Changgyeonggung from Honghwamun to Myeongjeongjeon: an East-facing Gate and a Single Roof

830 metres from Hyehwa Station, Exit 4

From Exit 4 of Hyehwa Station (Line 4) to Honghwamun, the main gate of Changgyeonggung, the map route is 830 m, about 11 minutes (TMAP pedestrian route calculation; the end point is the map’s point for Honghwamun).

By a map app’s walking route, it is 830 m, about 11 minutes, from Exit 4 of Hyehwa Station on Line 4 to Honghwamun, the main gate of Changgyeonggung. The end point is the single spot the map uses for Honghwamun. The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center puts it at a 12-minute walk from the same exit: 300 m straight towards Sungkyunkwan University, then another 300 m straight towards Changgyeonggung and Jongno. It also notes that the Changgyeonggung car park is temporarily closed until 31 December 2026. Find on a map

A weekday, just before nine in the morning. Maya walks among people on their way to work. Following the traffic noise of the main road, she comes to a tiled wall and a gate. On screen, palaces always started inside the gate. Today Maya starts outside it.

The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center notes that, unlike the other palaces, which face south, Changgyeonggung has its main gate and throne hall facing east. The Korea Heritage Service goes a step further: it calls it the only Joseon palace built facing east. In front of the gate, Maya turns round once. The morning sun is behind her. She buys a ticket: 1,000 won for an adult.

Honghwamun, a main gate three bays wide

Korea Heritage Service, Treasure “Honghwamun Gate of Changgyeonggung Palace”: the palace’s main gate, built in 1484 (15th year of King Seongjong), burned in the Imjin War and rebuilt in 1616 (8th year of Gwanghaegun), and repaired several times since. It is a two-storey building, three bays wide and two deep, facing east, under a hipped roof that looks like a trapezoid from the front. Each bay of the lower storey has a pair of doors to pass through; the upper storey has a wooden floor and small plank doors in its front and back walls. The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center adds that, while Donhwamun, the main gate of Changdeokgung in the same Eastern Palace, is five bays wide, Honghwamun was built smaller, at three bays, and that King Jeongjo is said to have handed out rice to poor people outside Honghwamun in 1795 to mark the 60th birthday of his mother, Lady Hyegyeong.

According to the Korea Heritage Service, Honghwamun is the main gate of Changgyeonggung, built in 1484, the 15th year of King Seongjong. It burned in the Imjin War, was rebuilt in 1616 and has been repaired several times since. It is a two-storey gate, three bays wide and two deep, and from the front its roof looks like a trapezoid. Find on a map

Maya counts the bays. One, two, three. The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center explains that Donhwamun, the main gate of Changdeokgung in the same Eastern Palace, is five bays wide, while Honghwamun was built smaller, at three. Each bay of the lower storey has a pair of doors to walk through; the upper storey has a wooden floor and small plank doors in its front and back walls. Maya looks up at the small doors above. Morning light falls on the front of the gate.

The same page tells a story. In 1795, it says, King Jeongjo handed out rice to poor people outside Honghwamun to mark the 60th birthday of his mother, Lady Hyegyeong. Maya looks back at the street she has just walked in from. The palace gates on screen were always gates you went in through. The gate in this story is one that gave something out.

Okcheongyo, the first bridge inside the gate

Korea Heritage Service, Treasure “Okcheongyo Bridge of Changgyeonggung Palace”: just inside the main gate, Honghwamun, this stone bridge crosses the Okryucheon, which flows from north to south. It joins two semicircular arches. Where the two arches meet, a goblin face is carved, broad at the brow and narrow at the chin, and the deck rises very slightly in the middle like a rainbow. The bridge was made wide enough for the guards who flanked the king’s procession, with railings on both sides and stone animals carved on the posts at each end. It is thought to date from 1483, when the palace was being built. The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center writes that auspicious water from Eungbongsan runs past Jondeokjeong in Changdeokgung and through Chundangji in the north of Changgyeonggung to Okcheongyo and on southwards, that the goblin face was meant to drive away spirits coming in along the water and so protect the palace, and that among the palace bridges that remain, Okcheongyo keeps its original form well.

Through the gate is a stone bridge. The Korea Heritage Service says that once you enter Honghwamun, Okcheongyo crosses the Okryucheon, which flows from north to south. It is made of two semicircular arches joined together, and is thought to date from around 1483, when the palace was being built. The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center describes it as one of the palace bridges that keep their original form well. Find on a map

Where the two arches meet, a face is carved: a goblin, broad at the brow and narrow at the chin. The Center explains that it was meant to drive away spirits coming in along the water and so protect the palace. Maya leans over by the railing to find it. On the posts at each end of the bridge sit stone animals, carved round.

