Seoul’s hillside Bukchon Hanok Village sits between two royal palaces, its lanes of traditional Korean houses offering one of the most photogenic urban walks in northeast Asia. This seoul walking tour companion is paired with “SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA [4K] Bukchon Hanok Village — Walking Tour 2024,” which documents the preserved tile-roofed hanok houses, steep alley viewpoints, and the transition from the traditional village toward the Gyeongbokgung Palace precinct and the Insadong arts district.
About This Walking Tour
This 4K walking tour focuses on Bukchon Hanok Village — the hillside neighbourhood containing around 900 traditional Korean hanok houses located between Gyeongbokgung Palace and Changdeokgung Palace in Seoul’s Jongno district. The footage captures the characteristic grey-tiled rooflines cascading down narrow lanes, the famous viewpoint on Gahoe-dong slope where the village’s curvature is most pronounced, and the domestic scale of streets that have remained largely unchanged since the Joseon period.
The video provides a ground-level view of what makes Bukchon distinctive: the contrast between the intimate, human-scaled hanok lanes and the visible skyline of modern Seoul just beyond the ridge. The route also covers the Insadong area to the south — Seoul’s traditional arts and antiques street, lined with galleries, craft shops, and teahouses — and the approach to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the largest of Seoul’s five remaining Joseon-era palaces.
The walk from Bukchon to Gyeongbokgung covers roughly two kilometres and is manageable in an hour, though the hanok village’s lanes reward slower exploration.
Highlights of Bukchon and Gyeongbokgung
Bukchon Hanok Village is one of the few areas in Seoul where traditional hanok houses survive in significant numbers, as most of the city’s pre-modern residential fabric was demolished during rapid industrialisation from the 1960s onward. The village sits on a hillside between two of Seoul’s four UNESCO-listed palace complexes, and the famous viewpoint on the Gahoe-dong slope (sometimes called “Bukchon Viewpoint No. 2”) frames the roofline with a view toward Namsan Tower.
Gyeongbokgung Palace, built in 1395 as the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty, is Seoul’s largest palace complex and one of its most visited sites. The main throne hall, Geunjeongjeon, is the ceremonial centrepiece, and the palace grounds include the picturesque Gyeonghoeru Pavilion set on a pond. A ceremonial Changing of the Guard takes place at Gwanghwamun Gate, the palace’s main entrance, multiple times daily in period costume.
Jogyesa Temple, a short walk from Insadong, is the head temple of Korean Buddhism’s Jogye Order. Its courtyard contains 500-year-old white pine and pagoda trees, and its main hall dates to 1938. The temple is particularly striking during the lantern festival period before Buddha’s Birthday (usually in May).
A Brief History of Joseon Seoul
Seoul — then known as Hanyang — was established as the capital of the Joseon Dynasty in 1394, when King Taejo moved the court from Kaesong and built the five main palaces, city walls, and administrative structures within the basin between the Han River and the northern mountains. Gyeongbokgung was the primary palace for most of the dynasty’s existence, though it was largely destroyed during the Japanese invasions of 1592–1598 and remained unoccupied for nearly 300 years before reconstruction in the 1860s.
During the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), the colonial government systematically demolished or altered many of Seoul’s Joseon-era structures, placing the Japanese Government-General building directly in front of Gyeongbokgung’s main gate. That building was demolished in 1996 and the palace has been progressively restored since. Bukchon’s hanok houses largely survived because the area was outside the major zones of colonial and post-war development.
The Cheonggyecheon stream, which flows through central Seoul near Gyeongbokgung, was covered over in the 1950s to create an elevated highway, then restored in 2005 as an open waterway in a project widely cited as a model of urban ecological regeneration.
Practical Tips
Seoul Metro Line 3 (Orange Line) serves both Anguk Station (for Bukchon and Insadong) and Gyeongbokgung Station (for the palace). The South Korean currency is the won. Gyeongbokgung admission is 3,000 won; visitors wearing rented hanbok traditional dress enter free. The palace is closed on Tuesdays. Bukchon has noise restrictions in the residential alley sections; please keep voices low, especially on Gahoe-dong slope. Early morning (before 9am) gives the clearest photography conditions in the lanes.
Best Time to Visit
April brings cherry blossoms to the palace grounds and surrounding streets. October and November bring autumn foliage to the area around Changdeokgung’s Huwon Secret Garden. Winter snow transforms Bukchon’s rooflines dramatically, and several 4K winter tours of the village are available.
Watch & Explore More
Watch the full 4K hanok village walk above. For more Korean and Asian city walks, visit the @walkingtoursvideoscom channel. Related posts: Seoul’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza to Hongdae walk and Tokyo’s Asakusa to Ueno walk.