The Cultural Heritage Administration opened up Seoul’s Changgyeonggung Palace for nighttime viewing last week. Lovely during the day, the palace is even lovelier at night, bathed in the soft glow of paper and silk lanterns. Busy I was Sunday, but I did have time to take a couple of shots.
You know, I don’t think that beard is real.
The main portal of the palace, Honghwamun Gate was rebuilt in 1616, not long after the end of the Imjin War.
The Okcheongyo Bridge was built in 1483. In accordance with feng shui, you’ll find stone bridges like this at the entrance of all of Seoul’s palaces.
The Myeongjeongmun Gate, meanwhile, probably dates from the palace’s post-Imjin War reconstruction in 1616.
Built in 1616, the Myeongjeongjeon Hall is the oldest palace main hall. It is also considerably smaller than that of Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung, and even more uniquely, it and its main courtyard face east rather than south. Unlike the other two palaces, Changdeokgung was never a main royal residence. It was, in fact, a detached palace built originally to house King Sejong’s father and, later, dowager queens. Combined with feng shui factors unique to the location, this explains its unusual eastward orientation.
Interestingly enough, the rest of the palace buildings outside the main courtyard face south.
Photo Note: To lower my shutter speed enough to capture the people, I cranked the ISO up to 800 and set the aperture as wide as I could. Frankly, I don’t think it looks that bad. I suppose it doesn’t do much good for noise or depth of field, though, so I’m open to suggestions.
In the read garden of Changgyeonggung you’ll find the Chundangji Pond. Originally a tiny pond, it was greatly enlarged in 1909 by the Japanese, who turned the palace into a zoo and arboretum, complete with a royal museum, Japanese-style gardens and Japanese-style buildings — to get a good idea of what we’re talking about, see the old photographs here.
Most of the Japanese elements were removed when the palace was restored in the 1980s, and the pond Koreanized. A couple of things remain, though, including the Victorian-style glasshouse (not open during this tour) and the stone pagoda (Treasures No. 1119) you can see in the second photo. Originally acquired for the Yi Royal Family Museum (established in 1911), the lamanist-style pagoda was purchased from a trader who brought it from Manchuria.
While I was running around, I ran into Greg Curley, who has posted his photos at his blog. Who I didn’t run into was Kim Sungjin, who was photographing the palace from above.
UPDATE: Also there was Im Chang-kyung, who apparently knows the same spot as Kim Sungjin.
MAP: Changgyeonggung Palace
View Changgyeonggung Palace in a larger map
Awesome photos for sure. I wish I could have made it out to enjoy the late night special. As to your concerns about noise and DOF, your photos may actually be a bit too bright. Most DSLRs have a tendency to try to expose night shots as brightly as they do day shots. I can’t see your EXIF data to see exactly what you did, but next time try dialing down the exposure compensation to somewhere between -1.0 and -2.0. If you’re in aperture priority mode that will force your shutter speed to be faster, allowing you to dial down the ISO, use a higher f-stop or some combination of both.
Thanks for the tip. In this case, oddly, the camera was underexposing because of the lanterns, so I intentionally overexposed. Perhaps too much.
Robert, I always enjoy your pics. Do you know if the palaces will still remain open at night, and until when?
Well, Changgyeonggung was open at night just for a couple of days, ending last Sunday. Deoksugung Palace, on the other hand, is usually open until 9pm:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/travelog/2010/07/deoksugung-at-night-and-in-the-rain/
I always thought that the people doing the re-enactments should be required to grow authentic beards.
Right, let them show some dedication to their art.
Nicely and beautifully captured photos!
I didn’t have a chance to left a comment at Flickr, but I’d like leave it here instead.
As always, thanks.
robert,
you used to include pictures of food and little known places to eat around the location. why no more?
I’ll try to get more food shots and restaurant info into future posts.
Wonderful pictures! Thanks for posting these. And, by the way, I’ve recommended your Seoul guidebook to several people. It’s the best thing out there on the city.
Thanks a lot, sir, both for the kind remarks about the photos and your recommendations of my guidebook!
Robert, your photographs and the post, with its links, are both amazing!
Very nice photo! I managed to see the palace during daytime, last week, when I was in Seoul.
Thanks again, Robert, for your amazing guide book. I had a long list of objectives to be seen (based on your book) but I think I need other trips to Seoul to cover all of them
I was able to go to Gyeongyu for 2 days, using that free shuttle bus for foreigners. It was great, especially Bulguska Temple.
I will blog about what I have seen and I hope more of my fellow citizens will go to South Korea.
I like your picture…so wonderfull…^^
Thanks!