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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Taipei, a City That Never Sleeps metropolis of international caliber, each year Taipei joins the great global celebration A of Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The joyful sounds and smells and sights of boisterous celebration fill the entire metropolis. As “Merry Christmas!” and “Happy New Year!” greetings resound, the distance between Taipei and the world noticeably shrinks. City nights sparkle with light, splendor, action, and vitality, greeting visitors from overseas with a warm Taiwan- style embrace, and inviting them to personally experience the wonderful, action-filled “City That Never Sleeps” (臺北夜未眠)! In this issue, we bring you to the city’s frontlines for fashion. We bring you “Taipei’s Manhattan” (臺北的曼哈頓), the Xinyi Commercial District, a grand bazaar home to upscale department stores, the massive exhibition halls of the Taipei World Trade Center, chic restaurants, sleek theaters, steamy nightspots, and many other examples of the international- caliber voguish vanguard. Here is a veritable pleasure vault of shopping and leisure- entertainment stimulation. Taipei 101 and the eslite Xinyi flagship bookstore, the largest bookstore in this country, are just two of the numerous iconic architectural sirens that draw you in with their magnetic allure. Within Taipei 101, you’ll find OTOP, a hall selling and displaying the finest of Taiwan’s regional handicraft and food items; here you will find the quintessential “flavors” of this land, a perfect place to pick up Taiwan mementoes and gift items. In this issue, we also prime you with details on the myriad Parade Carnival (遊行嘉年華) and New Year’s activities in December, both organized by the Taipei City Government. Along with the countless top-flight restaurants in the East District, and a smorgasbord of special meal deals on offer to add even more delicious flavor to the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. In our happy Living in Taipei section, we take you on a roaming excursion to Sishou Mt. (Four Animals Mt.), also in the Xinyi (and Nangang) District. We then take you to and through the fabulously colorful Taipei Flower Show, the in-no-way-stinky All about Feces Show at Taipei Zoo, and the electrifying annual Taipei IT Month exhibition. In our Arts section, we introduce to you the important platform for Taiwan and international artistic interchange, the 2008 Taipei Biennial, and open the doors to a very happy place, Taipei Artist Village, a space given over to free-reign domestic and international artistic creativity. There’s much more of course, but you’ll just have to trust in serendipity and ramble through the pages to follow on your own. Please enjoy. So, dearest friends, please come one and come all! During this season of joy, we welcome you to bring in the New Year, 2009, together with us, all Sleepless in Taipei. We guarantee you that during this party of the city, you will find surprises in every corner at this fabulous city! Contents Feature 04 Taipei City, Filled with the Spirit of Christmas 06 Taipei New Year Activities Architecture 08 Standing Tall on the Global Architectural Stage – Taipei 101 10 Taiwan’s Window to World Culture The Flagship Branch of eslite Xinyi bookstore 12 Torchbearer of History, Grandiose Architecture Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 14 Home of the Immense “Double Dragons Holding the Pearl” Core Pacific City Marketplace Merry 16 Taipei – A 24-7 Eats and Drinks Funfest! Christmas 21 The Deeper the Night is, the More Beautiful It Appears Welcome to Taipei, a Sleepless City 26 Taipei’s Manhattan – The Xinyi Commercial District Food Taipei Serves Up Christmas and New Year’s Feasting in All Tastes and Styles 30 Crystal Spoon – True Thai Fine Dining in Ultra-Modern Trappings 31 FiFi – Home-Style Sichuanese and Shanghainese Food, Old Savored Anew 32 WASABI Festival Buffet – A Carnival of Delicacies in Recreated Japan 33 Le ble d’or – A Gold Medal Christmas 34 Louis XIV – French Cuisine of the Highest Order 35 Salsa Bistro – The Savory Passions of South America on Your Plate Living In Taipei 36 Sishou(Four Animals)Mountain Taipei’s Scenic-View Platform, the Deeper the Night, the More Glorious the Sights 38 Big Land Transformed A-‘niu’ – 2009 Taipei Flower Show 40 2010 TAIPEI International Gardening and Horticulture Exposition Delights from Many Lands, Feasts for the Eye 41 2008 “Zoo Poo Poo” All about Feces 44 2008 IT Month Theme Pavilions 46 Isabelle Wen – This City’s Esteemed Voice for Food& Drink Trend and Fashion 48 Foreigners’ Reflections on Taipei Merry Christmas Arts 50 2008 Taipei Biennial Sep.13, 2008 – Jan.4, 2009 52 A Cross-National Platform for Wide-Ranging Cross-Pollination – Taipei Artist Village Creative Taipei 54 Taiwan OTOP – Taiwan’s Vault of Local-Ingenuity