EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

 Contents

Feature

04 The Mid-Autumn Festival – Full Moon, Full Family Reunion 06 The Mid-Autumn Barbecue – Healthy Eating without Negatives 10 Feast on the Tastes of the Spa in Early Autumn 2008 Taipei Hot Springs Season 14 A Heritage Site Serving as Time Portal Bringing You into the Timeless World of Confucian Culture and Ceremonies

Architecture 16 Taiwan Folk Arts Museum Heritage Architecture that Captures the Japanese-style Past

18 Shann Garden – Former Residence of General Zhang Xue-liang 20 The Three Architectural Jewels of Beitou Longnaitang, I-Tun, Whispering Pines Inn 21 Beitou Puji Temple – A Japanese Creation in Chinese Han-Tang Style 22 Taipei’s Leading Green Library A Space for Reading Seamlessly Fused with Mother Nature’s Beauty 24 Discover Taipei’s Hundred Years of Blessings The Ximen Red House Retakes the Stage as Centennial Diva

Food

26 The Beitou Character – Choice Foods Not to Be Missed 27 Your Best Choice after a Hot-Spring Soak Manlai Hot-Spring Hand-Pulled Noodles 28 Snacks at Common Prices – Great Erudition at Chienxi Mandarin Duck Geng Thick Soup 29 Su Family Beef Noodles – In the Top Three of Favorite Local Purveyors 30 Taipei’s Special Mid-Autumn Festival Mooncakes With Both Deep Tradition and Infinite Innovation 34 Taipei’s Barbecue Joints – A Great Indoor Option for Mid-Autumn Festival BBQs

Living In Taipei

36 Beitou Hot Spring Park-Soak to Your Heart’s Content at Great Prices 38 The Perfect Gifts and Souvenirs for the Foreign Visitors – Taipei City’s Premium Gift Items 40 Taipei, Top-Flight Destination for Medical Tourism 42 2008 Taipei Hotel Festival – Finding Local Accommodations “In Your Own Flavor” 44 A Leading Artist – And Taipei City at the Heart of Lin Hwai-min 46 First in the Heart of Lin Hwai-min – Shi-Yang Culture Restaurant 47 Villa 32 – Lin Hwai-min’s Choice as Best of the Hot-Spring Inns 48 Foreigner's Reflections on Taipei Arts

50 BEST OF THE BEST - CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATRE OF TAIWAN

Creative Taipei

54 Promoting the Brilliance of Taiwan’s Craft Artists The National Taiwan Craft Research Institute 56 2008 Taipei Culture Passport - Get Crazy for Culture, Play Crazy in Taipei 58 The Bohemian iPrefer Handcrafted Original Creations of Chang Ya-chi

Practical Information 60 The 1999 Citizen Hotline - Comprehensive Service and with Foreign-Language Assistance 62 Contacts FEATURE

The Mid-Autumn Festival – Full Moon, Full Family Reunion

he fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month marks the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋 T節), also called the Moon Festival, one of the three great traditional festivals of the year. In the hearts of local Chinese people, this day represents the “perfect roundness of the moon and the full reunion of the family circle” (月圓人團圓). For people living away from home, as the big date approaches, their pangs of homesickness grow even thicker.

In traditional sayings, the moon deity is the guardian of children. Parents will prepare some perfectly round offerings which symbolize the night-sky orb so that the moon deity would bless their children to be strong and healthy, safe and happy. The sacrificial-food goodies are then divided equally among family members to eat, symbolizing the balanced, perfect circle of the complete reunion.

 Discover Taipei  The mooncake and the pomelo are the quintessential food icons for the festival. The custom of eating mooncakes, according to the written Ming Dynasty record, can be traced back to the start of the dynasty, for the cakes are said to have contained rebels’ messages in the revolution to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty, the alien tyranny. Nowadays, the mooncake becomes a favorite gift during the Mid-Autumn Festival season, and the types have expanded exponentially. The best-known ones are the Suzhou type with its thicker pastry shell, the Cantonese type with its thin shell and myriad fillings, and the conventional Taiwanese “moonlight” (月光) type with sweet-potato filling. There are also delicious egg-yolk cakes and mung-bean cakes.

