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: 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.
A 292 km round trip from Ungsang - roughly 4 h 40 in the saddle. On the way it passes Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli, Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon and back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Most Korean Buddhist temples have a statue of the Buddha in their main hall. Tongdosa does not. Instead, a window behind the altar looks out onto a stone stupa that is said to contain relics of the historical Buddha, brought back from China by the monk Jajang, who founded the temple in 646. That makes Tongdosa one of the Three Jewel Temples of Korea, representing the Buddha himself, alongside Haeinsa, representing the teaching, and Songgwangsa, the community of monks. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Sansa, Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Korea, inscribed in 2018.
Read the complete Tongdosa Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tongdosa Temple is where the day begins. Next is Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli.
The rounded grassy mounds rising behind Changnyeong look almost like natural hills until you notice how regular they are. These are the Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong tumuli, burial mounds of the rulers of Bihwa, one of the small kingdoms of the Gaya confederacy that flourished in the south of the Korean peninsula between roughly the first and sixth centuries before being absorbed by Silla. In 2023 they became part of a UNESCO listing that brings together seven Gaya tomb clusters, and they are among the most atmospheric of the group.
Read the complete Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli comes up about 79 km into the recorded legs. Next is Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon.
High in the forested folds of Gayasan, in South Gyeongsang province, a temple keeps one of the great treasures of the Buddhist world. Haeinsa holds the Tripitaka Koreana, more than eighty thousand wooden printing blocks carved in the thirteenth century with the complete Buddhist scriptures, an act of devotion undertaken while the Mongols were invading Korea, in the hope that the Buddha's protection would save the country. The blocks are kept in the Janggyeong Panjeon, a pair of long, plain wooden halls built in the fifteenth century, and the halls are the real marvel. Their design uses natural ventilation, windows of different sizes on opposite walls, and a floor packed with charcoal, lime, clay and salt to regulate humidity and temperature, and they have protected the blocks for centuries without modern technology. The halls were listed by UNESCO in 1995.
Read the complete Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon. Next is back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli, late in the day. Next is Tongdosa Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tongdosa Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Tongdosa Temple. That is the ride.
Tongdosa Temple → Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli → Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon → back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gyo-dong and Songhyeon-dong Tumuli → Tongdosa Temple is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.