Changdeokgung Secret Garden: Booking, Times and What Is Closed

Changdeokgung is the only one of Seoul‘s four palaces on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and it is the only one where a large part of the grounds is behind a timed ticket. If you have already done Gyeongbokgung, expect a different set of rules here.

1. You buy two tickets, not one

One ticket does not cover Changdeokgung. The grounds split in two, and each half is sold separately.

The official price page carries a line that trips people up: a garden ticket must be bought together with a buildings ticket. There is no garden-only option. An adult aged 19 to 64 therefore pays 3,000 plus 5,000, so 8,000 won to see both.

Why only the garden is capped

The stated reason is heritage and ecological protection. The garden is woodland, ponds and pavilions joined by earth paths and slopes, and crowds damage the ground and the planting. So the number entering at one time is held at 100.

Do you have to follow the guide once inside?

No. Once your group is admitted you can either follow the guide or walk the open sections on your own. Only the entry time is fixed. Turn up after your slot has started and you are neither admitted nor refunded.

2. The garden runs on fixed entry times

Everyone gathers at the garden entrance📍Map and goes in together. The official notice gives the numbers.

That 15 minutes is the number people miss. Enter at Donhwamun, look at Injeongjeon and Huijeongdang, then walk up to the garden entrance and you have spent close to twenty minutes on foot. The booking site puts the hard limit at 15 minutes before the slot, through the main gate at Donhwamun. For a 10am slot, aim to be inside by 9:30.

Half of every slot is sold on the day

A sold-out online listing does not mean you are locked out. Fifty places per slot go on sale at the ticket office from 9am. The official notice does add a warning: in April, May, October and November both the online and the same-day tickets sell out very quickly. In those months, be at the ticket office when the gate opens at 9am.

The last slot moves with the sunset

The official wording is that the final garden entry time may change according to sunset. When the days are short the 4pm slot simply does not appear. If you want a late slot, check that the time is actually listed on the booking screen before you plan around it.

3. Your language decides which slots you can take

Garden slots are assigned by language, and the non-Korean ones are limited to particular days.

Note the season limit on the English slots. From December to February there is no English garden talk at all. The Korean 4pm slot is also March to October only.

The rule cuts one way

The official notice says Korean nationals cannot enter or join the guided walk during foreign-language garden slots, and that a Korean national accompanying a foreign visitor may join, up to two people.

Two things follow from that. English slots hold a smaller and quieter group, because the domestic demand that fills the Korean slots cannot go there. And if a Korean friend is coming with you, they are allowed in on your ticket, but only two of them.

You can take a Korean slot if you want

The restriction runs in one direction only. A foreign visitor is not barred from a Korean-language slot. Since you can choose to walk the open sections alone rather than follow the guide, a Korean slot is a real option in winter, when no English slot exists, or on a day when the English times do not fit. You get the garden, just not the commentary.

The buildings have free talks too, with no booking

They start in front of the guard post opposite Injeongmun and run about 50 minutes.

They leave on time, run in the rain, and are not open to groups of very young children.

4. Booking opens at 10am, six days ahead

The first thing to get right is where you book. You do not pay on the palace website. The heritage service reservation page hands you over to a separate ticketing platform, and a lot of older guidance still points at the address the culture ministry used before the agency was reorganised.

The rules

Cancellation is priced by the clock

A garden booking does not include the buildings

The reservation page states plainly that a buildings ticket must also be booked. This is where people end up queueing at the window after they thought they were done. The exception: anyone entitled to free or discounted buildings entry, and anyone holding a combined palace ticket, skips that booking and just brings proof.

Free entry is refunded, not deducted

There is no free or discounted option on the garden booking screen. The official instruction is to book at full price and then show your proof at the gate no later than 15 minutes before entry to be refunded. That is an extra step on the day, so arrive early.

5. What you actually pay, by age and nationality

The official table reads as follows.

Two of those lines rarely make it into English guides. Visitors aged 65 and over pay full price for the garden even though the buildings are free to them; the senior row exists but the amount is identical to the adult one. And the garden costs 2,500 won for anyone aged 7 to 18, not the 5,000 you will see quoted as a flat figure.

The total in your hand

The free-entry age is not the same for everyone. Foreign visitors get in free up to 18; Korean nationals up to 24. Six years of difference, decided by passport.

Local residents pay half

Residents of the district a palace sits in get 50% off with ID. For Changdeokgung that means Jongno-gu. Discounts do not stack, so you cannot put the 50% on top of a group rate.

6. Free entry covers 22 categories at the buildings, three at the garden

The heritage service publishes a long free-entry list. Counted as printed, it runs to 22 categories: under-24 and over-65 Korean nationals, under-18 and over-65 foreign visitors, parents holding a multi-child card, expectant mothers and one companion, state guests and diplomatic missions, wounded veterans in state care, people on official business and anyone wearing hanbok, schoolteachers leading pupils, registered disabled visitors and one carer, independence patriots, national merit recipients, veterans compensation recipients, May 18 and special-mission and combat veterans, defoliant-related patients, licensed tourist interpreters and cultural guides leading a group, recognised filial-duty honourees, basic livelihood recipients, near-poverty households, military service honour card holders and serving soldiers in uniform, holders and trainers of national intangible heritage, heritage committee members, and anyone else the site director admits.

