There are 5 palaces in Seoul. Changgyeonggung Palace is the third one I’ve visited. I had seen part of Changgyeonggung Palace from my tour of the secret garden but wasn’t expecting to make it over any time soon. What I had spotted from the tour was the Daeonsil. A small but beautiful green house.
I was at Changgyeonggung Palace mostly for the cherry blossoms and other flowering trees as a cinematographer. I was there to help Nathalie film for her channels with the goal to get enough B-roll footage for 5 of her videos. Despite going to art school I keep getting surprised by the amount of filming I’ve been doing. Hanging out with all the film and journalism majors must have rubbed off a little. Though I suppose it’s also bound to happen when your friends are youtubers.
It was in general a busy day. Running around from spot to spot, waiting for people to leave and get out of shots, taking tons of photos to be used for promotional purposes. There were a ton of couples dressed in hanbok being followed around by photographers for what I can only assume were engagement photos. It was really beautiful but that also meant there was a ton of people all trying to do similar things. It all managed to work out though and towards the end we popped into the green house and I just loved all the plants, little ponds, and bonsai. There were these little gardens set up along the edge of the green house and one had tiny fish swimming around in it. The entire space was just peaceful and gorgeous, but also packed with other visitors and photographers. The palace grounds in itself was peaceful too. The grounds having been where a botanical garden and zoo were housed during the Japanese colonial rule. All of which have been moved.
Changgyeonggung Palace was built in 1484 for some of the queens and like most of the palaces ended up destroyed and rebuilt. When the Japanese occupied Korea they turned the palace into a park. It’s a big space with lots of grounds and nice to walk around, especially when things are in bloom. Plus it’s cheap to visit at only 1,000 won.
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