CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Dongnae it runs 347 km to Dongnae; allow about 5 h 19 of riding. The stops in between: Tongdosa Temple, Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream, Marisan Tumuli and back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Busan is Korea's great port, a long, steep city of more than three million squeezed between mountains and sea in the south-east corner of the peninsula. Container cranes line the harbour, ferries leave for Japan and fishing boats unload at Jagalchi market, where women in rubber aprons sell live octopus, eels and fish from tanks. The city has the energy and sharp tongue of a seaport, and its dialect is distinctly rougher than Seoul's.
Read the complete Busan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Busan is where the day begins. Next is Tongdosa Temple.
Most Korean Buddhist temples have a statue of the Buddha in their main hall. Tongdosa does not. Instead, a window behind the altar looks out onto a stone stupa that is said to contain relics of the historical Buddha, brought back from China by the monk Jajang, who founded the temple in 646. That makes Tongdosa one of the Three Jewel Temples of Korea, representing the Buddha himself, alongside Haeinsa, representing the teaching, and Songgwangsa, the community of monks. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Sansa, Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Korea, inscribed in 2018.
Read the complete Tongdosa Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tongdosa Temple comes up 44 km in. Next is Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream.
On a cliff face above a quiet stream in the hills west of Ulsan, prehistoric people carved hundreds of images into the rock: whales, turtles, deer, tigers, boats full of men, hunters with spears and nets. The whales are the most striking, with species that can still be identified, such as right whales and humpbacks, and scenes that seem to show whaling from boats, making the Bangudae petroglyphs one of the oldest records of whaling anywhere. A little upstream, the Cheonjeon-ri petroglyphs, with geometric patterns, animals and later inscriptions from the Silla period, add another layer. In 2025, the Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Read the complete Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
88 km in you reach Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream, about halfway. Next is Marisan Tumuli.
In Haman county, in the south of Korea, a long ridge rises above the town of Gaya, and along its crest lies a line of large burial mounds, grassy domes that seem to ripple across the hills. These are the Malisan, or Marisan, tumuli, the royal tombs of Ara Gaya, one of the states of the Gaya confederacy that flourished in the south of the Korean peninsula from roughly the first to the sixth century. In 2023, they were listed by UNESCO together with other Gaya tumuli across the region.
Read the complete Marisan Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Marisan Tumuli sits at 176 km, about halfway. Next is back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream comes up 219 km in. Next is back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
263 km in you reach back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream. Next is back through Tongdosa Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tongdosa Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tongdosa Temple, late in the day. Next is Busan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Busan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 347 km.
Busan → Tongdosa Temple is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tongdosa Temple → Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream → Marisan Tumuli is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Marisan Tumuli → back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream → back through Tongdosa Temple is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tongdosa Temple → Busan is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.