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 132 km round trip from Gyeongju - roughly 2 h 52 in the saddle. The stops in between: Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple, Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian and back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple. The line favours views over speed.
Gyeongju's tumuli look like a row of green breasts rising out of a lawn, and that is exactly what makes the Daereungwon park so memorable. The mounds are the royal tombs of the Silla kingdom, which ruled the south-east of the Korean peninsula for nearly a thousand years, and eventually unified the peninsula in the seventh century. The kings and queens were buried in chambers of wood and stone, sealed under a mountain of river stones and then covered with earth, and in some of them excavators found treasures: gold crowns with branching antler-like uprights, belts, earrings and glass vessels from as far away as the Mediterranean.
Read the complete Tumuli Park Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tumuli Park Belt is where the day begins. Next is Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple.
Bulguksa sits on the lower slopes of Tohamsan, a forested mountain above Gyeongju, and it is the most famous Buddhist temple in Korea. It was largely built in the eighth century under the Silla kingdom, at a time when Gyeongju was its capital and one of the largest cities in Asia, and tradition credits the work to the minister Kim Dae-seong. Stone staircases and terraces from that time still carry the wooden halls, which have been rebuilt after fires and wars, most destructively during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s.
Read the complete Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian.
Yangdong is a village that still lives like the old Korea of the Joseon dynasty. It lies in a valley north of Gyeongju, in a bowl of low wooded hills, and it is home to some of the finest surviving traditional houses in the country, hundreds of tiled-roof and thatched homes spread over the slopes. Two great clans have dominated it for centuries, the Wolseong Son and the Yeogang Yi, and their families built the large tile-roofed mansions on the high ground with the thatched houses of the tenants below. The neat layout follows the principles of feng shui: the main houses face south with a hill behind and a stream in front. UNESCO listed Yangdong along with Hahoe in 2010 as the Historic Villages of Korea.
Read the complete Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian. Next is back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple, late in the day. Next is Tumuli Park Belt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tumuli Park Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Tumuli Park Belt. That is the ride.
Tumuli Park Belt → Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple → Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian → back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple → Tumuli Park Belt is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.