Now let’s roll out our pomeloes. In Chinese called a youzi (柚子), this is a homonym for youzi (佑子) , meaning “to protect children,” and thus a potent symbol of heaven-sent good fortune. The Mid-Autumn festival season also, by good fortune, happens to be a harvest time for the pomelo crop. Eating the pomelo is not only an excellent way to dispel the greasiness of the mooncake but also a great reason to dive into these tasty festival treats together, as the traditional sayings are the best!

A grand and modern Taiwan “tradition” to celebrate the reunion of family and friends on the Mid-Autumn Festival is the outdoor barbecue, which takes the advantage of the crisp, cool air of autumn and the full moon hanging high up in the sky. According to the information provided on the website of a well-known local Job Bank (人力銀行) in 2007, the average Taiwanese attends 1.84 “Mid-Autumn Barbecues” (中秋烤肉) each year, clearly showing that if you are a local, the Moon Festival would be no more the Moon Festival unless your barbecue fix has been taken care of!

The keys in choosing barbecue spots are that they should be outdoors and be well ventilated, but another key is that they should be approved by the city government for barbecue use. Family-reunion BBQs in Taipei most often take place in the open spaces and yards in front of their houses, or on the rooftops of bulidings. If it’s a party- intent group of friends you are talking about, besides the riverside parks within city limits, people would like to find places where there was little light pollution, such as Yangmingshan’s Jingshan Recreation Area (菁山遊憩區) and the BBQ area in Mingde Amusement Park (明德樂園).

However, here we have some notes of caution for you. While enjoying yourself, please be responsible. Medical research shows that improper barbecuing exposes you to carcinogens, so pay special attention to the equipment and materials you use. In addition, if you want to be as eco-friendly as possible and minimize your carbon footprint, you might consider a great meal at one of the city’s BBQ joints and then heading out for some exhilarating and pollution-free street walks or a promenade in the park under the big, round, perfect moon.

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The Mid-Autumn Barbecue Healthy Eating without Negatives

he Mid-Autumn Festival barbecue has become a de Trigeuer celebratory tradition with the people in Taipei. As festival time nears, the shelves of both traditional and modern markets fill up with the freshest of barbecuing ingredients, and all the apparatus you’ll need can be found on the outlet shelves of supermarket and convenience-store chains. The denizens of the city start chomping at the bit, eagerly awaiting the big day’s arrival. In this day of heightened consciousness regarding both eco-friendliness and healthy lifestyles, however, buying the necessary ingredients and implements is not an issue, but the question of how to properly barbecue decidedly is.

In addition, to save wear and tear of Taipei’s local 1 environment as a result of the mass movement of outdoor festival barbecuing, the choice of officially approved barbecue sites is essential. And seeing that this year’s festival day falls on a weekend, Sept. 14th, this means that Taipei’s great numbers of weekend fun-seekers will already be out in pursuit of leisure and recreation in their two days off work and school. If you plan on doing any barbecuing outside the hope, there is a word to the wise—book a spot ahead, and well ahead!

How do you ensure your approach to barbecuing ensures delicious eating that is also healthy and hygienic？ First, make sure that you do purchase what you need when you buy your foodstuffs—no gluttony or waste. Buy fresh materials that have undergone either no processing or as little as possible, and make sure the meats are CAS- 2 approved, ensuring quality. When barbecuing, keep raw and cooked foods separate; a separate set of chopping boards, knives, bowls, and chopsticks is suggested for each, to prevent germ and bacteria contamination. It is specially important to keep uncooked seafoods away from other foods. Since many people barbecue on just this day each year, to keep yourself from troubles you might consider taking advantage of the experienced services of Xiang Chuan Chuan (Strings of Fragrance) Barbecue, a government-inspected and –approved enterprise in business more than 20 years that not only provides all meats and implements in one package but also provides a location for barbecuing and invaluable instructions as well. It is a great deal. 3

