Olleung Cluster and Hwaseong Fortress

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Olleung Cluster

   Seoul's royal tombs are not all in the city centre, and the ones on this stretch lie in the green country just to the north-west, in a belt of forest, farmland and expanding suburbs that stretches towards the border. The cluster on our list is one of several groups of Joseon dynasty burial mounds, and the nearest sizeable town is Uijeongbu, nearly half a million people, with Goyang just beyond it.

   Read the complete Olleung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Olleung Cluster is where the day begins. Next is Donggureung Cluster.

2. 2. Donggureung Cluster

   Nine kings and ten queens of the Joseon dynasty lie at Donggureung, in the city of Guri, just north-east of Seoul. The name means the Eastern Nine Tombs, and it is the largest royal burial ground of the dynasty, which ruled Korea for over five centuries from 1392 to 1910. The tombs are spread across a wooded hillside, each a grassy mound surrounded by stone figures of officials and animals, set according to the rules of geomancy with a mountain behind and water in front.

   Read the complete Donggureung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Donggureung Cluster comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Heolleung Cluster.

3. 3. Heolleung Cluster

   In the south of Seoul, wedged between highways, apartment towers and the Daemosan hills, a forest of oak and pine hides two royal tombs of the Joseon dynasty. Heolleung is the tomb of King Taejong, the third king of Joseon, who ruled in the early fifteenth century, and his queen Wongyeong, and nearby lies Inneung, the tomb of King Sunjo and his queen from the nineteenth century. Together they form one of the clusters of the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, listed by UNESCO in 2009.

   Read the complete Heolleung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Heolleung Cluster. Next is Hwaseong Fortress.

4. 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 Heolleung Cluster.

5. 5. back through Heolleung Cluster

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Heolleung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Heolleung Cluster sits at 107 km, about halfway. Next is back through Donggureung Cluster.

6. 6. back through Donggureung Cluster

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Donggureung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Donggureung Cluster comes up about 141 km into the recorded legs. Next is Olleung Cluster.

7. 7. Olleung Cluster

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Olleung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Olleung Cluster closes the day.