In March this year I just celebrated my 10 year anniversary of living in Korea but much to my surprise I have yet never heard of Unhyeongung as I came across its beautiful picture online. I learned about the place from scrolling through hundreds of instagram posts looking for a fine spot to admire spring flowers that were about to boast out their beauty during this time of year. It was an image of a Korean lady sitting back on a porch of a beautiful hanok house with a bunch of fluffy white plum blossoms manifesting above the wall not very far before the woman, that captured my attention entirely. She narrated her picture that ‘Unhyeongung is fully being under the spring charm’ and she also geotagged it with ‘운현궁’. This was more than enough for me to make a plan of peeking at Unhyeongung on that very weekend.
Unhyeongung can be reached by walking less than 5 minutes from exit number 4 of Anguk station, Seoul subway line 3. The neighborhood is well known to be the location for Seoul’s major landmarks, Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung, and Gyeonghuigung that most visitors are here for. This can be the answer to why I had not heard of Unhyeongung sooner. It got overshadowed by the fame of the grand palaces. The ‘gung’ in its name means palace in Korean. Unhyeongung is one of Seoul’s smaller palaces that (I learned from the pamphlet that) Emperor Gojong, the last king of Joseon, used to stay briefly before his coronation. And it is a former Korean royal residence of the king’s biological father. The complex was sold to the Seoul government after it had been taken and later returned by the Japanese colonial rule. Since then it has undergone many renovations and is now open to the public as a museum free of charge.
My boyfriend and I arrived at the premises late in the morning on Sunday and we almost had the place to ourselves. It was much less crowded compared to what was happening in Changdeokgung at the time. I saw a video online showing that hundreds of people had visited the grand palace to see the blooming plum blossoms. If you love a combination of the spring blossoms and quaint dark colored tiles of Korean traditional structure, put Unhyeongung on your list and make sure that you visit it sometimes in late March.
Gallery: Unhyeongung in Spring
Access
More info about Unmyeongung Address: 464 Samil-daero, Unni-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul Hours: 9AM-7PM, closed on Monday Telephone: +82-2-766-9090 Entrance Fee: Free of charge Naver map: 서울 종로구 삼일대로 464 운현궁 http://naver.me/5rshydiL
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