2-3. Photo by Yang Zhi-ren

 Discover Taipei  1.When choosing BBQ ingredients, make sure your meat is fresh and certified. 2.By choosing officially sanctioned BBQ sites you ensure that Taipei’s ecology will not be harmed. 3.The campsite at Dajia Riverside Park. 4.The BBQ area at Mingde Amusement Park, abundant in eco-beauty, mountains, and flowing waters. 5.The large-scale Mingde BBQ area has a capacity of 700 people. 6.The grassy grounds and picnic platform of the Bishan campground.

Authorized Barbecue Locations Dedicated and Safe Finding a proper BBQ spot should be your item of first importance. A place outdoors that enjoys good ventilation is a must, for when animal greases drop into coals while cooking, chemical changes would occur and create materials harmful to health should you breathe them in. Among many local sites that have BBQ facilities that have fully passed the city’s safety standards, perhaps the best are the Taipei riverside parks, Mingde Amusement Park (明德樂園), the Jingshan Resort (菁山遊憩區) on Yangmingshan, and the Neihu Bishan Campground (內湖碧山露營場).

The City Government will open up the expansive riverside-park system, with 11 parks in total, including the best-known Dajia Riverside Park, enabling both 4 local citizens and in-town travelers to not only get their BBQ fill but also come together for festive fun unique to this night of the year, when a huge and perfect moon hangs high in the heavens and touches the earth with beauteous moonshine. Adding to the sparkle of the coruscating moonshine, in the parks you can also set off firecrackers and light sparklers, perfecting the romantic ambiance of the evening out. With advance booking you can also reserve a seat on special shuttle buses that will take you to and from Dajia Riverside Park, where you can admire the grand moon at its fullest loveliness, during the traditional harvest time.

The large barbecue area at pristine Mingde Amusement Park, which is beside the National Palace Museum, is a place of plush green foliage, cascading waters sliding down from Yangmingshan’s hills, the buzzing of insects, the chirp of birds, and the murmur 5 and babble of Qingque Stream (青礐溪). This is one 6 of the few places within the city where you can find yourself embraced by the great outdoors and in a safe and secure facility. The BBQ area straddles the two sides of Qingque Stream, is divided into five sections, and can accommodate about 700 people in total. Beside the BBQ area you’ll find a large open space, about 200 ping (1 ping equals 36 sq. ft.), that is moonbeam-lit and soft-grass carpeted and used by kids and groups for games and other fun. In addition to your BBQ feasting you’ll thus be able to consider feasting on various other happy amusements and recreations.

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Camping, BBQing, and Hot-Spring Soaking —“Comfort Food”for Body and Soul If you think that the few hours taken up with barbecuing will not be enough to sate your hunger for fun, why not come to Yangmingshan’s Jingshan Resort for some extra R&R？ What you’ll be giving yourself is a camping treat, waking up in the early morning to soak in the mountain-fresh air, engaging in mountain-high campside barbecuing in a forested oasis of luxurious greenery and rich shady nooks, and getting a much- needed getaway from the city hubbub in the Taipei Basin far below. Or you can set yourself up in cabins and chalets, sitting outside under the sparkling stars and trying to count them all together, then next day soaking up the health-enhancing joys in Yangmingshan National Park’s neutral sodium-bicarbonate hot-spring waters, the mineral waters soft, pellucid, and silky. This is certainly nature-embraced luxury and extravagance not many city folk around the world can get to at just a moment’s notice! 7 The Neihu Bishan Campground, which also has both 8 camping and BBQ facilities, is another choice spot well worth consideration. All you need to do is apply for a space one week ahead with the city govt.’s Dept. of Economic Development; there is no entrance fee or campsite fee imposed, just your rental costs for food- preparation and camping equipment. To ensure visitor safety during the late-night activities and overnight stays, you must be with a group of 20 people or more to get a reservation, and to safeguard the local ecological environment, gas is used instead of open fires for all outside cooking.

