CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 314 km round trip from Andong - roughly 6 h 26 in the saddle. On the way it passes Dosan-seowon, Sosu-seowon, Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty and back through Sosu-seowon. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Byeongsan Seowon sits above a bend of the Nakdong river, a few kilometres from the village of Hahoe and about fifteen kilometres from Andong, in the rolling, rural interior of North Gyeongsang province. The river curves around a cliff face called Buyongdae, and the academy looks across the water to the opposite cliff in a way that is almost a painting. Andong, a city of about a hundred and thirty thousand people, is the nearest place of any size.
Read the complete Byeongsan-seowon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Byeongsan-seowon is where the day begins. Next is Dosan-seowon.
If you have handled a Korean thousand-won note, you have already seen Dosan Seowon. The building on the back of the note is this Confucian academy, and the scholar on the front is Yi Hwang, known by his pen name Toegye, one of the most influential Neo-Confucian thinkers of Korea. He set up a small study hall here in the sixteenth century, on a quiet slope above the Nakdong river, and after his death in 1570 his disciples expanded it into a full academy, a seowon, where students came to study the classics and honour his memory. It is one of the nine Korean Confucian academies listed by UNESCO in 2019.
Read the complete Dosan-seowon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dosan-seowon comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sosu-seowon.
Pine trees older than anyone can remember shade the entrance to Sosu-seowon, the first Confucian academy in Korea to receive a royal charter. It was founded in 1543 by Ju Se-bung, a local magistrate, to honour An Hyang, a scholar of the Goryeo period who brought Neo-Confucianism to Korea from China. A few years later, the famous philosopher Yi Hwang, who also served in the area, petitioned the king to grant it official recognition, and the academy received a royal plaque in 1550 with the name Sosu. Since 2019 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies.
Read the complete Sosu-seowon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 102 km into the recorded legs you reach Sosu-seowon. Next is Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty.
In the mountains of Gangwon Province, the town of Yeongwol sits where two rivers meet among steep forested ridges, and at the edge of it, in a stand of pines, lies Jangneung, the tomb of Danjong. Danjong became king as a boy of eleven in 1452. His uncle Sejo seized the throne a few years later, and the young king was exiled to Yeongwol, a remote and isolated place chosen for that reason, and died there in 1457, still a teenager. The tomb is a simple grassy mound that is part of the UNESCO group of Joseon royal burials, and it lies far from the other royal tombs, which cluster around Seoul.
Read the complete Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, about halfway. Next is back through Sosu-seowon.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sosu-seowon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sosu-seowon sits at 176 km, about halfway. Next is back through Dosan-seowon.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dosan-seowon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dosan-seowon comes up about 263 km into the recorded legs. Next is Byeongsan-seowon.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Byeongsan-seowon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Byeongsan-seowon closes the day.
Byeongsan-seowon → Dosan-seowon is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dosan-seowon → Sosu-seowon is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sosu-seowon → Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty → back through Sosu-seowon is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sosu-seowon → back through Dosan-seowon is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dosan-seowon → Byeongsan-seowon is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.