When I was cycling in South Korea in October 2025, I found it very useful to have good route data for my cycling computer. It was especially useful for navigating between the Four Rivers Cross Country bicycle path and railway stations or hotels.

Here’s my method for generating GPX routes.

• Open Kakao Maps on my phone

• Long press on my starting location, and select it as the ‘From’ point

• Select the bicycle mode
• Identify the ‘To’ point using a bookmark, location search, or the map

• Tap on the profile area at the bottom of the screen to access the details, including the GPX file download button

• Save the GPX file
• Import it into the bike computer route app just like any other GPX file

This article is part of a series about creating GPX files for South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route.

Here is the GPX file I generated by using the steps in this series. The file is publicly downloadable from this Google Drive link.

• The main trunk of South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route:
  Four Rivers Cross Country Trunk October 2025 (GPX, 1.2 Mb).
• The route does not cover the segments to Andong Dam nor to Chungdu Dam. I wasn’t planning to visit those places, and I wasn’t using the certification process for this ride.

The route is also available at RideWithGPS. You can view it there or download it in your preferred format (.fit, .tcx, .kml, .gpx).

Please do remember:

• There are many ways to construct bike routes using the named cycle paths. These routes reflected my intentions, and they may not suit everyone.
• You can make your own files using the techniques outlined in this series.
• This blog is not responsible for any harm you experience from your use of these files.

This article is part of a series about creating GPX files for South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route.

The GPX file produced in part 1 has a few limitations. The file includes many segments. The segments are not in any order. They don’t form a linked chain of paths. They can run in opposing directions. Therefore, the file is not as useful as it could be.

To create a more useful file, BRouter-Web (free, online) can be used to reconstruct the entire route, from start to finish, as one continuous route.

The process is simple.

• Open two browser windows side by side.
  • Have BRouter-Web on one side. Use the pan and zoom controls to find the start of the route.
  • Have  GPX Studio on the other. Load the GPS file created in part 1. Use the pan and zoom controls to find the start of the route.
• In BRouter, select a sensible routing option. I like ‘Fastbike, Low traffic’. It affects the routing decisions made by the tool.
• Select the pencil tool to start drawing.
• Click the start point.
• Click on additional points, following the intended route. BRouter will create a route to connect the points.
• Keep the two browser windows views in sync as you move through the route, by panning and zooming.
• There’s a BRouter tool for removing the last point (or press Z), if there has been an error.
• You can drag the suggested route to a more desirable route as you please.
• Export the route when it is complete.

This article is part of a series about creating GPX files for South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route.

In the previous article, we adjusted the separate GPX files that form South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route. Now it is time to merge them together.

• Open GPX Studio (free, online).
• Load all the separate files that were prepared earlier.

• Select all the path (Edit / Select All)
• Merge them together
• It is best to use the option “Merge the contents and keep the traces disconnected”

• Export the data (File / Export). Give the file a recognisable name, for example, “South Korea Cross Country Bicycle Path OSM Trimmed.gpx”

This article is part of a series about creating GPX files for South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route.

The GPX files we obtained in the previous article include lots of unwanted detail. For example, the Hangang (Seoul section) file includes paths on both sides of the Han River, the ARA file includes paths on both sides of the road, and the other files include some isolated segments and dead ends.

I don’t want to make navigation decisions while I am riding, nor do I want unnecessary details in the files.

GPX Studio (free, online) can be used to remove the unwanted data in the files.

Here’s the process I used to trim out the unwanted detail from each of the separate GPX files.

• Navigate to https://gpx.studio
• Load the file

• Select the path using Edit / Select All
• Extract the path into its segments using the tool on the left

• Select and delete unwanted complete segments (Use Edit / Delete or Ctrl+Backspace)

• Crop any segments that are only partially useful, using the scissor tool

• Review the whole path, deleting and cropping as desired.
• Select all the remaining segments and merge them together
  • It is best to use the option “Merge the contents and keep the traces disconnected”
• Export the data (File / Export). Give the file a recognisable name, for example, “ARA Bicycle Path Trimmed.gpx”

The next article in the series is Merging the GPX files.

