Why this ride
From Jinjeop it runs 207 km to Jinjeop; allow about 3 h 32 of riding. The stops in between: Uireung Cluster, Area 2, Hwaseong Fortress and back through Area 2. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Gwangneung Cluster\t and Hwaseong Fortress
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 207 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 32
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Gwangneung Cluster\t
Gwangneung is the tomb of King Sejo of Joseon and his queen, Jeonghui, and it sits inside one of the best-preserved forests in Korea, north-east of Seoul between Namyangju and Pocheon. Sejo seized the throne in 1455 from his young nephew Danjong, who was later exiled and killed, and he spent much of his reign strengthening royal power. In death, though, he asked for modesty: he ordered that his tomb be built without the usual stone burial chamber and without some of the stone ornaments, to save the people labour and expense. The two mounds lie on separate ridges, with a shrine between them.
Read the complete Gwangneung Cluster\t write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gwangneung Cluster\t is where the day begins. Next is Uireung Cluster.
2. Uireung Cluster
Seoul is a city of ten million people, and it still has forested royal burial grounds on its edge. The Joseon dynasty, which ruled Korea from 1392 to 1910, buried its kings and queens in forty tombs scattered around the capital, each placed according to the rules of geomancy, with a hill behind, water in front, and a quiet clearing for ancestral rites. Nearly all of them survive, and in 2009 they were inscribed together as a World Heritage site. The cluster on this stretch of the map, east of the city towards Guri, belongs to that family of graves.
Read the complete Uireung Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Uireung Cluster comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Area 2.
3. Area 2
Built and expanded as an emergency capital in the early seventeenth century, its walls run for kilometres along the ridges, with gates, command posts and temples inside, and it became a World Heritage site in 2014. The fortress is remembered for a bitter episode: in the winter of 1636 to 1637, King Injo fled here as the armies of the Qing invaded, and after a siege of more than forty days in the cold, he came down and submitted, kneeling before the Qing emperor. Koreans still regard it as a moment of national humiliation and resilience at the same time.
Read the complete Area 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Area 2. Next is Hwaseong Fortress.
4. Hwaseong Fortress
Hwaseong is a love letter from a son to his father, written in stone. In 1762, Crown Prince Sado was locked in a rice chest by his own father, King Yeongjo, and left to die, one of the darkest episodes in Korean royal history. His son, who became King Jeongjo, never forgot, and he moved his father's tomb to a site near Suwon and built a grand fortress there, completed in 1796, intended perhaps as a new capital. The engineer and scholar Jeong Yak-yong used cranes and pulleys to speed up construction, and the walls, gates, towers and bastions combine Korean, Chinese and Western ideas of fortification. UNESCO listed it in 1997.
Read the complete Hwaseong Fortress write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hwaseong Fortress, about halfway. Next is back through Area 2.
5. back through Area 2
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Area 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Area 2 sits at 118 km, about halfway. Next is back through Uireung Cluster.
6. back through Uireung Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Uireung Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Uireung Cluster comes up about 179 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gwangneung Cluster\t.
7. Gwangneung Cluster\t
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gwangneung Cluster\t write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gwangneung Cluster\t closes the day.
Leg by leg
Gwangneung Cluster\t to Uireung Cluster
Gwangneung Cluster\t → Uireung Cluster is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Uireung Cluster to Area 2
Uireung Cluster → Area 2 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Area 2 to Hwaseong Fortress
Area 2 → Hwaseong Fortress is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hwaseong Fortress to back through Area 2
Hwaseong Fortress → back through Area 2 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Area 2 to back through Uireung Cluster
back through Area 2 → back through Uireung Cluster is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Uireung Cluster to Gwangneung Cluster\t
back through Uireung Cluster → Gwangneung Cluster\t is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.