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.
A 305 km round trip from Goyang-si - roughly 5 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Gwangneung Cluster\t, Changdeokgung Palace Complex, Jangneung Cluster and Kaesong Namdae. It crosses from South Korea into North Korea - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The ride follows Gwangneung Cluster\t → Changdeokgung Palace Complex for 34 km.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Gwangneung Cluster\t.
Gwangneung is the tomb of King Sejo of Joseon and his queen, Jeonghui, and it sits inside one of the best-preserved forests in Korea, north-east of Seoul between Namyangju and Pocheon. Sejo seized the throne in 1455 from his young nephew Danjong, who was later exiled and killed, and he spent much of his reign strengthening royal power. In death, though, he asked for modesty: he ordered that his tomb be built without the usual stone burial chamber and without some of the stone ornaments, to save the people labour and expense. The two mounds lie on separate ridges, with a shrine between them.
Read the complete Gwangneung Cluster\t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gwangneung Cluster\t comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Changdeokgung Palace Complex.
Changdeokgung was built in 1405 as a secondary palace for the Joseon kings, and it ended up being the one they actually liked living in. Where the main palace, Gyeongbokgung, was laid out on a strict axis, Changdeokgung was fitted into the foot of the hills, following the folds of the ground, and its halls, gates and courtyards feel more relaxed and more human as a result. After the Japanese invasions of the 1590s burned all of Seoul's palaces, this was the first to be rebuilt, and it served as the main royal residence for some two and a half centuries.
Read the complete Changdeokgung Palace Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Changdeokgung Palace Complex. 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.
Jangneung Cluster, about halfway. Next is Kaesong Namdae.
Few capitals in Korea's history have left so little room for an ordinary traveller. Kaesong, the Goryeo capital from the early tenth century to the late fourteenth, stands in the south of North Korea, a few kilometres from the demilitarised zone and the village of Panmunjom, and its Namdae Gate, the great southern gate of the old city, is the best-known monument of the place. The gate was first raised in 1394, just after the Goryeo dynasty fell, and it has been repaired many times, most recently after wartime damage. It stands in the middle of a traffic circle, with its heavy tiled roof and a bell nearby.
Read the complete Kaesong Namdae Gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kaesong Namdae sits at 153 km, 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 comes up about 188 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Changdeokgung Palace Complex.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Changdeokgung Palace Complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 233 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Changdeokgung Palace Complex. Next is back through Gwangneung Cluster\t.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gwangneung Cluster\t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gwangneung Cluster\t, late in the day. Next is Seosamreung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seosamreung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 305 km.
Seosamreung Cluster → Gwangneung Cluster\t is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gwangneung Cluster\t → Changdeokgung Palace Complex is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Changdeokgung Palace Complex → Jangneung Cluster is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jangneung Cluster → Kaesong Namdae Gate is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kaesong Namdae Gate → back through Jangneung Cluster is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jangneung Cluster → back through Changdeokgung Palace Complex is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Changdeokgung Palace Complex → back through Gwangneung Cluster\t is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gwangneung Cluster\t → Seosamreung Cluster is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.