Taereung Cluster and Yeongneung Cluster

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Taereung Cluster

   Korea's Joseon kings chose their tombs the way they chose a capital, with a geomancer. A good site needed a mountain behind, water in front and a gentle forest around, and the royal tombs scattered across the countryside around Seoul follow that rule, which is why many of them feel like parks. Taereung is one of the best known, on the north-east side of the city, a burial ground for Queen Munjeong and her son King Myeongjong in the sixteenth century. The forty tombs of the dynasty were listed by UNESCO in 2009, and walking among them is a calm contrast to the city outside.

   Read the complete Taereung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Taereung Cluster is where the day begins. Next is Heolleung Cluster.

2. 2. Heolleung Cluster

   In the south of Seoul, wedged between highways, apartment towers and the Daemosan hills, a forest of oak and pine hides two royal tombs of the Joseon dynasty. Heolleung is the tomb of King Taejong, the third king of Joseon, who ruled in the early fifteenth century, and his queen Wongyeong, and nearby lies Inneung, the tomb of King Sunjo and his queen from the nineteenth century. Together they form one of the clusters of the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, listed by UNESCO in 2009.

   Read the complete Heolleung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Heolleung Cluster comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hwaseong Fortress.

3. 3. Hwaseong Fortress

   Hwaseong is a love letter from a son to his father, written in stone. In 1762, Crown Prince Sado was locked in a rice chest by his own father, King Yeongjo, and left to die, one of the darkest episodes in Korean royal history. His son, who became King Jeongjo, never forgot, and he moved his father's tomb to a site near Suwon and built a grand fortress there, completed in 1796, intended perhaps as a new capital. The engineer and scholar Jeong Yak-yong used cranes and pulleys to speed up construction, and the walls, gates, towers and bastions combine Korean, Chinese and Western ideas of fortification. UNESCO listed it in 1997.

   Read the complete Hwaseong Fortress write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Hwaseong Fortress. Next is Yeongneung Cluster.

4. 4. Yeongneung Cluster

   The Yeongneung cluster lies in the countryside of Yeoju, a town on the Namhan River east of Seoul, and it is the resting place of King Sejong the Great, who reigned from 1418 to 1450 and is remembered above all for the creation of the Korean alphabet, hangul, announced in the 1440s. Koreans hold the king in deep affection, and a statue of him sits in the middle of Seoul. His tomb here is a joint one, shared with his queen, and it sits in a beautiful pine-covered setting with stone officials, horses and lanterns lined along the approach. The nearby tomb of King Hyojong, known as Nyeongneung, is part of the same area.

   Read the complete Yeongneung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Yeongneung Cluster, about halfway. Next is back through Hwaseong Fortress.

5. 5. back through Hwaseong Fortress

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Hwaseong Fortress write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Hwaseong Fortress sits at 169 km, about halfway. Next is back through Heolleung Cluster.

6. 6. back through Heolleung Cluster

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Heolleung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Heolleung Cluster comes up about 220 km into the recorded legs. Next is Taereung Cluster.

7. 7. Taereung Cluster

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Taereung Cluster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Taereung Cluster closes the day.