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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Suwon it runs 382 km to Suwon; allow about 6 h 35 of riding. The stops in between: Heolleung Cluster, Seooreung Cluster, Gwangneung Cluster\t and Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments. It crosses from South Korea into North Korea - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Yungneung belongs to a tradition that most visitors to Korea never see: the royal tombs of the Joseon dynasty, forty of them scattered across the country and listed by UNESCO in 2009. This cluster lies south of Seoul near Hwaseong, a short way from Suwon, and it holds the tomb of Crown Prince Sado and, nearby, that of his son, King Jeongjo. Sado is the tragic figure of the dynasty. In 1762 his father, King Yeongjo, had him sealed inside a rice chest, where he died after eight days, after years of tension at court.
Read the complete Yungneung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yungneung Cluster is where the day begins. Next is Heolleung Cluster.
In the south of Seoul, wedged between highways, apartment towers and the Daemosan hills, a forest of oak and pine hides two royal tombs of the Joseon dynasty. Heolleung is the tomb of King Taejong, the third king of Joseon, who ruled in the early fifteenth century, and his queen Wongyeong, and nearby lies Inneung, the tomb of King Sunjo and his queen from the nineteenth century. Together they form one of the clusters of the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, listed by UNESCO in 2009.
Read the complete Heolleung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Heolleung Cluster comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Seooreung Cluster.
Joseon kings chose their final resting places with the same care they gave to their palaces, and the Seooreung cluster in Goyang, just north-west of Seoul, shows how. The name means the five tombs of the west, and the forested grounds contain the burial mounds of several Joseon kings and queens from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Each tomb follows the principles of pungsu, the Korean form of geomancy: a mountain behind for protection, open land in front, ideally with water flowing past. The mound sits on a terrace, surrounded by stone figures of officials, warriors and animals standing guard, and below is a T-shaped shrine where rites were held. The forty Joseon royal tombs were added to the World Heritage list together in 2009.
Read the complete Seooreung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Seooreung Cluster. Next is Gwangneung Cluster\t.
Gwangneung is the tomb of King Sejo of Joseon and his queen, Jeonghui, and it sits inside one of the best-preserved forests in Korea, north-east of Seoul between Namyangju and Pocheon. Sejo seized the throne in 1455 from his young nephew Danjong, who was later exiled and killed, and he spent much of his reign strengthening royal power. In death, though, he asked for modesty: he ordered that his tomb be built without the usual stone burial chamber and without some of the stone ornaments, to save the people labour and expense. The two mounds lie on separate ridges, with a shrine between them.
Read the complete Gwangneung Cluster\t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gwangneung Cluster\t, about halfway. Next is Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments.
The Sonjuk Bridge is a small stone bridge in the Korean city of Kaesong, and it has the most bloodstained history of any bridge on the peninsula. In 1392, as the Goryeo dynasty collapsed and General Yi Seong-gye prepared to found the Joseon dynasty, his son Yi Bang-won invited the scholar Jeong Mong-ju, a loyalist of the old dynasty, to a meeting. On his way home Jeong was struck down on this bridge, and tradition says that the dark stains on the stone are his blood, and that bamboo grew from the spot. Jeong became a symbol of loyalty, and a stone memorial and pavilion were built beside the bridge in later centuries.
Read the complete Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments sits at 191 km, about halfway. Next is back through Gwangneung Cluster\t.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gwangneung Cluster\t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gwangneung Cluster\t comes up about 272 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Seooreung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seooreung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 310 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Seooreung Cluster. Next is back through Heolleung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Heolleung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Heolleung Cluster, late in the day. Next is Yungneung Cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yungneung Cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 382 km.
Yungneung Cluster → Heolleung Cluster is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Heolleung Cluster → Seooreung Cluster is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seooreung Cluster → Gwangneung Cluster\t is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gwangneung Cluster\t → Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sonjuk Bridge and Phyochung Monuments → back through Gwangneung Cluster\t is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Gwangneung Cluster\t → back through Seooreung Cluster is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Seooreung Cluster → back through Heolleung Cluster is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Heolleung Cluster → Yungneung Cluster is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.