Jirisan Mountain Roads

South Korea's strongest mountain massif linked by forest roads.

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Why this ride

South Korea's strongest mountain massif linked by forest roads. The road: Routes 19, 60 and local mountain roads. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.

Roadbook

1. Jeonju start

   Jeonju is the city that Koreans go to for food, and the reason has a name: bibimbap. The dish of rice, vegetables, egg and chili paste is made in many places, but Jeonju claims it as home, and the local version comes in a heavy brass bowl, with dozens of small side dishes, beautifully arranged. The city also has a tradition of makgeolli, the milky rice wine, served in some neighborhoods with a lavish table of snacks for the price of a single drink.

   The Hanok Village, a district of more than seven hundred traditional houses with curved tile roofs, sits at the heart of the city, and wandering its narrow lanes is a pleasure, particularly in the evening when lanterns light up. Nearby stands Gyeonggijeon, a shrine that houses a portrait of Taejo, the founder of the Joseon dynasty, whose family came from Jeonju. The Pungnammun, a handsome old city gate, stands at the edge of the old town, and the city is known for its paper, hanji, still made by hand. A film festival in spring brings a younger crowd.

   As the start of a mountain ride, Jeonju is a convenient point. The city lies on the Honam plain, with the long Jirisan range to the southeast, and expressways and national roads lead south through Namwon, a town linked to the folk tale of Chunhyang, toward Jirisan, Korea's first national park, whose highest peak, Cheonwangbong, is nearly two thousand meters. The roads over the mountain passes are among the best in the country, with long climbs, tight bends and sweeping views. They are closed or icy in winter, so spring to autumn is the season.

   Jeonju is a big city with almost three-quarters of a million people, so fuel, food and hotels are everywhere. Traffic in the city is heavy, and the expressway exit onto the mountain roads is well signed. The best months are April, with cherry blossoms, and October, when the maples turn. Summer brings heat, monsoon rain in July and the risk of typhoons. Korean drivers can be aggressive, and motorcycles are restricted on some expressways, so plan your route to use the national roads, which are more pleasant anyway.

2. Namwon stop
3. Jirisan stop
4. Hamyang stop
5. Hadong stop

   Hadong, in South Gyeongsang's far western corner, is where Korean tea began, or so the story goes. In the ninth century, according to the old chronicles, an envoy named Daeryeom brought tea seeds back from Tang China, and King Heungdeok ordered them planted on the slopes of Jirisan, the great mountain that rises above the town. The wild tea terraces of Hwagae, in the hills north of Hadong, are still tended, and spring brings the first harvest, an event the area celebrates with a tea festival.

   The Seomjin River, one of the cleanest in the country, runs through a broad, sunlit valley below, with white sand banks, pine groves and clam beds. The river is famous for its freshwater clams, served in soup, and for its spring cherry blossom: the road from Hwagae to the temple of Ssanggyesa, lined with thousands of cherry trees, is known as the ten-ri cherry blossom road, and in early April the petals fall like snow. Ssanggyesa, a temple in the mountain forest, is one of the oldest in the country, its stone paths shaded by tall trees.

   The rider's interest is the mountain road. The roads through the Hwagae valley climb the slopes of Jirisan in a series of bends, with views over the river and farmland, and the road toward Gurye and Namwon passes through forested valleys. The surface is mostly good, but the roads are narrow, with guardrails and tight blind curves. At cherry-blossom time, traffic is heavy and slow, and on spring weekends the river road can be gridlocked. The park roads at high elevation are closed in winter.

   Hadong has fuel and food, with Hwagae a village with a market of tea shops, restaurants and bakeries, while Gwangyang, about eighteen kilometers south, has the bigger supermarkets and stations. Novelist Park Kyung-ni set her epic novel Toji in the nearby village of Pyeongsa-ri, and the house used in the television drama is now a tourist site. The best months are April for blossom and tea, and October for the mountains' color, while the rainy season in July can cause landslides.

6. Back to Jeonju finish

Where this sits

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