Inside Cheong Wa Dae: Our Visit When Korea's Blue House Was Open to the Public
Yesterday, while watching the news about the Central Asian presidents visiting Korea, I saw a very familiar place on the screen: Cheong Wa Dae (청와대), Korea's famous Blue House.
Seeing official meetings taking place there immediately reminded me of our own visit a few years ago. I went back to the photographs we had taken that day and realized that our visit now feels a little different from how it felt at the time.
For decades, Cheong Wa Dae was closely associated with the Korean presidency. Most people knew its distinctive blue-tiled roofs from television news, official photographs and important national events. In 2022, after President Yoon Suk Yeol moved the presidential office away from the compound, Cheong Wa Dae was opened to the public. During that period, our family had the opportunity to visit.
At the time, I saw it mainly as a rare opportunity to enter a place that had previously been difficult for ordinary people to access. We walked through the grounds, entered the Main Building, saw rooms connected with presidential work and official receptions, and visited Yeongbingwan, the State Guest House.
Now, seeing Cheong Wa Dae appearing again in coverage of presidential meetings and diplomacy brought those memories back.
Entering a Place I Had Mostly Seen on Television
One of the photographs I took during our visit simply says, "Welcome to Cheong Wa Dae."
It seems like a simple welcome sign, but looking at it now, it represents an unusual period in the history of the compound. A place long associated with presidents, government officials and official guests had become somewhere ordinary people could enter and explore.
There were many visitors around us that day. People walked across the lawn, entered the buildings, stopped to read the information panels and took photographs in spaces they had previously known mainly through television.
Cheong Wa Dae Is More Than One Blue Building
Before visiting, it was easy to think of Cheong Wa Dae mainly as the famous Main Building with its blue roof. Once inside the grounds, however, we could see that it was actually a large complex made up of several buildings and landscaped areas.
The display identified the Main Building, Presidential Residence, Yeongbingwan, Sangchunjae and other areas within the compound. Cheong Wa Dae is located just north of Gyeongbokgung Palace, with Bugaksan rising behind it.
The setting creates an interesting contrast. In some directions, the mountains and trees make the compound feel separated from the busy city. In others, the modern Seoul skyline can be seen beyond the grounds.
Inside the Cheong Wa Dae Main Building
The exterior of the Main Building is probably the image most people associate with Cheong Wa Dae, but during our visit we were also able to go inside.
The atmosphere changed as soon as we entered. Wide red carpets ran through the building, chandeliers hung overhead, and wooden architectural details appeared throughout the corridors and formal spaces.
Visitors were moving through spaces that, for many years, had been associated with presidential work and official events.
It was interesting simply to see these surroundings without the usual television context. Instead of catching a brief glimpse during a news report, we could look at the furniture, carpets, ceilings, windows and Korean decorative details ourselves.
Seeing the Presidential Spaces Up Close
As we continued through the Main Building, information signs explained the functions of different rooms. Among the spaces we encountered were the Inwang Room and Chungmu Room, as well as formal areas used for presidential meetings and receptions.
This photograph has become one of my favorite records of the visit. It captures something that would once have seemed unusual: an ordinary visitor standing inside a place so closely connected with the Korean presidency.
What also caught my attention was the combination of formality and Korean design. Some spaces had the appearance of formal government rooms that could exist in many countries, while others incorporated wooden furniture, latticework, traditional patterns and decorative elements that made the surroundings distinctly Korean.
The Mugunghwa Room and Korea's First Ladies
One of the rooms we saw was the Mugunghwa Room (무궁화실).
According to the information displayed during our visit, the Mugunghwa Room had been used by the First Lady as an office and as a reception room for meeting foreign guests. The reception room was decorated in a Western style, while the office was presented with a more Korean atmosphere.
Portraits of former First Ladies were displayed along one wall.
Seeing the portraits together added another dimension to the visit. Presidential history naturally tends to focus on presidents themselves, but Cheong Wa Dae was also a workplace and official setting for many other people connected with the presidency.
Visiting Yeongbingwan, the State Guest House
Another important part of our visit was Yeongbingwan (영빈관), the State Guest House.
Yeongbingwan was built as a formal venue for receiving important foreign guests and holding official events. Walking inside gave us a much clearer sense of the ceremonial side of Cheong Wa Dae.
The interior is large and ceremonial, with elaborate chandeliers, a high decorated ceiling and a spacious hall designed for formal gatherings. Compared with some of the smaller rooms we had just seen, Yeongbingwan gave a much stronger impression of the diplomatic role Cheong Wa Dae had played.
That part of our visit feels especially relevant to me now. I am originally from Uzbekistan and have lived in Korea for many years. Seeing Central Asian leaders visiting Korea and Cheong Wa Dae appearing again in coverage of presidential diplomacy reminded me that I had once walked through these same grounds as a visitor.
Blue Roofs, Korean Architecture and the Seoul Landscape
The interiors were interesting, but Cheong Wa Dae is also defined by its surroundings.
Outside the formal rooms, we could pay more attention to details that are easy to miss when seeing the buildings from a distance: painted patterns beneath the roofs, stone columns, wooden elements, carefully shaped trees and landscaped paths connecting different parts of the compound.
The broad lawn in front of the Main Building creates another striking view. Looking toward the building, Bugaksan rises behind the blue roofs. Looking in the opposite direction, the city appears beyond the trees and landscaped grounds.
I like this contrast because it places Cheong Wa Dae clearly within Seoul. Despite the mountains, gardens and formal architecture around it, the compound is still part of the center of a large modern city.
A Place With a Much Longer History
Although Cheong Wa Dae is most strongly associated with modern Korean presidents, the history of the site goes much further back.
The area lies behind Gyeongbokgung Palace and has connections with royal grounds from earlier periods of Korean history. The site later went through major changes during the Japanese colonial period, after Korea's liberation, and following the establishment of the Republic of Korea.
From 1948, the site was used as the presidential residence and office. The name Cheong Wa Dae, referring to its distinctive blue roof tiles, came into use in 1960. The present Main Building was completed in 1991.
For me, however, understanding Cheong Wa Dae did not require remembering every historical date. Visiting the actual rooms and grounds made the history easier to imagine.
A phrase such as "presidential office" can feel abstract. Walking through the corridors, seeing the meeting rooms and looking out across the grounds makes it easier to understand that this was also a working place where decisions, meetings, receptions and diplomatic events formed part of everyday presidential life.
Looking at Our Cheong Wa Dae Visit Differently Now
When we visited Cheong Wa Dae, I did not know that these photographs would later feel like records of a particular period.
At the time, the unusual part was simply that the gates were open. Ordinary visitors could walk across the lawn, enter the Main Building, see rooms associated with presidential work and step inside Yeongbingwan. We took photographs because it was an interesting opportunity to see a place that had played such a visible role in modern Korean life.
Years later, seeing Cheong Wa Dae on television during official presidential events brought those photographs back to mind.
The same buildings, red carpets and formal spaces that we had explored among crowds of visitors could once again appear as the setting for presidential meetings and diplomacy.
For me, that is what makes our visit particularly memorable now. It was not simply a visit to another famous place in Seoul. We happened to see Cheong Wa Dae during an unusual chapter in its history, when a place long associated with presidential power had opened its doors and allowed ordinary people to experience it from the inside.
Sometimes we understand the significance of a visit only later. A familiar place appears again on television, we return to photographs taken years before, and an ordinary family outing suddenly becomes part of a much bigger story.
