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 215 km round trip from Kaesŏng - roughly 3 h 42 in the saddle. The stops in between: Kanghwa Dolmen Sites, Mausoleum of King Kongmin, Jangneung Cluster and back through Mausoleum of King Kongmin. It crosses from North Korea into South Korea - carry ID and check the toll rules.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Kanghwa Dolmen Sites.
Ganghwa Island lies in the mouth of the Han River, just north-west of Seoul and Incheon, and on a clear day you can look across a narrow channel of tidal water straight into North Korea. The town of Kaesong is barely twenty-five kilometres away. That closeness gives the island an edge, with watch posts and fences along parts of the shore, but its fame is much older. The Ganghwa dolmens, together with those at Gochang and Hwasun in the south, were listed by UNESCO in 2000, and Korea holds a remarkable share of all the dolmens known in the world.
Read the complete Kanghwa Dolmen Sites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kanghwa Dolmen Sites comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mausoleum of King Kongmin.
Of all the places on the list of world heritage, the Mausoleum of King Kongmin must be one of the hardest to reach on two wheels, because it lies in North Korea, in the hills west of the old city of Kaesong.
Read the complete Mausoleum of King Kongmin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach Mausoleum of King Kongmin. 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 back through Mausoleum of King Kongmin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mausoleum of King Kongmin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mausoleum of King Kongmin sits at 143 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kanghwa Dolmen Sites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites comes up about 181 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments closes the day.
Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments → Kanghwa Dolmen Sites is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kanghwa Dolmen Sites → Mausoleum of King Kongmin is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mausoleum of King Kongmin → Jangneung Cluster is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jangneung Cluster → back through Mausoleum of King Kongmin is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mausoleum of King Kongmin → back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kanghwa Dolmen Sites → Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.