Why this ride
On the way it passes Bongjeongsa Temple, Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang, Sansa and back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Seowon and Sansa
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 336 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 17
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Seowon
Dosan Seowon is a school, and it is the school of a man who is still on the thousand-won note. Yi Hwang, better known as Toegye, was the greatest Neo-Confucian philosopher of Korea's Joseon dynasty, and after he died in 1570 his students built this academy beside the Nakdong river where he used to teach. It opened a few years afterwards and became the model for hundreds of others. The site was listed as one of nine Neo-Confucian academies of Korea on the World Heritage list in 2019.
Read the complete Seowon write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Seowon is where the day begins. Next is Bongjeongsa Temple.
2. Bongjeongsa Temple
Tucked into the wooded slopes of Cheondeungsan, a modest mountain north-west of Andong in North Gyeongsang province, Bongjeongsa is a temple that wears its age quietly. Its main claim to fame is a small, plain hall called Geungnakjeon, believed to be the oldest surviving wooden building in Korea, dating back to the Goryeo dynasty. Repairs in the twentieth century turned up records suggesting the hall had been rebuilt in the thirteenth century, which makes it older than almost anything else made of timber in the country. Bongjeongsa is one of seven mountain monasteries inscribed by UNESCO in 2018 as Sansa, Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Korea.
Read the complete Bongjeongsa Temple write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bongjeongsa Temple comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang.
3. Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang
The Nakdong river makes a wide loop around Hahoe, almost turning it into an island, and inside that loop a village of tiled-roof mansions and thatched cottages has stood for some six centuries. Hahoe is the ancestral home of the Pungsan Ryu clan, a lineage of scholar-officials during the Joseon dynasty, and its layout follows Korean principles of geomancy, with houses arranged to face the river and the cliffs of Buyongdae across the water. It was added to the World Heritage list in 2010, together with Yangdong village near Gyeongju, as the finest surviving examples of clan villages of the Joseon period.
Read the complete Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang. Next is Sansa.
4. Sansa
Songnisan is a mountain with a long reputation, and the temple Beopjusa sits on its lower flank, in the middle of the country in North Chungcheong province, among pines, rock outcrops and clear streams. Tradition says the monk Uisin founded it in the middle of the sixth century, after returning from India with scriptures carried on a mule, and the name means Temple of the Dharma Abode. It was destroyed in the Japanese invasions of the sixteenth century and rebuilt, and its great wooden hall, Palsangjeon, is the only five-storey wooden pagoda still standing in Korea, a tall tiered structure that rises over the courtyard.
Read the complete Sansa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sansa, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang.
5. back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang sits at 175 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bongjeongsa Temple.
6. back through Bongjeongsa Temple
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bongjeongsa Temple write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Bongjeongsa Temple comes up about 305 km into the recorded legs. Next is Seowon.
7. Seowon
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seowon write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Seowon closes the day.
Leg by leg
Seowon to Bongjeongsa Temple
Seowon → Bongjeongsa Temple is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bongjeongsa Temple to Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang
Bongjeongsa Temple → Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang to Sansa
Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang → Sansa is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sansa to back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang
Sansa → back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang is 112 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang to back through Bongjeongsa Temple
back through Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yang → back through Bongjeongsa Temple is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bongjeongsa Temple to Seowon
back through Bongjeongsa Temple → Seowon is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.