Things to Do in Korea: Nakseonjae & the Secret Garden

Note: This is part two of a two part series. Part one can be read here.

The tour of Changdeokgung Palace had so far covered the entrance gate, the royal throne room, the King’s office, the royal living quarters, and the King’s garage.

View looking towards the royal throne from near the King’s garage.

From the King’s garage the tour group then moved towards the Nakseonjae area of the palace:

The Nakseonjae area of the palace is easily identifiable because of its brown and white coloring:

This coloring is used because these buildings are not considered royal buildings. Only the buildings designated for royalty are painted with bright and vibrant colors. Nakseonjae was built by King Heonjong in 1847 for his concubine Kim Gyeongbin. It stands to reason that King Heonjong must not have been to infatuated with his wife considering he had this entire complex built for a concubine. Even the name Nakseonjae tends to indicate that the King preferred his concubine more than his wife because Nakseonjae literally means the “Mansion of Joy and Goodness”. This probably did not go over to well with his wife which might explain why the King died at age 22 only two years later in 1849.

Nakseonjae had been closed off to the public for decades because it had been used as the residence for the last remaining Korean princesses until 1989 when Princess Deokhye, the youngest daughter of King Gojang, the 26th king of the Joseon Dynasty passed away in 1989. Even after her death Nakseonjae didn’t open to the public until 2006:

I found the colors and design of Nakseonjae to be even better than the royal buildings which in my opinion are too lavish compared to the more naturally eye pleasing colors of Nakseonjae. The inside of the building is all in traditional Korean design:

After visiting Nakseonjae I can understand why the last remaining Korean princess chose to live there until he final days. It is a beautiful home fit for a princess.

From Nakseonjae the tour then moved on to the Biwon or Secret Garden area of the palace. The Secret Garden is where Chosun Dynasty Royalty came to relax, study, and write poems. The most notable feature of the garden is the beautiful lotus pond surrounded with little pavilions and a rock island in the middle of it:

The rock island is supposed to be symbolic of a Taoist hermit. It was easy to imagine a Chosun King sitting on this pavilion overlooking the pond writing poetry:

On the far side of the pond is the Juhamnu royal library:

Juhamnu literally means to “Gather the Universe” and that is what the library tried to do on the first floor by gathering tens of thousands of books and manuscripts. The second floor of the library served as a reading room.

On another side of the lotus pond is a building known as Yeonghwadang:

The Korean government operated a examination system known as Gwageojedo in Korean that determined if people were qualified or not to hold various government offices. The exam was open to the Yangban class too take and required years diligent study to pass. Yeonghwadang is where the government officials sat to administer the test, known as a Jeonsi, to those seeking to pass it. This historic precedent for the importance of education helps explains the drive by Korean parents to this day to ensure their children are properly educated.

From the lotus pond the tour continued to follow a path deeper into the Secret Garden. Along the path was a number of these beautifully colored trees:

Even though it was summer time the trees still had this fantastic colors. These trees leaves remain this color all year long until it sheds its leaves in the winter. Along the trail I also noticed some other random buildings. These buildings housed people that worked in the palace and thus were only allowed to have their houses painted in peasant colors:

The trail continued and we eventually passed underneath a gate that legend claims gives those who pass it everlasting life:

However, the tour guide said it does not work very well because the average age of a Korean King at the time of his death was 38 years old. Pass the gate was more of the brightly colored trees:

The brightly colored trees surrounded another little lotus pond known as Aeryeonji:

Once again it was easy to imagine a Chosun King sitting on this pavilion drinking tea and writing poetry. The path continued pass the lotus pond and into the thickly forested area of the Secret Garden:

Some of the trees in the Secret Garden are hundreds of years old. For example this Chinese juniper is 750 years old:

The tree was planted because Chinese juniper wood was used as incense for royal ancestral rituals. The tour ends shortly after passing the Chinese juniper tree. Overall, I highly recommend a visit the palace, but make sure you budget enough time because the tour takes about 2.5 hours and some of the people in the tour group were quite surprised by its length. Also there is a lot of walking which also took its toll on some people in the group that were older or out of shape. Despite this the palace is still a worthy day trip in Seoul in order to learn little bit about Korean history and architecture plus having a chance to get some fresh air in the heavily forested Secret Garden, which is not something that easy to do in downtown Seoul.