centuries, now immaculately restored -- finely carved audience halls and living quarters, temples and pavilions, nestle amid gardens landscaped with a painter's eye. In autumn, as the leaves turn to a dozen reds and golds, take the "secret garden" tour at Changdeokgung and you will feel like you've slipped into the decoration on a screen, or the pattern on a plate. Among the stars in this arboricultural heaven are ancient Chinese scholar and gooseberry trees, and venerable mulberries. One juniper dates back to 1250. The Bukchon neighbourhood, squeezed between a couple of palace compounds, is an urban village noted for its one-storey hanok houses, each built around a small courtyard. Its survival, across the road from the downtown frenzy, shows not only that many citizens of Seoul seek to preserve tradition in the face of galloping development, but that they can wield enough civic muscle to prevail. Thanks to a long campaign by residents, Bukchon remains a delightful low-rise warren for wandering in narrow lanes, eating at Korean restaurants (shoes off, legs crossed) and browsing in the art galleries that have sprung up across the area. It also offers quiet homestay accommodation in hanoks. For the equivalent of 33 per night, I unrolled a mat on the floor, a stone's throw from the Changdeokgung palace walls. At the western edge of Bukchon, tree-lined Samcheongdonggil rises past galleries and cafs through Seoul's version of Soho or Chelsea. Stop along the way, with the city's trend-surfers, for a good coffee or a