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 Goyang-si it runs 414 km to Goyang-si; allow about 7 h 08 of riding. The stops in between: Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments, Anak Tomb No. 1 and back through Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments. It crosses from South Korea into North Korea - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Joseon kings chose their final resting places with the same care they gave to their palaces, and the Seooreung cluster in Goyang, just north-west of Seoul, shows how. The name means the five tombs of the west, and the forested grounds contain the burial mounds of several Joseon kings and queens from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Each tomb follows the principles of pungsu, the Korean form of geomancy: a mountain behind for protection, open land in front, ideally with water flowing past. The mound sits on a terrace, surrounded by stone figures of officials, warriors and animals standing guard, and below is a T-shaped shrine where rites were held. The forty Joseon royal tombs were added to the World Heritage list together in 2009.
Read the complete Seooreung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seooreung Cluster is where the day begins. Next is Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments.
The Sonjuk Bridge is a small stone bridge in the Korean city of Kaesong, and it has the most bloodstained history of any bridge on the peninsula. In 1392, as the Goryeo dynasty collapsed and General Yi Seong-gye prepared to found the Joseon dynasty, his son Yi Bang-won invited the scholar Jeong Mong-ju, a loyalist of the old dynasty, to a meeting. On his way home Jeong was struck down on this bridge, and tradition says that the dark stains on the stone are his blood, and that bamboo grew from the spot. Jeong became a symbol of loyalty, and a stone memorial and pavilion were built beside the bridge in later centuries.
Read the complete Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Anak Tomb No. 1, 103 km on.
A few kilometres north of Anak Tomb No. 3, the same farming plain holds another Goguryeo burial, Anak Tomb No. 1, and the contrast between them is a nice example of how varied these graves can be. The Goguryeo kingdom, whose people built great mountain fortresses and left thousands of stone tombs across what is now North Korea and north-east China, painted the walls of its aristocratic graves with scenes from life, belief and the afterlife. Tomb No. 1 belongs to the same early group, with a chamber of dressed stone slabs and plastered walls, and it is part of the World Heritage listing of Koguryo tombs that dates from 2004.
Read the complete Anak Tomb No. 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 207 km into the recorded legs you reach Anak Tomb No. 1. Next is back through Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments, late in the day. Next is Seooreung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seooreung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Seooreung Cluster. That is the ride.
Seooreung Cluster → Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments → Anak Tomb No. 1 is 143 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Anak Tomb No. 1 → back through Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments is 143 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments → Seooreung Cluster is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.