An Afternoon Spent At Gyeongbokgung Palace

I have visited Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) three times in the course of my time in Korea.  The first time as an uninformed tourist, the second time as a resident hoping to immerse myself in more of the local culture, and the last time as someone who had grown quite fond of Korean history and culture. 

In reading up on Gyeongbokgung prior to my first trip to Korea, I knew that this was a very important palace from the Joseon era, but I had no idea of its historical significance as the royal palace of the most important era of Korean history.  Built a mere 600 years ago, the massive grounds is home to 7700 rooms and over 500 buildings.  Aside from the palace, the National Palace Museum of Korea and the National Folk Museum are both located within the complex as well. 

Starting from the metro station, you are soon reminded that you are going to be visiting one of Korea’s most important sites. 

As I exited the metro station, I was immediately at the entrance of the palace.  I was initially shocked to see that the entrance area was lined with sand and gravel, but I later came to realize that this is very common in Korea.  In fact, all of the schools had sand in place of a field. 

As expected of historical palaces, I was met with building after building of intricately designed columns and walls, hoisting up beautifully decorated roofs.  As I previously mentioned, almost the entire palace grounds was lined with sand and this was very surprising to me because I knew this was the main royal palace.  I kept thinking about all of the Japanese and Chinese gardens and palaces I’d seen before and thought it would be very similar in that the palace would be lined with lakes, gardens, trees and flowers.  There was one part of the grounds where a little moat surrounded an inner temple, but aside from that, it was just buildings and sand and exuded more of a modest feeling compared to the wealthier displays of other Asian palaces. 

One thing I love about Korea is that the admission fees to major sites is so minimal that anyone can afford to go in and absorb themselves in some culture.  A site such as this one could easily have an admission fee of $10-15 at home, but here, it costs a mere ₩3000, which was about $2.40CAD.  Also, I found out later on that if you wear a hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) into the palace, you are actually granted complimentary admission.

For more photos, please see my Photo Gallery of Gyeongbokgung.

Gyeongbokgung Palace
Address: 161 Sajik-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Phone:+82 2-3700-3900