When out barbecuing this year, let your motto be: “Don’t let Chang E think we’re dirty!” Chang E (嫦娥) is the fabled beauty who lives on the moon, whom people all look up and try to see on her fully lit and perfectly round home this night. She’ll also be looking down on you to make sure you stay true to Mother Nature after your BBQ fun, watching to see if you pick up your cooking implements and other waste and either taking them home or depositing them in designated collection spots. Locals are determined to make their city a metropolis of international standard and repute, so make sure you play your rule, and don’t disappoint the lady in the moon.

7.The individual wood cabins of Jingshan Resort 8.The water of the Jingshan hot-spring pools is silky and pellucid. 9.The entire family will revel in the fun of Jingshan’s mountain views 9 and green shade.

 Discover Taipei  BBQ and outdoor-cooking spots open Information in the Mid-Autumn Festival: 1.Yenping Riverside park: part of riverside from the Dadaocheng Bicycle Renting Station to the Xiang Chuan Chuan (Strings of basketball court (not including bicycle lanes) Fragrance) Barbecue — Taipei Branch（香串串烤肉—臺北分店） 2.Huazhong Riverside park: the assigned area beneath Huazhong Bridge Tel: (02) 2836-3169 Address: 3.Machangting Riverside Park: the assigned area 123, Sec. 2, Zhicheng Rd., Shilin District in Machangting Plaza Website: www.bbq888.com.tw 4.Daonan Riverside Park: the assigned area beneath Hengguang Bridge and the front plaza of Taipei Zoo 5.Bai-Ling Riverside Park on the right bank: Plaza beneath Chengde Bridge 6.Bai-Ling Riverside Park on the left bank: Plaza beneath Chengde bridge and Bai-Ling Bridge 7.Right bank of Shuangxi: the assigned plaza between Yunung Bridge and the skating rink 8.The assigned area surrounding skating rink in Mingde Amusement Park Big Yuanshan Riverside Park BBQ Area（明德樂園大型烤肉區） 9.Dajia Riverside Park: the assigned area next to Tel: (02) 2841-2061 Dazhi Bridge Address: 10.Chengmei riverside Park on the left bank: 55, Sec. 3, Zhishan Rd., Shilin District the slope-protecting platfor m between Website: meandear.com.tw Caihong(Rainbow) Bridge and Chengmei Bridge Jingshan Resort 11.Chengmei Riverside Park on the right （ 陽明山菁山遊憩區） bank: the slope-protecting platform between Tel: (02) 2862-3666 Caihong(Rainbow) Bridge and Chengmei Bridge Address: Places allowed to set off firecrackers 16, Alley 71, Lane 101, Jingshan Rd., Shilin District (inside Yangmingshan National or low-level fireworks: Park, near the Zhongshan Building) 1.Xindian Stream drainage area: Daonan Website: sakuraresort.network.com.tw Riverside Park(left bank, the front plaza of Taipei zoo, not including the area with wooden floor), Neihu Bishan Campground Fuhe Riverside Park(in range of 50m from Fuhe （ 內湖碧山露營場） Bridge to both the upper and lower reaches) Responsible Unit: 2.Danshui River drainage area: Fuan Riverside Division 5, Department of Economic Park(not including the sidewalk and the area Development, Taipei City Govt. with wooden floor), Fuzhou Riverside Park(not Tel: (02) 2725-6634 including the sidewalk), Guandu Water Shore Site Management Authority: Park(not including bicycle lanes, the area with Neihu Bishan Campground wooden floor and the sidewalk) Tel: (02) 2794-9435 3.Keelung River drainage area: No.21 He-Shuang Address: 26~7, Bishan Rd., Neihu District Riverside Park, the Longzhou(Dragon Boat) Hours: Wharf between new and old levee of Shezi Daytime activities 9:30am-4:30pm Overnight Camping: 5:00pm-10:00pm island(not including the sidewalk)

