Piram-seowon and Daeheungsa Temple

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Piram-seowon

   Piram-seowon sits on flat land among rice fields in Jangseong county, in South Jeolla province, its gates opening onto a courtyard with wooden pavilions and a shrine. It was founded in the late sixteenth century to honour Kim In-hu, a Neo-Confucian scholar from the region known for his integrity and his poetry, and it is one of the nine academies inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2019 as Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies. Unlike many seowon, which were closed by the government in the nineteenth century, Piram survived, and rituals are still held there.

   Read the complete Piram-seowon write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Piram-seowon is where the day begins. Next is Shinan-Muan Getbol.

2. 2. Shinan-Muan Getbol

   At low tide the sea retreats a long way from the coast of Shinan, leaving behind a vast grey plain of mud, glittering with water and printed with the tracks of crabs and birds. Koreans call this getbol, and the south-west coast has some of the broadest tidal flats in the world, a landscape that is neither land nor sea. The Shinan-Muan group, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, is a stretch of this system, with channels, salt marshes and sandbars, and it shelters hundreds of species, many of them rare, including migratory shorebirds that stop here on their long flights between Siberia, Alaska and Australia.

   Read the complete Shinan-Muan Getbol write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Shinan-Muan Getbol comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Daeheungsa Temple.

3. 3. Daeheungsa Temple

   Daeheungsa sits in a fold of the Duryunsan mountains, near the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, and the approach is half the reward. A long path runs beside a stream through an avenue of old trees, camellias, maples and cedar, and the sound of water follows you all the way up. The temple is among the more important in Korean Buddhism because of a monk named Hyujeong, known as Seosan Daesa, who led a force of warrior monks against the Japanese invasion of 1592. Before he died he asked that his robe and bowl be kept here, and the temple is now treated as the seat of that tradition. It is also tied to the history of Korean tea, since the monk Choui lived at a hermitage in its grounds and wrote on the subject.

   Read the complete Daeheungsa Temple write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 175 km into the recorded legs you reach Daeheungsa Temple. Next is back through Shinan-Muan Getbol.

4. 4. back through Shinan-Muan Getbol

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Shinan-Muan Getbol write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Shinan-Muan Getbol, late in the day. Next is Piram-seowon.

5. 5. Piram-seowon

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Piram-seowon write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Piram-seowon. That is the ride.