Changdeokgung Palace Complex, South Korea

Changdeokgung Is the UNESCO-Listed Palace While Gyeongbokgung Gets the Tourists

Seoul has five grand palaces from the Joseon Dynasty (1392 to 1910). Most visitors go to Gyeongbokgung, the largest and most reconstructed, because it appears on every map and has the changing of the guard ceremony. Changdeokgung, a 20-minute walk east, received UNESCO World Heritage designation in 1997 specifically because it integrates architecture with natural topography – following the contours of the hillside rather than imposing a rigid symmetrical plan. Much of what you see is original, not post-Korean War reconstruction.

Changdeokgung was built in 1405 as a secondary palace and became the primary royal residence for most of the Joseon period after Gyeongbokgung burned during the 1592 Japanese invasion. The current structures date mostly from the early 17th century.

The Palace Buildings

Injeongjeon Hall (the main throne hall) has a courtyard paved in textured stone with stone tablets marking the ranked positions where officials stood during court ceremonies – civil officials east, military west. Seonjeongjeon Hall has blue-glazed roof tiles (unusual among Joseon palaces, original, indicating where the king conducted daily administrative work). Nakseonjae in the southeast corner, completed 1847, has a more domestic scale built as living quarters. The last resident was Princess Deokhye, the last Korean princess of the Joseon line, who died here in 1989.

The Secret Garden (Huwon)

The Secret Garden occupies about 28 of the palace’s 43 hectares – a landscape garden in the hills above the palace buildings, inaccessible to the public until 1983. Entry requires either a timed garden tour (available in Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese) or a moonlight tour on selected summer evenings. The tour visits Buyongji Pond (square with a round island, symbolising the classical Korean cosmological distinction between earth and heaven) and several pavilions set in natural forest.

Spring (cherry blossoms, April) and autumn foliage (October and November) are the best times. Book the English-language tour online in advance; it sells out on peak days. Tours run to fixed times with limited capacity. Allow 90 minutes.

Nearby

Bukchon Hanok Village (preserved traditional wooden houses, photogenic early morning before tour groups), Insadong (crafts and antiques, worth walking), and Gwangjang Market (1905, Seoul’s best market for food: bindaetteok mung bean pancakes, tteokbokki, raw fish, textile trading indoors) are all within 15 minutes’ walk.

Hanbok rental near the palace entrance is cheap and visitors in hanbok get free palace entry – the rental is essentially zero net cost. Metro: Anguk Station (Line 3).