Yes, this is a post about just another palace; Changdeokgung Palace to be precise but come on, can you really get tired of these beautiful palaces?
Changdeokgung Palace is a lot smaller than Gyeongbokgung palace but if I could choose between living in the smaller one or the big one, I’d choose the former. Especially because Changdeokgung Palace is smaller, the palace is actually more appealing to me. And if you were on the lookout for a Painting of the Sun, the Moon, and the Five Peaks… don’t worry, of course, you can also find that one here. Depending on what you prefer, a disadvantage or advantage is that you can only follow a certain path in Changdeokgung palace and there aren’t many buildings which you are allowed to enter.
Okay, it’s fair if you thought two palaces were enough but this one is different from the others. Changdeokgung Palace has a secret garden… but guess what? It’s no longer secret for us.
The name of the garden is alluring enough on its own, but they try to make it more alluring by offering guided tours. Actually, they only allow you to go in if you take the guided tour… Did I say they try to make it more alluring? Yeah, a guided tour makes it less appealing.
Up to 100 people can join one tour. Ina and I were lucky; our group existed out of 20 people only. As bad as the ‘guided tour’ sounded to me, it turned out to be okay. When we arrived at our first stop, our guide told us that if we weren’t interested in listening, we could start to walk around and take pictures. Needless to say, that is exactly what we did.
We even found another small door- and yes- I’m still 1.63 cms long.
If you stumbled upon this blog post because you are considering to visit the palace and secret garden yourself, I would advise you to arrive at the palace about 1 to 1,5 hour before the start of a tour. You can find the entrance of the secret garden in the back of the palace and the tour will lead you back to the entrance of the palace. Therefore, it is really convenient to view the entire palace before you take the tour of the secret garden. Unless, of course, you like to walk a few extra meters ;).
Visited on 25/06/2015