Bukchon Hanok Village - Living Lanes Between Two Palaces

A stop on Seoul Palaces, Bukchon and Insadong, a free self-guided tour.

Bukchon means north village, and for centuries this hillside between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung was home to high officials and noble families close to the court. Most of the tile-roofed houses you see today, called hanok, went up from the 1920s onward, when developers such as Jeong Se-gwon divided old estates into rows of smaller traditional homes for a fast-growing city.

Here is the important part: this is a neighborhood, not a museum. About 6,000 people live here. Since 2025 the busiest stretch, the lane called Bukchon-ro 11-gil, has been a special zone that tourists may visit only during daytime hours, with fines for coming outside them. The rules can change, so check the current hours before you come.

Please walk quietly, keep your voice low and photograph the rooftops and the view rather than doors, windows or anyone's courtyard. Never open a gate or step inside. Look down the slope and you will see tiled roofs tumbling toward the towers of modern Seoul.

Getting here: Leave the palace grounds by the gate near the museum, cross Samcheong-ro, and follow the signs uphill into Bukchon to Bukchon-ro 11-gil, about 10 minutes away.

Did you know?: Visitors to Bukchon grew from about 30,000 in 2007 to roughly 6.4 million in 2024 - more than a thousand visitors for every resident.

Photo op: From the top of Bukchon-ro 11-gil, frame the lane of tiled roofs stepping down the hill with the city skyline beyond, staying on the public street and clear of residents' doors.

More on Wikipedia: Bukchon Hanok Village · Hanok · Changdeokgung

Bukchon Hanok Village - Living Lanes Between Two Palaces

Stops on this tour