboo grew from the spot, which gave the bridge its name. Sungyang Seowon, the academy beside it, was built to honour him. It was originally his house and became a shrine and school, and still shows Korean loyalty as a theme: a dead man whose refusal made him a hero.
Kaesong was the capital of Goryeo, the dynasty that gave Korea its name, from the early tenth century until 1392. Its old centre is a cluster of historic monuments listed on the World Heritage list in 2013, including palace foundations, tombs, a former Confucian academy and city walls. The setting is a ring of low hills, Songak mountain behind, with old pines and tile roofs among modern streets.
This is not a place a rider can simply turn up. Kaesong lies in North Korea, about eight kilometres from the border, and visits are only possible on arranged tours, with guides and fixed routes. The city is large, about three hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, and was historically known for its ginseng, which is still its famous product. Kaesong cuisine has a high reputation in Korea, with elaborate rice meals served in brass bowls and a distinctive wrapped kimchi.
If you are reading this on the Korean peninsula's southern half, you can look across toward Kaesong from observation points near the border, and the imagination can do the rest. The old academy buildings, the bridge and the quiet wooded grounds belong to the Goryeo story as much as to any modern border.