Garden5

- A place where culture,shopping and fun coexist -

I was surfing the web when I found GARDEN5, a "huge" mall well known for being the the location where
hit drama ‘IRIS’ is shot. The set for IRIS is opened to the public, and attracts many visitors, sounds like a good place to check out if you have enough time while visiting Korea or if you are a shop-a-holic n_n

Garden5 is a mega-size culture and shopping complex with over 8,400 specialty shops. The idea for the complex began in 2003, when over 6,000 merchants came from the Cheonggyecheon district. It is divided into 3 sections: specialized shopping arcades, a logistics center, and a revitalization complex. The specialized shopping arcades, where over 8,400 shops are located, are again divided into three blocks: Garden5 Life, Garden5 Works, and Garden5 Tool.

Garden5 Life is a retail shopping arcade consisting of a fashion complex and other complexes appealing to the young or the young at heart. With the recently opened NC Department Store, Garden5 Life is emerging as the shopping Mecca of Korea.
Garden5 Works is an apartment-style factory for processing businesses.
Garden5 Tools is a shopping arcade for industrial material, such as hardware and pipes.
The roofs of these three blocks are connected to form a huge roof garden named ‘The Four-Season Park,’ which is the size of three soccer fields. At the park, ‘The Central Garden’ and mega-size sky-parasol are located to allow visitors to enjoy nature in the city.

One of the reasons why Garden5 draws attention is the set of the drama ‘IRIS,’ the set, located on the tenth floor of Garden5 Tool, attracted over 1,000 tourists in Autumn 2009 alone. On the set, many sights seen in the drama can be seen, such as the president’s office, the command room of NSS, and the offices of the agents. Because Garden5 is known as the location of ‘IRIS,’ an ‘IRIS Tour’ program has been developed for foreign tourists.
Thanks to such a tour program, there are many foreign tourists visiting Garden5 not only on weekends, but also on weekdays. The set opens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday thru Sunday.
Admission is free.

Uncertain Future

Moon Young-soo, a senior SH executive in charge of Garden5, was confident of morphing the silent shopping center into a bustling one by the end of the year. But many experts are certain that it will take longer than Moon’s optimistic prediction for Garden5 to become self-sustaining.

Location
Exit 3 of Line 8 Jangji Station
Website
http://www.garden5.com (I tried to surf trought the website, but never took me anywhere O_O )


Anyway, if you are an IRIS fan this is the place to visit :) ,  if there was a tour to visit all the My name is Kim Sam Soon locations I would definitely take it!!!!!!! 

-Gisela V.