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.
308 km from Kaesŏng to Kaesŏng, about 5 h 19 of riding. On the way it passes Kanghwa Dolmen Sites, Jangneung Cluster, Jongmyo Shrine and Hwaseong Fortress. 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.
On the slope of Songak mountain, a terrace of stone foundations and steps marks where the Koryo kings had their palace, known as Manwoldae, the moon-full terrace. The name suggests the beauty of the setting rather than the architecture, and the complex was largely destroyed by Red Turban invaders in 1361, so what survives is the platform and the stone staircases that climbed it. A few hundred metres away stands the Chomsongdae, a stone platform with stone supports that is traditionally described as an astronomical observatory, built in the Koryo period and used to watch the sky, though like many such claims, its exact use is a matter of scholarly discussion.
Read the complete Manwoldae & Kaesong Chomsongdae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Manwoldae & Kaesong Chomsongdae 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 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jangneung Cluster.
The Joseon dynasty ruled Korea for over five hundred years, and its kings and queens were buried in carefully chosen spots around the capital, in tombs designed according to Confucian ritual and the principles of geomancy, with a hill behind, water in front and mountains framing the view. In 2009, forty of these tombs were listed by UNESCO as the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty. Jangneung, in Gimpo, just west of Seoul, is the tomb of Wonjong, the father of King Injo, who was elevated to royal rank after his death. It is a quiet, wooded place, with a grassy burial mound, stone statues of officials and animals, and a T-shaped shrine where ancestral rites were held.
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 Jongmyo Shrine.
In the middle of busy central Seoul, behind a gate on Jongno street, lies a forest of trees and a long, low hall that seems to come from another world. Jongmyo is the royal ancestral shrine of the Joseon dynasty, which ruled Korea from 1392 to 1910, and its main hall, the Jeongjeon, houses the spirit tablets of kings and queens in a row of identical rooms behind a single facade of red pillars, stretching for more than a hundred metres. It is one of the longest wooden buildings of its kind in Asia, and its austerity is deeply impressive.
Read the complete Jongmyo Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jongmyo Shrine, about halfway. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hwaseong Fortress sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is back through Jongmyo Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jongmyo Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jongmyo Shrine comes up about 198 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 232 km into the recorded legs you reach back through 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 Manwoldae & Kaesong Chomsongdae.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Manwoldae & Kaesong Chomsongdae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 308 km.
Manwoldae & Kaesong Chomsongdae → Kanghwa Dolmen Sites is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kanghwa Dolmen Sites → Jangneung Cluster is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jangneung Cluster → Jongmyo Shrine is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jongmyo Shrine → Hwaseong Fortress is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hwaseong Fortress → back through Jongmyo Shrine is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jongmyo Shrine → back through Jangneung Cluster is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jangneung Cluster → back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites → Manwoldae & Kaesong Chomsongdae is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.