Treasures 56 Inspired Creator of Taipei Public Art – Tsun Tsun Art Studio 58 Chen Cao-qian and Cecilia Arts Mother’s Hands the First to Inspire Love of Aesthetics Practical Information 60-62 FEATURE Taipei City, Filled with the Spirit of Christmas hen “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” Wstart rolling off tongues and wafting through the air comes Christmas time, warm breezes begin to blow through the streets of this city and changing what is always a cool and sometimes cold Christmas-season place to a merry oasis of warmth and cheer. Going to church? Putting up a Christmas tree? Buying gifts? Having a party? This is certainly the season of warm embraces and good cheer! During the days leading up to Christmas, along Ximenting, the East shopping area, the Xinyi Commercial District (信義 商圈), and other busy shopping and entertainment areas, you can see teenagers seizing the chance and dating in 1 this romantic environment, people meeting up for dates, window-shoppings, or just having a good meal. The thick ambiance of Christmas fun fills the air of the department stores and other countless restaurants and pubs. The twinkling giant Christmas trees and brilliant, colorful decorated worlds of The Mall (遠企購物中心), Miramar Entertainment Park (美麗華百樂園), Core Pacific City Living Mall(京華城), and other shopping heavens bring joyful light to the entire city. In the night of Christmas Eve, churches around the city, such as the Bread of Life Christian Church (靈糧堂) and Holy Family Catholic Church (聖家堂) hold Christmas mass, caroling, or other types of ceremonial celebrations. The inspirational lights of Christmas trees, meaningful nativity scenes, and dulcet tones of Christmas choirs fill these spiritual places with a sense of joy and hope. Each year the Sanaihui Shipai Church (三愛會石牌教會) in Beitou District (北投區) works 2 with local residents to decorate a 100-meter-long section of Lane 71, Sec. 1, Shipai Rd. (石牌路) for the festive season, the unique and very pretty scene giving rise to the well-deserved moniker “Christmas lane” (聖誕巷). The church’s pastor, Minister Lin (林牧師), who organizes all 3 5 6 1.a Santa outfit from Shin Mei Export Goods Wholesale 2-3.Jin Mei Export Handicrafts 4 sells Christmas and New Year’s decorations in endless variety. 4-5.On “Christmas lane” you’ll enjoy a terrific Christmas carnival and choir singing during the festive season. 6.At Christmas, Mayor Hao and citizens sing carols out. Discover Taipei Information Taiwan Party Shop offers wonderful balloon decorations American Club Taipei for holiday celebrations. Tel: (02) 2885-8260 Add: 47, Peian Rd. (below Grand Hotel, in direction of Dazhi) activities, reports that from the 5th of December, you’ll Hours: 06:30 - 23:00 Daily be entertained every night from 6 till 10 with brilliant Website: www.americanclub.org.tw lighting that is used to highlight 3D creations of the Bread of Life Christian 美麗華摩天 Miramar Entertainment Park Ferris Wheel ( Church in Taipei 輪) and Maokong Gondola(貓空纜車), along with all Tel: (02) 2362-3022 kinds of sleighs and Christmas trees, with Christmas song Add: 24, Sec. 2, Heping E. Rd. embracing you from all directions. You’ll feel as though Website: www.llc.org.tw/llcpage you were in a wonderful, magical dreamland, and on the 20th—the weekend before Christmas Day—a Holy Family Catholic Church special Christmas musical concert will be staged. Tel: (02) 2392-0701 Add: 50, Sec. 2, Xinsheng S. Rd. If it’s festive and boisterous fun with crowds of good Website: www.catholic.org.tw/hfc friends that you love best, come on out to the New Year’s Eve gala of Taipei American Club (臺北市美僑 Sanaihui Shipai Church 協會), being held for the 40th year in a row this year. Tel: (02) 2821-4532 Celebration is kicked off early with the Annual Holiday Add: 3, Alley 15, Lane 71, Sec. 1, Shipai Rd. Ball on Dec. 6, and of course there is a party on New T.P.S. (Taiwan Party Shop) Year’s Eve. If you’d like to throw your own Christmas or Taipei Zhongxiao branch New Year’s bash, there are terrific spots like a reserved Tel: (02) 2776-4667 room at one of the city’s top-flight hotels, where all your Add: 34, Lane 190, Sec. 1, Dunhua S. Rd. pals can gather, party your hearts out, and have the Hours: 10:00 - 21:30 hotel handle everything for you! Website: www.partyshop.tw If you’d like to handle everything yourself, that’s Shin Mei Export Goods Wholesale easy to DIY too. The city has a sleigh-full of stores selling Tel: (02) 2721-6232 decorative items. Here’s what you’ve got. Taiwan Party Add: 53, Lane 190, Sec. 1, Dunhua S. Rd. Shop (臺灣派對商店) has full Santa outfits, allowing you Hours: 10:30 - 22:00 to transform yourself into the jolly old man! You should Website: www.shin-mei.com.tw also head to the clutch of specialist export-handicrafts Jin Mei Export Handicrafts outlets in the back of the Dinghao shopping area (頂 Tel: (02) 2771-8703 好商圈 ) on Lane 190, Sec.