Changdeokgung Secret Garden: read inside a royal library — until 18 October

Walk through the rear garden of Changdeokgung — Huwon, usually called the Secret Garden in English — and you pass Yeongyeongdang, a compound built like a scholar-official's house, without the painted decoration of the palace halls. Attached to the east side of its men's quarters is a library, Seonhyangjae, which visitors normally see only from the yard. From 7 to 18 October 2026 the Changdeokgung Palace Management Office opens its interior as a reading room. There is one thing to do inside: sit down with a book.

What is Seonhyangjae?

The name means 'good fragrance', which the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center reads as 'the fragrance of books'. The Korea Heritage Service describes it as the royal library where books were kept and read. Yeongyeongdang itself is said to have been built around 1827–1828 by Crown Prince Hyomyeong to hold a banquet for King Sunjo and Queen Sunwon, and it is a rare case of a private-house layout set inside a palace; Seonhyangjae was its study.

The event lasts only twelve days, and the Secret Garden admits visitors in timed slots, so not many people will get to sit inside. Looking in from the doorway, as you normally would, and sitting on the floor looking out at the garden are quite different experiences.

What can you do inside?

• Take any of the humanities and palace-history books on the shelves and read; they are in Korean.
• Bring your own book and read that instead.
• Children aged 12 and under get a kit for decorating their own bookmark with stickers. The press release says 100 a day, first come; the center's event page says only 'first come'.

On Monday 12 October at 13:30 there is a talk with the novelist Eun Hee-kyung, co-hosted with Jeongdok Public Library of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. It is billed for around 50 leading members of the office's citizen reading group, and nothing says it is open to other visitors.

How do you get Secret Garden tickets?

Seonhyangjae is inside the Secret Garden, so without a Secret Garden ticket you cannot get to it, and the Secret Garden ticket must be bought together with a ticket for the main palace. Prices are below (from the center's admission fee page).

• Online: from 10 a.m. six days before the visit (not counting the visit day) until the day before, first come.
• At the gate: from 9 a.m. on the day, first come.
• Slots: Korean-language entry every hour on the hour from 10:00 to 16:00 (March–October); English-language entry at 10:30, 11:30, 14:30 and 15:30 (March–November). Each slot takes 100 people, 50 online and 50 at the gate.
• The center warns that in April–May and October–November both the online and gate tickets sell out very quickly. Secure your slot first, then fit the reading room around it.
• There is no group discount for the Secret Garden.

What to look for in the building

Where the rest of Yeongyeongdang looks like a Joseon gentleman's house, Seonhyangjae has side walls of Qing-style brick, which gives it a foreign air. Across its front hangs an awning to block the afternoon sun from the west; sitting inside, you see why it was needed. On the slope behind it are terraced flower beds, and at the top stands the small pavilion Nongsujeong.

Yeongyeongdang was designated a Treasure in 2012. By mid-October the trees around the men's and women's quarters turn red, and the view out of Seonhyangjae's doors is part of the visit.

When is the best time to go?

The event ends on Sunday 18 October. A weekday morning slot finds the room quieter; in the afternoon you can watch the western sun catch on the awning. Changdeokgung is open 09:00–18:00 in September and October (last entry 17:00), so leave time to see the main palace halls after the garden.

Getting there and what to expect without Korean

Changdeokgung's main gate, Donhwamun, is about a five-minute walk from exit 3 of Anguk Station on subway Line 3. The Secret Garden entrance is inside the palace grounds, so buy both tickets at the main ticket office or online and allow ten minutes to walk to the garden gate before your slot. The English-language entry slots (10:30, 11:30, 14:30 and 15:30) are run for English-speaking visitors, so pick one of those if you want the route explained in English. The online booking site has an English mode, but we could not confirm whether it accepts a foreign phone number or card; if it does not, the 50 places per slot sold at the gate from 9 a.m. need nothing but payment. The reading room itself has no Korean-language step: walk in, sit down, read your own book.