Why this ride
197 km from Seoul to Seoul, about 3 h 18 of riding. The stops in between: Sareung Cluster, Area 2, Hwaseong Fortress and back through Area 2. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Jeongneung Cluster and Hwaseong Fortress
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 197 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 18
- 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. Jeongneung Cluster
Jeongneung is a royal tomb in the middle of Seoul, in the wooded hills of Seongbuk district just north of the old city, and it carries one of the more spiteful stories of the early Joseon court. It belongs to Queen Sindeok, the second wife of the dynasty's founder, King Taejo. Her son was named crown prince ahead of Taejo's older sons by his first wife, and one of those older sons, Yi Bang-won, struck back violently, killing his half-brothers and eventually taking the throne as King Taejong.
Read the complete Jeongneung Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Jeongneung Cluster is where the day begins. Next is Sareung Cluster.
2. Sareung Cluster
A queen who outlived her husband by more than sixty years lies here. Sareung is the tomb of Queen Jeongsun, wife of King Danjong, the boy king of the Joseon dynasty who was deposed by his uncle in 1455 and later killed in exile. Jeongsun lived on in poverty outside the capital, and the story of her loyalty and grief became one of the most moving in Korean history. Her tomb, a grassy mound guarded by stone figures and approached along a path through pine forest, is one of the forty Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty listed together as a World Heritage Site in 2009.
Read the complete Sareung Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sareung Cluster comes up about 21 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 117 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sareung Cluster.
6. back through Sareung Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sareung Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Sareung Cluster comes up about 177 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jeongneung Cluster.
7. Jeongneung Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jeongneung Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Jeongneung Cluster closes the day.
Leg by leg
Jeongneung Cluster to Sareung Cluster
Jeongneung Cluster → Sareung Cluster is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sareung Cluster to Area 2
Sareung Cluster → Area 2 is 46 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 Sareung Cluster
back through Area 2 → back through Sareung Cluster is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sareung Cluster to Jeongneung Cluster
back through Sareung Cluster → Jeongneung Cluster is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.