Changdeok-gung & Biwon

Our third day in a row of sightseeing, we headed into Seoul, Korea's capital and largest city. We've been to Seoul a number of times, and we've done some sightseeing, but mostly of the people-watching/exploring different parts of the city kind. This time, we went to one of the many palaces in Seoul. This was our first time visiting a Korean palace and, honestly, probably our last. Although I would definitely recommend going to visit a palace in Korea, one is probably enough (and if you only go to one, you should go to the one we went to, Changdeok-gung). Why? Well, for starters, all the palaces were built--or at least restored--during the Joseon Dynasty, just like the temples. The Joseon Dynasty has one basic color scheme--they apparently loved it very much, and decided to stick with it, thank you very much. But to me, it gets a little boring when building after building looks the same on the outside. Korean temples are often very ornate inside, but the palaces seem to have pretty plain walls (except for the Throne Room). Occasionally, there's some furniture, but most of the furniture has been moved to the National Museum in Seoul, so you can't really get a sense of what it would have looked like inside in its heyday, either.

Anyway, with all the said, I was very excited to go on our tour of Changdeok-gung (the name of the palace) and Biwon (the attached garden, which means "the Secret Garden"). It served as the royal palace and the seat of government for over 250 years (from 1610-1872), and is the best preserved of the royal palaces. A guided tour (which luckily is available in English) is required, and lasts for about 90 minutes.

The richly decorated Throne Room was quite beautiful and was certainly one of the highlights of the tour:

Below is a picture of a private entrance leading from the king's living quarters directly into the garden:


A more modern part of the palace:


The other highlight of the tour was the Secret Garden (and is the real reason why touring this palace should be preferred over touring one of the others). It's quite beautiful, even though it was still in winter when we went, so it wasn't at its best. The Korean garden style is very different than Western gardens or Japanese gardens. Everything is designed to look very natural, so that one feels at home in nature. Although there are many observation platforms in the garden, when walking through the garden, it should feel like one is walking through nature, not a planned garden. In one section of the garden is a Chinese juniper tree thought to be 1,000 years old.

My favorite part of the garden, however, is a beautiful pond with a small pavilion connected to it, and a center island:

Of course, this is a picture in winter, with ice instead of water, but even then, it is calm and peaceful and lovely. In spring, with the water flowing and flowers blossoming, it will be even more beautiful.

- Carissa