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Taiwan’s First Hot-Spring Resort Feast on the Tastes of the Spa in Early Autumn 2008 Taipei Hot Springs Season

aven’t you heard？ The 2008 Taipei Hot Springs Season (2008臺北溫泉季) is set to wash over you. So get Hready and get set to go, go, go — maybe that should be “soak, soak, soak.” Staged by the Taipei Hot Springs Association (臺北市溫泉發展協會) under the auspices of the Taipei City Government's Department of Tourism and Information (臺北市政府觀光傳播局), the “season,” held for 7 consecutive years, will be kicked off on Oct. 16th. Each year the program is altered and spruced up to make sure repeat revelers find things novel, fresh, and exciting. So guess what？ This year will be no different, and by “no different” we of course mean completely different.

Zhou Shui-mei (周水美) is very excited. She is the president of the Taipei Hot Springs Association. The program, she says, gets even better every year, even more elaborate and diversified. The splendid cavalcade of events and activities are meticulously synthesized with Beitou’s natural highlights, local Beitou culture, tourist attractions, and signature local foods to display for all to see the cultured sophistication and charms of the Beitou hot-spring scene. With each year’s celebratory festival season the image of the local area as “Taiwan’s First Hot-Spring Resort” (臺灣第一溫泉) is solidified. This year’s main themes, in addition to the familiar “Good Health, Good Fitness” (養生、健康) focus, seek a seamless image connection of the local culture, taste of hot-spring, and entertainment/recreation resources, with the scale of marketing and activities greatly expanded. Experts from renowned city hot-spring areas in the Asia-Pacific have been invited to encourage mutual cooperation and to foster the exchange of knowledge and experience on the cultural phenomenon of the “international hot-spring city” (國際溫泉城市). The goal in all this is to bring the local hot-spring cultural experience to international calibre.

10 Discover Taipei 11 The most popular items from the programs of previous years have been held over, to popular acclaim, for this year, a hot-spring travel show with an entertaining treasure-hunt challenge, health and fitness exposition, guided cultural tours, health and fitness information lectures, and a traditional Nakashi (那卡西) singing competition. Among the scintillating newcomers, three majors are to be at the forefront: 1/ Healthcare Tourism (promotion of single-person tour packages); 2/ Asia-Pacific hot-springs info interchange (staging of Asia-Pacific International Hot-Springs Discussion and Interchange Show; 亞太區國際溫泉研討交流展之舉辦); and 3/ Promotion of delicious “hot-spring cuisine” (Beitou Hot Spring Cherished Old Times Restaurant Fine Cuisine Festival; 北投溫泉懷舊酒家菜美食 節). In these, the emphasis will be on service and recreation/ entertainment quality.

Under the Health Tourism section, last year we saw the Two Persons Outing (2人成行) program, a stupendous hit with the public, with packages featuring hot-spring bathing and health checks. This year we see a change to the Single Person Outing (單人成行) health- tourism service package, with the cooperation of three medical facilities, including Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center, and Taipei City Hospital Yangming Branch. Travelers can first have a half-day or full-day health check done in either Beitou or Shilin and then head out for Beitou hot-spring inn bathing and sightseeing. You can choose either a one-day or two-day outing. Healthcare tourism has never been easier, so treat yourself to a relaxing excursion that will rejuvenates both your body and mind and bring you back home with great peace of mind.

