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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 129 km round trip from Kaesŏng - roughly 2 h 13 in the saddle. On the way it passes Kanghwa Dolmen Sites, Jangneung Cluster and back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites. It crosses from North Korea into South Korea - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Kaesong was the capital of the Koryo dynasty from 918 until 1392, and the name Korea comes from the name of that kingdom. A prosperous trading city, it was a centre of Buddhism, celadon pottery and printing, and the court at its height was among the most refined in East Asia. When the Joseon dynasty took over in 1392, the capital moved to Seoul, but Kaesong remained known for its merchants, who were pioneers in ginseng trading and banking, and its cuisine, which many Koreans still regard as among the most elegant in the country.
Read the complete Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong is where the day begins. Next is Kanghwa Dolmen Sites.
Ganghwa Island lies in the mouth of the Han River, just north-west of Seoul and Incheon, and on a clear day you can look across a narrow channel of tidal water straight into North Korea. The town of Kaesong is barely twenty-five kilometres away. That closeness gives the island an edge, with watch posts and fences along parts of the shore, but its fame is much older. The Ganghwa dolmens, together with those at Gochang and Hwasun in the south, were listed by UNESCO in 2000, and Korea holds a remarkable share of all the dolmens known in the world.
Read the complete Kanghwa Dolmen Sites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kanghwa Dolmen Sites comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jangneung Cluster.
North-west of Seoul, close to where the Imjin river flows into the Han and the demilitarised zone cuts the Korean peninsula in two, lies a royal tomb: Jangneung, the resting place of King Injo, who ruled Joseon in the seventeenth century, and his queen. Injo's reign was marked by invasions from the Manchu, and he was forced to humiliate himself before the Qing emperor in 1637, a defeat that still resonates in Korean memory. His tomb, like the other Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2009, is a grassy mound on a hillside, guarded by stone figures of officials, warriors and animals, with a T-shaped shrine below.
Read the complete Jangneung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Jangneung Cluster. Next is back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kanghwa Dolmen Sites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites, late in the day. Next is Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong. That is the ride.
Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong → Kanghwa Dolmen Sites is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kanghwa Dolmen Sites → Jangneung Cluster is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jangneung Cluster → back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites → Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.