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.
From Ganghwa-gun it runs 198 km to Ganghwa-gun; allow about 3 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Mausoleum of King Kongmin, Jangneung Cluster, Seosamreung Cluster and back through Jangneung Cluster. It crosses from South Korea into North Korea - carry ID and check the toll rules.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Mausoleum of King Kongmin.
Of all the places on the list of world heritage, the Mausoleum of King Kongmin must be one of the hardest to reach on two wheels, because it lies in North Korea, in the hills west of the old city of Kaesong.
Read the complete Mausoleum of King Kongmin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mausoleum of King Kongmin 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 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Jangneung Cluster. Next is Seosamreung Cluster.
The kings and queens of the Joseon dynasty, who ruled Korea for more than five hundred years until 1910, chose their graves with enormous care. Geomancers studied hills, water and wind to find sites with the right energy, and the royal tombs were laid out with burial mounds, stone guardians, ceremonial halls and long processional paths. Forty of these tombs are listed together by UNESCO as the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, and Seosamreung, the three western tombs in Goyang just north-west of Seoul, is one of the clusters.
Read the complete Seosamreung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seosamreung Cluster, about halfway. Next is back through Jangneung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jangneung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jangneung Cluster sits at 132 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mausoleum of King Kongmin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mausoleum of King Kongmin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mausoleum of King Kongmin comes up about 166 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Kanghwa Dolmen Sites closes the day.
Kanghwa Dolmen Sites → Mausoleum of King Kongmin is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mausoleum of King Kongmin → Jangneung Cluster is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jangneung Cluster → Seosamreung Cluster is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seosamreung Cluster → back through Jangneung Cluster is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jangneung Cluster → back through Mausoleum of King Kongmin is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mausoleum of King Kongmin → Kanghwa Dolmen Sites is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.