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Taiwan has spent close to five decades tugging at the world’s shirttails in an effort to gain recognition for its charms. The country’s capital, Taipei, combines this mix of potential and yearning. Like a flashing strobe, it never fails to grab your gaze and leave you a bit dizzy. Experiencing Taipei calls for more than smelling, hearing and feeling: this is a visually driven city, a city worth remembering through stunning images. From as far away as Chungsiao Avenue, even the most nearsighted can make out two unavoidable landmarks. The Grand Hotel, wrapped in small red balconies (a decorative homage to Imperial China), lies to the northeast. The TFC 101 Tower – the world’s tallest inhabitable building, a record-breaking skyscraper shaped like a bamboo shoot – lies to the south. Its elevators whisk passengers to the 89th-floor observatory in 37 seconds. Visitors leave with their necks arched and mouths agape. Two architectural symbols of radically different eras and dreams, these buildings are united in the same competitive “look what Taipei can do” spirit. The essence of the city is contradiction. Taipei is a juxtaposition of botanical gardens and digital cameras, oyster omelets and ultra-thin cell phones. No time to museum hop? No worries, you can learn even more on the city’s sidewalks and in the alleyways, where tradition and the avant-garde intermingle, a time line on human scale. On this corner, you can get reflexology treatments, over there, the latest imported cosmetics to lighten already pale skin. The trappings of consumption in Taipei are snapped up by the city’s denizens ready for the latest trend: ten months after debit cards were launched they already have two million users. |
