{"id":36303,"date":"2024-12-17T21:29:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=36303"},"modified":"2026-03-10T19:52:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:52:01","slug":"day-11-seoul-changdeokgung-palace-and-secret-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2024\/12\/17\/day-11-seoul-changdeokgung-palace-and-secret-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 11 @ Seoul – Changdeokgung Palace and Secret Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had another full day of exploration of Seoul on our own on Day 11, and this time, we headed to the general vicinity of Insadong to take a look at the several attractions there. We’d initially intended to visit the Buchok Hanok Village first thing in the morning. However, we’d also reserved admission tickets for us to visit the Changdeokgung Secret Garden<\/strong> at 10:30AM and we’d also set out for the day’s activities slightly later than planned. So, we ended up going to Changdeokgung Palace<\/strong> first to explore its grounds before heading to the start point of the guided tour for the Secret Garden. The palace was created in the 15th century as a secondary palace to the primary palace – Gyeongbokgung Palace.<\/p>\n

There is an admission fee to enter the palace grounds – 3,000 KRW for adults, which we paid – but also 1,500 KRW for children between the ages of 7 to 18 according to the web site. Oddly, we did not have to pay for our two kids. There is a cap on the number of visitors permitted into the Secret Garden at a time, and its separate admission costs a fair bit more: 5,000 KRW for adults and 2,500 KRW for kids. From the looks of it though, it seemed that visitors on weekdays were able to get tickets onsite for this admission. So, I reckon if you’re unable to reserve tickets online, you should just show up and try to get them onsite anyway. The English speaking tours seemed to be particularly well-subscribed, so your chances should be better before the crowds come in from late morning onwards.<\/p>\n

Once you’ve been admitted into the Secret Garden, you can either join in the tour, or explore the Garden on your own. We opted for the latter. The land area that the Secret Garden occupies is big, but unlike your typical Japanese garden, there is a lot of space for visitors so that it never feels crowded at all. Though likewise, if you’re used to the Japanese garden where every step poses a perfect framing opportunity for a stunning picture, the Secret Garden at Changdeokgung Palace isn’t anything like this – you can tell from the pictures below.<\/p>\n

Pictures!<\/p>\n

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Donhwamun Gate and entrance into the palace grounds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Injeongjeon Hall, and the main hall of the Palace. This hall is stationed at the center of the outer buildings of the palace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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From the Injeongjeon Hall and looking back at the gate. Huge courtyard area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pictures from this point below are of the Secret Garden:<\/p>\n

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Buyongji Pond, with Juhamnu Pavilion in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Juhamnu Pavilion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Yeonghwadang Pavilion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Trying to frame a picture of the Yeonghwadang Pavilion with the tree on the left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Gwallamjeong Pavilion across the Aeryeonji Pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Yeongyeongdang Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our visit was from 9:30AM to 11:30AM, and we spent almost two hours exploring the palace and Secret Garden. By the time we were leaving, many more visitors were arriving, so it was about the right time for us to head out to explore Buchok Hanok. Continued in the next post!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had another full day of exploration of Seoul on our own on Day 11, and this time, we headed to the general vicinity of Insadong to take a look at the several attractions there. We’d initially intended to visit<\/p>\n

Read More Day 11 @ Seoul – Changdeokgung Palace and Secret Garden<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[684],"class_list":["post-36303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-south-korea-2024","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/blog-2024-korea-day-11-20241217_094808.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36303"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38158,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36303\/revisions\/38158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}