Why this ride
From Yeoju it runs 344 km to Yeoju; allow about 5 h 30 of riding. The stops in between: Area 2, Hwaseong Fortress, Jongmyo Shrine and Jangneung Cluster. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Yeongneung Cluster and Jangneung Cluster starting at Yeoju
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 344 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 30
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Area 2.
2. Area 2
Built and expanded as an emergency capital in the early seventeenth century, its walls run for kilometres along the ridges, with gates, command posts and temples inside, and it became a World Heritage site in 2014. The fortress is remembered for a bitter episode: in the winter of 1636 to 1637, King Injo fled here as the armies of the Qing invaded, and after a siege of more than forty days in the cold, he came down and submitted, kneeling before the Qing emperor. Koreans still regard it as a moment of national humiliation and resilience at the same time.
Read the complete Area 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Area 2 comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hwaseong Fortress.
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 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Hwaseong Fortress. Next is Jongmyo Shrine.
4. Jongmyo Shrine
In the middle of busy central Seoul, behind a gate on Jongno street, lies a forest of trees and a long, low hall that seems to come from another world. Jongmyo is the royal ancestral shrine of the Joseon dynasty, which ruled Korea from 1392 to 1910, and its main hall, the Jeongjeon, houses the spirit tablets of kings and queens in a row of identical rooms behind a single facade of red pillars, stretching for more than a hundred metres. It is one of the longest wooden buildings of its kind in Asia, and its austerity is deeply impressive.
Read the complete Jongmyo Shrine write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Jongmyo Shrine, about halfway. Next is Jangneung Cluster.
5. Jangneung Cluster
The Joseon dynasty ruled Korea for over five hundred years, and its kings and queens were buried in carefully chosen spots around the capital, in tombs designed according to Confucian ritual and the principles of geomancy, with a hill behind, water in front and mountains framing the view. In 2009, forty of these tombs were listed by UNESCO as the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty. Jangneung, in Gimpo, just west of Seoul, is the tomb of Wonjong, the father of King Injo, who was elevated to royal rank after his death. It is a quiet, wooded place, with a grassy burial mound, stone statues of officials and animals, and a T-shaped shrine where ancestral rites were held.
Read the complete Jangneung Cluster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Jangneung Cluster sits at 170 km, about halfway. Next is back through Jongmyo Shrine.
6. back through Jongmyo Shrine
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jongmyo Shrine write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Jongmyo Shrine comes up about 198 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hwaseong Fortress.
7. 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
about 238 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hwaseong Fortress. Next is back through Area 2.
8. back through Area 2
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Area 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Area 2, late in the day. Next is Yeongneung Cluster.
9. Yeongneung Cluster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
The route ends here after 344 km.
Leg by leg
Yeongneung Cluster to Area 2
Yeongneung Cluster → Area 2 is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Area 2 to Hwaseong Fortress
Area 2 → Hwaseong Fortress is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hwaseong Fortress to Jongmyo Shrine
Hwaseong Fortress → Jongmyo Shrine is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jongmyo Shrine to Jangneung Cluster
Jongmyo Shrine → Jangneung Cluster is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jangneung Cluster to back through Jongmyo Shrine
Jangneung Cluster → back through Jongmyo Shrine is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jongmyo Shrine to back through Hwaseong Fortress
back through Jongmyo Shrine → back through Hwaseong Fortress is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hwaseong Fortress to back through Area 2
back through Hwaseong Fortress → back through Area 2 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Area 2 to Yeongneung Cluster
back through Area 2 → Yeongneung Cluster is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.