1.Prawns with egg yolk, one of many culinary delights of the nostalgic restaurant activities of the Hot Spring Season 2.The Sun and Moon bathing facility at SweetMe Hotspring Resort

10 Discover Taipei 11 FEATURE

In its promotion of hot-spring cuisine, the Beitou Hot Spring Old-Time Restaurants Fine Cuisine Festival will play the leading role. Up until this year all activities surrounding the hot-spring season have been centered around the district spas and scenic spots. Food has been neglected, relegated to a small role, largely unnoticed in the excitement, and left both the domestic and foreign tourist largely unaware of the superb menu of culinary treasures there to be savored. This year, to correct this terrible injustice, at center stage of the festival will be “fine foods, spas, culture, scenic spots” (美食, 溫泉, 文化, 景點), the four stars fused together as a holistic package promoted by local government, tourism, entertainment/ recreation, and other related resources. This expanded program makes the festival one of the city’s largest- scale tourism-celebration events. Cherished memories of the glory in Beitou’s earlier days will be given a spirited renaissance with special set meals and buffets at Beitou’s old-time hot-spring restaurants, as well as cherished old-style breakfasts and afternoon tea. But the fun doesn’t stop here. Complementary premium events such as All You Can Eat Fine Foods (美食呷免驚), Snatch and Grab Prize Fun (戳戳樂), and Reach 1,000, Receive 100 (滿千送百) will allow you, whether you fancy yourself a gourmet or a gourmand, to happily feast and experiment to your culinary content. Beitou’s days of old were fine ones, and with this fine recreation of the culture and cuisine of yesteryear you’ll find that its present day tastes pretty darn good too!

Though no doubt this statement will create great dispute, perhaps the piece de resistance of the Beitou festival will be the Nakashi contest, for Nakashi is a musical form even more culturally original than the spa culture and everything else that defines Beitou, and is a rare art form which had almost gone extinct before staging a remarkable comeback with the resurgence of Beitou tourism. This year a special duet category is being added to the competition. All elimination rounds and finals will be in October, and the precious corps of Beitou talent is being encouraged to sign up.

Finally, to wrap up, please take note of the Bathrobe Charity Auction (浴衣義賣會) to be held, the goal here is to encourage the spirit of social philanthropy, the proceeds of which will go to nutritious lunches for students from low-income Beitou families. Special invitees to the festival from government organizations and the hot-spring industries Japan and the Chinese-speaking region will be donating bathrobes, 100 in total. The public is encouraged to join in the fun of the day and bid with abandon. We expect you to be there too, and the needy kids of Beitou extend a grateful thank-you.

3.A performance of traditional aboriginal dance at Ketagalan Information Culture Center 4.A gallery on the theme of female sorcery at Ketagalan Culture Center Taipei Hot Springs Association （ 臺北市溫泉發展協會） Te l : (02) 2895-5418 Fax: (02) 6611-0011 Website: www.taipeisprings.org.tw

12 Discover Taipei 13 Details on all activity/event modules can be found in the following chart: The right of adjustment on above activities is reserved to the organizer. 2008 Taipei Hot Springs Season – Activities Timetable Activity Location

10/4 (Sat) Lead-In Activities Beitou Star Hunt for the Sounds of Old SweetMe Hotspring Resort 2008 Nostalgic Taiwanese & Japanese Nakashi Siniging Contest

10/16 (Thurs) Opening Ceremonies Sorceress Benediction and Inauguration MRT Xinbeitou Station Plaza International Hot Spring City Development Alliance Agreement Signing Ceremony Bathrobe Charity Auction

10/16 (Thurs) ~ 10/17 (Fri) Lecture Events Lecture on Long-Term Health Maintenance MRT Xinbeitou Station Plaza Exhibition Area