The garden runs its own, much shorter list

Lower down the same page: free garden entry applies to children aged 6 and under, Korean national merit recipients, and Korean registered disabled visitors. That is the whole list.

The veteran and disability waivers are written as Korean nationals only. For a foreign visitor there is exactly one route to a free garden ticket, and it is being 6 or under.

Culture Day does not include the garden either

Palaces open free on the last Wednesday of each month. The official line adds a bracket: the Changdeokgung rear garden is excluded. On that day the buildings cost nothing, cannot be pre-booked because they are free, and the garden still costs 5,000 won.

7. None of the multi-visit tickets include the garden

Beyond single admission there are several passes sold at the palaces themselves.

The combined ticket is the one worth doing the arithmetic on. Bought separately, Gyeongbokgung 3,000, Changdeokgung 3,000, Deoksugung 1,000, Changgyeonggung 1,000 and Jongmyo 1,000 come to 9,000 won, so the 6,000 won ticket saves 3,000. Buy it at any of the four palace ticket offices or at Jongmyo. Refunds only at the palace that sold it, and none at all once a section has been torn off.

It does not get you into the garden. The ticket’s own notes tell you to book the garden six days ahead or buy it on the day. What it does do is remove the separate buildings booking: show the combined ticket at the gate and buy only the garden ticket on top.

8. Ongnyucheon is closed and the route is shorter than you have read

Almost every description of the garden walk says the same thing: Buyongji, then Aeryeonji, Yeongyeongdang and Gwallamji, finishing at Ongnyucheon at the far end. Ninety minutes, about 2.5 kilometres.

That is not the current route. The official guided-tour page carries this note:

The same website’s own course map still numbers Ongnyucheon as stop 14. The map and the tour notice disagree with each other. The tour notice is the operative one, and the drop from 90 minutes to 70 is the evidence for it.

What Ongnyucheon is

A wooded hollow at the northern, deepest end of the garden. In 1636 King Injo had the rock face cut and a channel carved across the top of it to make a small waterfall. The pavilions Soyojeong, Taegeukjeong, Cheonguijeong and Nongsanjeong stand around it. It is the furthest point in the garden, which is most of why it takes so long to include.

It also drops out in extreme weather

Repairs aside, Ongnyucheon was already seasonal. In deep cold from December to February and in the heat of July and August the route is shortened for visitor safety, which brings it to 70 minutes and leaves Ongnyucheon out.

So the window for seeing it was spring and autumn only even before the current closure. Reopening is given as “until further notice”, with no date attached.

9. What the garden walk actually shows you

The official course lists five stops inside the garden. Four of them are open.

Buyongji and Juhamnu

Buyongji📍Map is a square pond of roughly a thousand square metres. Buyongjeong pavilion stands with its feet in the water on the south side; Juhamnu sits on the rise to the north. King Jeongjo built Juhamnu and the royal library Gyujanggak here on his accession in 1776. This is the first stop on every garden walk. Buyongjeong and Juhamnu are both designated Treasures.

Aeryeonji and Uiduhap

Over one low ridge from Buyongji is Aeryeonji📍Map. You reach it through Bullomun, a gate cut from a single block of stone. Aeryeonjeong pavilion stands at the north edge of the pond.

Gwallamji and its four pavilions

The densest cluster of pavilions in the garden. Gwallamjeong, Jondeokjeong, Seungjaejeong and Pyeomusa stand around a pond shaped roughly like the Korean peninsula. Gwallamjeong has a fan-shaped floor plan, unusual among palace pavilions. Jondeokjeong has a double roof.

Yeongyeongdang

Yeongyeongdang📍Map is a palace building modelled on a scholar-official’s house. Crown Prince Hyomyeong had it built in 1827 for a ceremony honouring his father, King Sunjo. It carries no painted decoration, which is why it does not look like the rest of the palace. Men’s and women’s quarters are separated around a wide courtyard. It is a designated Treasure.

10. The nine stops in the palace buildings

The official course lists nine points in the buildings area. No booking, no cap, no clock.

The walk runs from Donhwamun📍Map across Geumcheongyo bridge and through Jinseonmun into Injeongjeon📍Map, then past Seonjeongjeon, Huijeongdang and Daejojeon, and out at Nakseonjae📍Map.

Two in-depth walks, booked ahead

Both are suspended in the hottest weeks of summer, from late July to the end of August. They are run in Korean.

11. Twenty-five designated heritage items inside one palace

Search the national heritage register for items named after Changdeokgung and 25 come back. The palace itself is a Historic Site, and buildings, trees and paintings inside it are listed separately.

Only three of them are in the garden

Of the twelve Treasures, Buyongjeong, Juhamnu and Yeongyeongdang stand inside the rear garden. The other nine are in the buildings area. In other words the 3,000 won ticket gets you most of the designated heritage on the site, including the only National Treasure building.

Four of them are trees

The Natural Monuments are living: a juniper, a hardy kiwi vine, a mulberry, and a group of Chinese scholar trees. The scholar trees stand just inside Donhwamun, so you pass them on the buildings ticket without needing the garden.