This article is part of a series about creating GPX files for South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route.

In the previous article, we identified that we need to access the data for these Open Street Map relations: 4145848, 8371341, 8280693, 8281515, 8283141.

I used the Overpass Turbo tool (free, online) to download the data by following these steps.

• Navigate to https://overpass-turbo.eu

• Copy and paste these instructions:

[out:xml][timeout:25];
relation(4145848); // Replace with the required Open Street Map relation ID
out body;
;
out skel qt;

• Change the relation Id to the desired value
• Click Run

• Click Export, then download in the GPX format

• Rename the downloaded file from ‘export.gpx’ to something more recognisable, such as ‘ARA Bicycle Path OSM.gpx’
• Repeat for each of the desired relation Id values.

The next article in the series is Trimming the cycle path GPX files.

This article is part of a series about creating GPX files for South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route.

South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route is formed by linking together these certified cycle paths:

• ARA Bicycle Path – Runs from Incheon to Seoul. View on Open Street Map. Open Street Map relation Id 4145848.
• Hangang Bicycle Path (Seoul section) – Runs through Seoul, along the Han River. View on Open Street Map. Open Street Map relation Id 8371341.
• Namhangang Bicycle Path – Runs from Seoul’s Paldang Station to Chungju Dam along the South Han River. View on Open Street Map. Open Street Map relation Id 8280693.
• Saejae Bicycle Path – Runs south from Chungju. View on Open Street Map. Open Street Map relation Id 8281515.
• Nakdonggang Bicycle Path – Runs from Andong Dam to Busan. View on Open Street Map. Open Street Map relation Id 8283141.

We will need the Open Street Map relationship Ids for the next step: 4145848, 8371341, 8280693, 8281515, 8283141.

The next article in the series is Using Overpass Turbo to save the Open Street Map data as GPX files.

I am planning to ride South Korea’s Cross Country cycle route in late 2025. In this series of posts, I will explain how I generated a GPX file of the route using Open Street Map data. I shall use the GPX file with my bike’s navigation computer.

The Cross Country cycle route runs from Incheon to Busan. It is sometimes, incorrectly, called the Four Rivers cycle road.

If you just want the GPX file that I created, you can jump straight to the last post in the series, GPX file for South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route.

Step 1 – Making the initial GPX file

Using data from Open Street Map (a reasonably open, accurate and up to date source of mapping data) to produce a GPX file of the whole route.

• Identifying the cycle paths on Open Street Maps
• Using Overpass Turbo to save the Open Street Map data as GPX files
• Trimming the cycle path GPX files
• Merging the GPX files into one file

Step 2 – Improving the GPX file

The GPX file produced in part 1 has a few limitations. The file includes many segments. The segments are not in any order. They don’t form a linked chain of paths. They can run in opposing directions. Therefore, the file is not as useful as it could be.

In Step 2 we use BRouter-Web to recreate the GPX file as a continuous path.

• Tracing the route with BRouter-Web

Step 3 – Riding the route

In October 2025, I rode the route and retained GPS logs of my trip.

Step 4 – Refining the route

I compared the actual GPS logs of my trip with the planned route and made some updates to the route files. The updated were required because of things such as:

• One village had signage prohibiting riders from cycling along the main street and directing them around the edge of the township.
• New track segments had been created, and these weren’t in the source data files.
• A low bridge had been damaged by floodwater, so a diversion was in place.

The updates were generally made using BRouter-Web, and with GPX Studio to trim and merge the files.

Here’s the result:

• GPX file for South Korea’s Cross Country Cycle Route

Alternative approaches

It would have been possible to use other approaches to get GPX files for the route from a source like RideWithGPS (example 1, example 2, example 3) or from this post on Naver, but I wanted to generate a GPX file independently.

It would also have been possible to avoid some of the intermediate steps here. For example, you could just refer to the Open Street Map cycle paths while using BRouter-Web to create the GPX file.