Seoul in a Day: Gyeongbokgung to Dongdaemun, 4.1 km on Foot

Gyeongbokgung, then east through Bukchon, Ikseon-dong and Gwangjang Market to Dongdaemun. The six stops sit on one west-to-east line with no doubling back, and the legs add up to 4.1 km in a straight line — 1,093 / 1,103 / 889 / 1,021 m, with the last one on the same block.

Check before you go

• 🚫Not on a Tuesday

  Gyeongbokgung, the first stop, is closed every Tuesday. Move the day or swap in another palace.

• ⏰Bukchon: 10:00–17:00 only

  The lanes around Bukchon-ro 11-gil are a restricted zone with legally set visiting hours. This day's walk falls inside them.

• 🗓️On a Sunday half the market is shut

  Gwangjang's general stalls take Sunday off and the food alley does not. Do not drop the stop — change what you go there to see.

• 🎫You pay once, at the first stop

  Only Gyeongbokgung sells a ticket. Bukchon and Ikseon-dong are public streets, and neither the market nor DDP charges to walk in.

This route used to have an empty afternoon

The previous version of this article had three stops — the palace, Bukchon, and the Dongdaemun night market. Between the end of the Bukchon walk and the start of the market, four hours and 35 minutes went by with nothing said about them, and neither lunch nor dinner appeared anywhere in the day. The claim that the three places are close together was true; the itinerary just did not describe half of the day.

Three stops now stand in that gap: Ikseon-dong, Gwangjang Market and DDP. All three sit on the straight line between Bukchon and Dongdaemun, so they are not detours added to fill time — they are what was already on the way.

Hanok appears twice here, and it is not the same thing twice

11:30–13:00 and 13:25–14:45 are hard to tell apart in a photograph. Both are narrow lanes under tiled roofs. They are close to opposites.

• Bukchon is somewhere people live. That is why part of it has legally restricted visiting hours. There is no house you can go inside.
• Ikseon-dong is a commercial district. The Seoul Hanok Portal describes it as 「음식점과 서비스업, 도·소매업 상가 330여개(2018년 기준)가 밀집한 상업지역」 — a commercial area of some 330 restaurants, service businesses and shops — and as 「도심 속 한옥 섬」, an island of hanok in the middle of the city, made of converted houses. Here you go inside a hanok and eat in it.

So this day puts them back to back on purpose. Visit one and "Seoul's hanok lanes" look like a single thing; visit both in an afternoon and it is obvious on the spot that the same roofline covers two completely different arrangements.

Gyeongbokgung's last admission moves with the season

Putting the palace first is not only about crowds. The last admission time changes through the year — 16:00 in January, February, November and December; 17:00 from March to May and September to October; 17:30 from June to August. Push the palace into the afternoon in winter and you can arrive after the gate has stopped selling.

The opening time does not move with the season, so putting it in the morning as this route does means the order works in any month.

DDP and the Dongdaemun night market are two different places

The previous version of this article wrote the last stop as "Dongdaemun night market (around DDP)", as though it were one thing. They share a neighbourhood and that is all.

• DDP is an exhibition and design venue, open 10:00 to 20:00. It closes on 1 January, Seollal and Chuseok, and DDP itself notes that individual spaces may run different hours depending on what is programmed in them.
• The night market is the wholesale and retail halls around it, which start in the evening and run into the small hours.

This route therefore splits them into two separate stops. The hour DDP shuts is roughly the hour the malls fill up, so one hands over to the other.

Getting between stops

Every leg here is walkable. After 11:30–13:00 the subway may be quicker, and Jongno 3-ga is where Lines 1, 3 and 5 meet, so it connects in most directions. For DDP, Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station exits 1 and 2 are closest (Lines 2, 4 and 5).

Double-check transfer corridors and any temporary construction notices in a transit app before you go, since station work can change routes without much notice.

Where this route continues

• 

  Changdeokgung Palace

  The palace to swap in when Tuesday rules this day out. It is next to Bukchon, so the order barely changes.

• 

  Gwangjang Market Food Alley

  The food alley inside Gwangjang Market — the half that stays open on the Sunday the stalls do not.

• 

  Jongmyo Shrine

  It sits between Ikseon-dong and the market. How you are admitted depends on the day of the week, which is why this route leaves it out.