The more I think about it, the more I believe that Korea is just built for biking. Since I joined Strava in 2017, I’ve ridden nearly 15,000 miles, and I’m still finding adventures wherever I go.
Today’s ride included a couple of historical sites and two trees — a 460 year-old Gingko and a 270 year-old Zelkova — that were just a couple-hundred meters apart. They were both happy accidents. As I was pedaling along a street in a little village, something caught my eye down a side street — a tower gate (one of the historical sites). I doubled back and made the turn, and when I got to the gate and was taking a picture, I saw the gingko across a school yard behind the gate. I made my way over to the gingko, and after I’d finished taking pictures of that, I turned around and there was the Zelkova.
But the real surprise of the day though was the discovery of a tomb. And not just any tomb. I was coming down from my first big climb when a historical site came up on the left right beside the road — a pair of memorial stones. I found the sign for it and it read, “Stele [memorial stone] of Admiral Yi Sun-shin” and “Stele of General Yi Bong-sang.” At the bottom of that sign was the line, “Tomb of Yi Sun-shin, Asan” with an arrow pointing up the road. I thought at the time, “this can’t be the actual Admiral’s grave.” Admiral Yi (for those who know of him) was perhaps one of the greatest Admirals in all of history. For the non-eurocentric, he could be considered top 3 along with Nelson (Britain) and maybe Nimitz (US). This is the guy whose statue has graced Gwanghwamun (near the US embassy in Seoul) since 1968 — long before King Sejong’s was erected behind it.
And it turns out, it was his grave, not far off this quiet country road in Asan. There’s a much larger and more grandiose shrine for him down closer to Asan city that I’d visited with Chris on a ride a year-and-a-half ago, but this was the real deal, out in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, it was only 0630 and the place didn’t open until 9, but I’m definitely going again soon.
There’s just so much out there for anyone with a nose for exploring a little, and a lot within easy distance. Like I said, Korea really is built for biking.