Most Korean department stores open with a wall of perfume counters and a low ceiling pressing down on you. The Hyundai Seoul (λνλ μμΈ, Deohyeondae Seoul) does the reverse β it traded sellable floor space for air. Curved white balconies, skylights, and atriums that run the full height of the building keep the place breathing even on a jammed Saturday. It opened in February 2021 in Yeouido (μ¬μλ), Seoul’s finance district, and at roughly 89,000 square meters it is the largest department store in the city. But the size isn’t what you notice walking in. The daylight is.
The draw is the Sounds Forest (μ¬μ΄μ¦ ν¬λ μ€νΈ) on the fifth floor: a 3,300-square-meter indoor garden with real trees, planting that changes with the season, and benches set under a glass ceiling about 20 meters up. Sunlight drops straight down into it, which is something almost no department store can pull off. It’s billed as the largest indoor garden of its kind in Korea, and on a clear afternoon it behaves less like a sales floor than a small park that happens to have escalators around the edges. Dining halls, dessert counters, the grocery and food court one level below, and rotating pop-up exhibitions all wrap around it.
The Genie, Make a Wish connection
The store appears as a filming location in the 2025 Netflix series Genie, Make a Wish (λ€ μ΄λ£¨μ΄μ§μ§λ), with Kim Woo-bin and Bae Suzy. K-drama location guides file it among the show’s polished, contemporary Seoul backdrops β the sleek lifestyle settings the series likes to drop its characters into.
The honest version: the store is confirmed as a shooting site, but I couldn’t pin down which episode, or even confirm that the Sounds Forest atrium itself survived the edit. Treat it as a real-but-general location, not a single scene you can plant your feet in. The production ranged across Seoul and Jecheon, with some fantasy sequences shot in Dubai. For location-chasers, The Hyundai Seoul earns a place on a wider Seoul loop rather than a trip of its own.
How to get there
The store anchors the Parc.1 development beside the Han River in Yeouido. Easiest approach is Yeouinaru Station (μ¬μλ루μ, Line 5), about a 5-minute walk; Yeouido Station (μ¬μλμ, Lines 5 and 9) is roughly 10 minutes out. It’s a quick hop from central Seoul, and Yeouido Hangang Park sits right next door, so it slots neatly onto the front or back of a riverside walk.
Practical notes
Hours generally run about 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays, a touch later on weekends, but they shift with seasons and holidays β confirm on the official ehyundai.com site before you go. No entry fee, no reservation for a general visit; you pay only for what you shop or eat. A handful of pop-ups and special programs in the Sounds Forest use timed booking, so watch for signs or QR codes when you arrive. Come on a weekday morning if you want it quiet. Weekends and the Christmas stretch get genuinely mobbed, though the holiday decorations earn the crowds if that’s what you’re here for.
Come hungry β the basement food hall is the real reason to show up: dozens of bakeries and dessert and snack stalls under one roof, built for grazing. For a proper sit-down meal, the upper dining floors carry well-regarded Korean and international restaurants. And if the in-store prices sting, the cafes and casual spots around Yeouido and the riverside park are a short walk off and kinder on the wallet.
On the map: λνλ μμΈ
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