Korea’s Four Rivers cycle paths, aka the Cross-country Route, is an extensive, well-maintained network of cycle paths around the country. Most famously, these paths link Seoul to Busan; this is the route that gets all the glory! However, there are plenty of other paths scattered around, some offshoots from the Seoul/Busan route, others completely separate, like the east coast routes. There is also a passport and stamp system throughout where you can collect stamps at red phonebooth-type stations.

Nerd fact: the ‘four rivers’ in the title are actually the Hangang, Nakdonggang, Geumgang, and Yeongsangang (~gang meaning river).

Check out the Bike.go.kr links for more information. Cross reference for best results:

• This is in English but it has less up-to-date information; it doesn’t have individual route maps and the main map is a bit outdated for example.
• This is the Korean version with more details. Switch the site to English with your browser translation function, or brush up on your Korean!

My trips

A few friends have done the Seoul/Busan route in one trip (takes between 4 to 8 days, depending on your style!). One friend has done pretty much everything on the map during school vacation times (he was a teacher here).

As for me, not having done a week-long cycling adventure, I’ve been doing routes one-to-three days at a time (with stamps to prove it!). I’ve only blogged about two, but so far I’ve done:

• Ara Waterway (multiple times)
• Hangang (multiple times; part of Seoul living!)
• East Coast, Gangwondo (Unification tower to Donghae so far)
• Bukhangang (multiple times, only up to Gangchon)
• Namhangang (Seoul to Chungju)

Posts of my visits:

• 
  Cycling east coast of Korea: Daejin to Donghae
  Gareth and I cycled 160 km from Daejin near the North Korean border, south to Donghae. We did a leisurely ~50 km a day. The route is along the 동해안 자전거길 (Donghae-an… Read more: Cycling east coast of Korea: Daejin to Donghae
• 
  Ara Waterway cycle path 아라자전거길
  I cycled to the north of Incheon today, to the start of the 4 rivers / cross-country cycle path. There’s a canal-type waterway that runs west from The Han River to the… Read more: Ara Waterway cycle path 아라자전거길

This page is still being written and the main content will be blog posts of the times I’ve cycled the routes.