10/16 (Thurs) ~ 10/19 (Sun) Theme Activities One Dollar Starting Bid Competition MRT Xinbeitou Station Plaza Quiz Game with Prizes Stage Activity Area Promotion Activities for Healthcare Tourism MRT Xinbeitou Station Plaza Exhibition Area Combined Exhibition on Hot-Springs Bathing and Tourism Bathrobe Charity Auction “Sorceress Travels” Treasure Hunt Challenge Greater Beitou Area “Four Beitou Culture Halls” Happy Melodies “2008 Discovery of Beitou Sorceresses” Theme SweetMe Hotspring Resort Exhibit Hall Green Fairies and Flower Celestials (Pressed Beitou Citizen House Flower Artistry Exhibition)

10/18 (Sat) ~10/19 (Sun) Special Holiday Activities Beitou Sorceress Season of Music MRT Xinbeitou Station Plaza Stage Activity Area Experience-It-Yourself Cultural Activities (Tea MRT Xinbeitou Station Plaza Exhibition Area Ceremony, Qilian Stone Cutting, DIY Color Glazing, Flower Pressing) Health Diagnosis Activity “In Love with Beitou, Rippling Emotions” Guided Greater Beitou Area Tours

10/16 (Thurs) ~11/30 (Sun) Celebrating the Moon Activities Beitou Hot Springs Cherished Old T imes Greater Beitou Area Restaurant Fine Cuisine, Promotion Activity

12 Discover Taipei 13 FEATURE A Heritage Site Serving as Time Portal Bringing You into the Timeless World of Confucian Culture and Ceremonies

ept. 28th is a date you need to know more about, for it is the birthday of Confucius, the Great Sage Sand First Teacher (至聖先師), and is thus celebrated as Teachers’ Day in Taiwan. Much more than a day when students can reflect on the contributions of teachers, traditional sacrificial ceremonies honoring Confucius are re-enacted every year at the Taipei Confucius Temple (臺北市孔廟).

The Taipei Confucius Temple is the focal point of the old streets in the Dalongtong (大龍峒) neighbourhood, a place renowned as a home for the scholarly in the past, with distinctive history, cultural conservation, and sightseeing value. The Taipei Confucius Temple is a vital site of Confucian learning, culture and a key city tourist site that possesses historical and architectural wonder that leaves visitors captivated. Visitors line up starting at two or three in the morning to get the limited number of tickets to attend the educational sacrificial ceremonies, which are carried out at the crack of dawn. Locals and overseas visitors who come from far away for the experience, crowd the courtyard with dedicated Confucianist troupes as the ancient ceremonies are conducted with great ritual and age-old symbolism. The air crackles with vitality and spiritual power here, a temple of surpassing artistic beauty and the center of Confucian learning. Be here and you’ll be witness to one of the most important treasures in Taiwan culture.

The temple was constructed from 1925 at the initiative of two of Taipei’s leading citizens, Chen Pei-gen (陳培根) and Koo Hsien-jung (辜顯榮), along with donations from others. That was a large-scale private rebuilding project and finally completed in 1939. The temple was respectfully presented to the Government in 1971, and in the following year the Taipei Confucius Temple Management Committee (臺 北市孔廟管理委員會) was inaugurated, reporting to the city’s Department of Civil Affairs. In 1992 the temple was officially declared a city historical relic of the third grade.

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1.Display on Confucian rites at Dacheng Hall, Confucius Temple. 2.Dance symbolizing the harmony of yin and yang and balance of heaven and earth, demonstrating reverence and veneration of Confucius. 3.The ceremonial music is the earliest known Chinese royal form, the solemn and majestic demonstration a rare and precious glimpse at ancient culture.

The architecture of the complex combines the elements of classic Chinese palaces with select adoptions of the original Confucius Temple in China’s Qufu (曲阜; the Sage’s hometown), fused with the traditional architectural styling of China’s south Fujian province. The key features are Hong Gate (黌門; School Gate), Pan Palace (泮宮; Institute of Higher Learning Palace), Li Gate (禮門; Rites Gate), Yi Path (義路; Righteousness Path), Wanren Palace Wall (萬仞宮牆; Sky-high Palace Wall), Ling Xing Gate (櫺星 門; Patterned Star Gate), Yi Gate (儀門; Ceremonies Gate), Dacheng Hall (大成殿; Great Achievements Hall), and the Dongxi Rooms (東西廡; East and West Rooms), each steeped with symbolism and distinctive character, together composing a grand architectural complex that appears less and less in modern times.