The deck rises very slightly in the middle, like a rainbow. The Korea Heritage Service notes that the bridge was made wide enough for the guards who flanked the king’s procession. The water the Center describes comes from further away: from Eungbongsan, past Jondeokjeong in Changdeokgung and through Chundangji in the north of Changgyeonggung, to this bridge and on south. A 2023 article by a Seoul citizen reporter, though, said that this water was damp rather than flowing. Maya writes down what she sees below in one line, without numbers: “Between the stones, a path for water.”

Under Myeongjeongmun, to a throne hall with a single roof

Korea Heritage Service, National Treasure “Myeongjeongjeon Hall of Changgyeonggung Palace”: the palace’s throne hall, where officials offered New Year greetings to the king, great state occasions were held and foreign envoys were received. Built in 1484 and burned in the Imjin War, it was rebuilt in 1616. It is a single-storey building, five bays wide and three deep — small for a throne hall, the description says, next to Geunjeongjeon at Gyeongbokgung and Injeongjeon at Changdeokgung, which were built large on two storeys. It has a hip-and-gable roof, and the bracket work above the columns is described as sturdy and well balanced, showing the style of early Joseon. Inside, the floor is laid with brick and behind the king’s seat stands a screen of the sun, the moon and five peaks; in front of the steps are 24 rank stones. Munjeongjeon, to the south of Myeongjeongjeon, and the surrounding corridors were mostly restored in a three-year project from 1983.

Across the bridge is the second gate, Myeongjeongmun. The 2023 article places Okcheongyo, the palace’s bridge over its inner stream, between Honghwamun and Myeongjeongmun. According to the Korea Heritage Service, Myeongjeongmun is three bays wide and two deep, and inside, most of the ceiling is left open so the roof timbers show. Maya stops under the gate for a moment and looks up at the rafters. Parts of the corridors around it, to the south and north, were pulled down under Japanese rule and restored in 1986. Find on a map

Through the gate is Myeongjeongjeon. The Korea Heritage Service describes it as a single-storey building, five bays wide and three deep — small for a throne hall, next to Geunjeongjeon at Gyeongbokgung and Injeongjeon at Changdeokgung, which were built large on two storeys. Maya writes in her notebook: “Geunjeongjeon, two roofs. Myeongjeongjeon, one.”

According to the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center, Myeongjeongjeon was where great state occasions took place: coronations, officials’ formal greetings, state examinations and court banquets. It was built in 1484, burned in the Imjin War and rebuilt in 1616, and that building is the oldest throne hall in the palaces today. Maya leaves the morning’s question mark where it is and writes beside it: “A single roof, standing since 1616.”

The Korea Heritage Service writes that the floor inside is laid with brick, and that behind the king’s seat stands a screen painted with the sun, the moon and five peaks. In front of the steps are 24 rank stones. At Geunjeongjeon, Maya stood behind one of the rows of rank stones. Today she stays at the edge of the courtyard and takes her time watching the single roof in the morning light.

Late afternoon, back on the same axis

Royal Palaces and Tombs Center opening hours: at a set evening time, visitors in the daytime areas of Changgyeonggung must move to the night-opening areas. The time is 17:30 in November–January and February, 18:00 in March–May and September–October, and 18:30 in June–August. The night-opening areas are Honghwamun, Myeongjeongjeon, Tongmyeongjeon, Chundangji and the Grand Greenhouse.

During the day Maya walked north, towards the ponds and the glasshouse. That part of the story is in Lulu’s piece. Around five in the afternoon she comes back down to Myeongjeongjeon. The sun that lit the front in the morning has moved round behind the roof. The building faces east, so late-afternoon light comes from behind the hall. Find on a map

According to the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center’s opening hours, at a set evening time anyone in the daytime areas of Changgyeonggung has to move into the night-opening areas, and in September and October that time is 6 p.m. The night-opening areas named include Honghwamun and Myeongjeongjeon. The start and the end of the axis Maya walked this morning are both on that list. Changgyeonggung is open until 9 p.m., with last entry at 8 p.m.

With Myeongjeongmun behind her, Maya walks slowly out towards Honghwamun. This morning she came in facing the gate; now she sees the same gate in light coming from behind her. Her notebook still has the order she came in by: gate, bridge, gate, hall.

Before she leaves through Honghwamun, Maya writes an answer next to the morning’s question mark: “The small throne hall is the oldest. A palace that faces east is bright at the front in the morning, and in the late afternoon the light comes from behind the roof.” The throne halls on screen always had double roofs. The one Maya picked today has a single roof.

Maya has one quiet suggestion. If you go to Changgyeonggung, go in through Honghwamun, look for the goblin face on Okcheongyo, and look up at the ceiling once as you pass under Myeongjeongmun. If you’re curious about the ponds and the glasshouse in the north, Lulu’s piece in this issue has already turned that evening into a timetable.

(※ This article includes staged images created with AI.)