The painted halls

All six Registered Heritage items are paintings hung inside the palace. When the residential quarter burned in 1917 and was rebuilt, leading painters of the day produced large-scale works for the new interiors. They sit indoors, out of reach on a general visit, and turn up instead in the booked Nakseonjae walk.

12. Hanbok gets you into the buildings free

Anyone in hanbok enters the palaces free. Note the limit: the buildings only. The garden is charged as normal. And the definition is stricter than most rental shops let on. The heritage service publishes a dedicated guideline.

It comes down to one test: a wrap-collar jeogori plus a separate bottom. The one-piece dresses and T-shirt tops that fill many rental racks fail on that point. Check the cut before you pay for the rental.

It applies to foreign visitors

The guideline’s own question and answer says the purpose is to popularise hanbok at home and abroad, so nationality is not considered. This is one of very few waivers where your passport does not matter.

The guideline also asks for hanbok suited to the setting and rules out excessive exposure.

13. The Moonlight Tour sells to foreigners on a different site

The Changdeokgung Moonlight Tour opens the palace after dark. You carry a paper lantern and walk with a guide. It runs in two seasons a year, Thursday to Sunday.

The route

Across Geumcheongyo bridge, past a floodlit Injeongjeon, then a daegeum flute recital at the Sangnyangjeong pavilion in the Nakseonjae compound. From there into the rear garden, where costumed performers reenact a royal procession at Buyongji and pose for photographs, and finally to Yeongyeongdang for a court music ensemble and traditional refreshments.

Foreigner-only nights

There are separate departures run in English, Chinese and Japanese. They run on four nights per season, and they are sold on Creatrip rather than the domestic ticketing site. They are first come, first served, not a ballot.

So the two audiences buy in completely different ways: a ballot for Korean residents, an open sale for foreign visitors, on separate websites. If a Korean friend wants to come with you, decide which of the two routes you are using before either of you applies.

Dates and application windows change every season. The heritage service and the Korea Heritage Agency post them, and there is a programme helpline on 1522-2295.

14. It closes on Mondays, not Tuesdays

Seoul’s palaces do not share a closing day, and this is a reliable way to waste a morning.

When a closing day falls on a public holiday the site opens anyway, and the following first non-holiday becomes the closing day instead. Worth checking if you are visiting at the end of a long weekend.

Hours change three times a year

Winter closing is an hour earlier, and the late garden slots shrink with it.

15. Getting there, and the gate through to Changgyeonggung

Changdeokgung📍Map is at 99 Yulgok-ro, Jongno-gu. The office number is 02-3668-2300.

Hamyangmun links the two palaces

Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung📍Map are joined by a gate called Hamyangmun. You can walk through in either direction. The two grounds were originally continuous, with no wall between them, and were known jointly as the East Palace.

• Buy a ticket at the Hamyangmun window before passing through.
• No re-entry. Cross into Changgyeonggung and you cannot come back.
• Hamyangmun closes at the same time as last admission to Changdeokgung.
• You cannot enter the Changdeokgung rear garden from Changgyeonggung. The gate connects to the buildings area only.

Changgyeonggung costs 1,000 won for an adult. It works well as the hour after a garden slot. Bear in mind that coming out of the garden puts you back at the north end, so allow walking time to reach Hamyangmun.

16. Prams, wheelchairs and what you cannot bring in

Access

From the heritage service’s own answers:

• The buildings area is mostly level with ramps on some sections, so prams and wheelchairs get around. Halls raised on a stone terrace cannot be approached closely.
• The rear garden mixes level ground with hills and has steep sections.

A garden slot moves as a group for 70 minutes and there is no easy way to drop out partway. If someone in your party is unsteady on slopes, the buildings on their own are a reasonable visit: 3,000 won buys a National Treasure hall and nine Treasures.

Not allowed through the gate

Article 6 of the palace visiting regulations lists them.

• Alcohol, and camping gear such as tents, mats and sun shelters, and cooking equipment
• Sports and play equipment, musical instruments, loudhailers
• Pets. Assistance dogs carrying the official tag are the exception
• Flammables and weapons

The entire grounds are no smoking. Packed food may only be eaten in designated spots, and eating elsewhere is grounds for being asked to leave. The picnic-on-the-lawn version of a palace visit is not on offer here.

17. Building the day around your slot

Fix the garden time and everything else falls into place. Here is a 10am slot.

Changdeokgung on its own is two and a half to three hours. Add Changgyeonggung and you have filled a morning.

Other slots

Pairing it with Gyeongbokgung is easy on foot, about 20 minutes between the two. But Gyeongbokgung closes on Tuesday and Changdeokgung on Monday, so both in one day means Wednesday to Sunday.

How to split several days across the city is set out in the Seoul itinerary. If you are adding other cities, start from the Korea travel guide.

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Images: Photographs via Wikimedia Commons: Bernard Gagnon (CC0), Sadopaul (CC BY-SA 4.0), Alain Seguin (CC BY-SA 3.0), Daderot (CC BY-SA 3.0).