CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
From Gyeongju it runs 121 km to Gyeongju; allow about 2 h 48 of riding. The stops in between: Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple, Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian and back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla kingdom for the better part of a thousand years, and the Wolseong belt is the heart of it. Wolseong means Crescent Moon Fortress, a low curved rise that once held the royal palace. Today you will see grassy embankments, the outline of old foundations, and a landscape more of absence than of monuments, which is exactly why so many Koreans come to stroll it, particularly at dusk and in the first week of April when the cherry blossoms are out.
Read the complete Wolsong Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wolsong 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 24 km in. 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.
49 km in 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 Wolsong Belt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wolsong Belt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Wolsong Belt. That is the ride.
Wolsong Belt → Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple → Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian is 32 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 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple → Wolsong Belt is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.