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 377 km round trip from Goyang-si - roughly 6 h 30 in the saddle. It goes by way of Koryo Songgyungwan, Yungneung Cluster and back through Koryo Songgyungwan. It crosses from South Korea into North Korea - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 Koryo Songgyungwan.
Kaesong was the capital of Korea for nearly five centuries, long before Seoul, and the Koryo Songgyungwan is the best reminder of that age. The compound began in 992 as the Gukjagam, the national academy, in the Goryeo dynasty, which gave Korea its Western name, and it was turned into the Songgyungwan in the late fourteenth century. The present buildings, with their curved tile roofs, wooden pillars and ancient ginkgo and zelkova trees, mostly date from the seventeenth century, after the Japanese invasions of the 1590s, and the site is now a museum of the Koryo period, with celadon, metalwork and printing blocks on display. Kaesong's historic monuments and sites were inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2013.
Read the complete Koryo Songgyungwan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Koryo Songgyungwan comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yungneung Cluster.
Yungneung belongs to a tradition that most visitors to Korea never see: the royal tombs of the Joseon dynasty, forty of them scattered across the country and listed by UNESCO in 2009. This cluster lies south of Seoul near Hwaseong, a short way from Suwon, and it holds the tomb of Crown Prince Sado and, nearby, that of his son, King Jeongjo. Sado is the tragic figure of the dynasty. In 1762 his father, King Yeongjo, had him sealed inside a rice chest, where he died after eight days, after years of tension at court.
Read the complete Yungneung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 189 km into the recorded legs you reach Yungneung Cluster. Next is back through Koryo Songgyungwan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Koryo Songgyungwan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Koryo Songgyungwan, 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.
Back at Seosamreung Cluster. That is the ride.
Seosamreung Cluster → Koryo Songgyungwan is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Koryo Songgyungwan → Yungneung Cluster is 128 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Yungneung Cluster → back through Koryo Songgyungwan is 128 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Koryo Songgyungwan → Seosamreung Cluster is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.