Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian and Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple starting at Yeonil

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian is where the day begins. Next is Mt. Namsan Belt, 20 km on.

2. 2. Mt. Namsan Belt

   Namsan, the southern mountain of Gyeongju, is a modest granite ridge rising just under five hundred metres above the old capital of the Silla kingdom, and it is crammed with more Buddhist art than almost any mountain in Korea. For centuries the monks and craftsmen of Silla, which unified much of the Korean peninsula in the seventh century and ruled from Gyeongju until the tenth, carved Buddhas into its boulders, built stone pagodas on its ridges and placed temples in its valleys. UNESCO took in the whole mountain when it listed Gyeongju's historic areas, and walking its trails is like moving through an open-air museum among the pines.

   Read the complete Mt. Namsan Belt write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Mt. Namsan Belt comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple. Next is back through Mt. Namsan Belt, 20 km on.

4. 4. back through Mt. Namsan Belt

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mt. Namsan Belt write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Mt. Namsan Belt, late in the day. Next is Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian.

5. 5. Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Yangdong Cluster: Donggangseowon Confucian. That is the ride.