At precisely 6 am on Teachers’ Day the ancient rites begin. They honor Confucius, virtuous scholars, and industrious teachers. Great care and research has been undertaken to ensure the rites are carried out precisely as in imperial times, including specific music, dedicated ceremonial dances, instruments of Confucius’ time, and the meticulous following of precise ritual and rules. You will be educated, entertained, and left awestruck by what you see—something only the very lucky in modern world will ever witness.

The Confucius Temple is now getting a little long in the tooth; as part of ongoing operations to renovate historic sites in the Dalongtong Cultural Garden Zone (大龍峒文化園區), it is undergoing a thorough restoration. Both its features and the Confucianist culture of the place are set to burst back onto the scene with a brilliant renaissance. You are cordially invited to enjoy the refreshing--and refreshed—spiritual vitality of this powerful place and to take in the only-witnessed-here Confucianist ceremonies, all part of the impressive and elaborate 2008 Dalongtong Cultural Festival (2008年大龍峒文化季). Details can be found online.

Ticket Information: 1.Main Confucianist Ceremony: Individual Advance Request: From Sept. 23rd -26th , come in person to Confucius Temple, 2 tickets per person Information Request on Date of Ceremony: On the morning of Sept. 28th, 100 tickets will be given away at Temple on first-come first-served basis, at Hong Taipei Confucius Temple Gate from 5:306:00 （ 臺北市孔廟） 2.Practice Ceremony: Hours: Tues-Sat 8:30am～9:00pm; Sun and On Sept. 27th, practice is open to the public; national holidays 8:30am～5:00pm; the advance request procedure is available to closed on Mon both groups and individuals, and is the same Tel: (02) 2592-3934 as for the main ceremony; on date of practice Address: 275, Dalong St., Datong District 100 tickets will be available at the Temple, in the Website: www.ct.taipei.gov.tw afternoon from 3:304:00

14 Discover Taipei 15 ARCHITECTURE

Taiwan Folk Arts Museum Heritage Architecture that Captures the Japanese-style Past

he structures that house the wonderful Taiwan Folk Arts Museum (北投文物館) have been in place Tfor over a century. They are classic examples of wooden buildings in Japanese style . The various structures of the heritage complex constitutes a garden of gentle breezes and distinctive characteristic in each of the four seasons. In 1998, it was formally declared as a city heritage site; from 2002 to 2007 a comprehensive refurbishment was undertaken, creating a magical synthesis of a courtyard-complex heritage site that is also a recreational getaway for classic tea ceremonies enhanced with musical and dance accompaniment. In 2008, the museum, a site for deep cultural-knowledge exploration for 20 years, once again open its doors to visitors, this time exhibiting a true renaissance in its operations.

The complex was originally opened way back in 1921. It was then called the Jiashan Inn (佳山旅館); “Jiashan”(佳山; “Kayama” in Japanese) means “beautiful mountains.” It was the crème de la crème of the Beitou hot-springs inns built by the Japanese during their 50-year-long period of colonial rule that started from 1895. Its raison d’etre was to serve as a gentlemen’s club for Japanese military officers. Nowadays, the folk-arts museum is thus a cultural treasure of Japanese architectural gems, including the main building and in the Tao-Ran House (陶然居) annex building. On the first floor of the main building is I-Ran Tea House, where offers Japanese tea kaiseki cuisines and presents the traditional Chinese tea ceremony; on the second floor is the Performance Hall, where focus on cultural performances and activities, and showing reminiscent Taiwanese films.

Teru Huang, assistant manager at the I-Ran Tea House, says that “It is a space of peace and tranquility that will bring the visitors back again and again. The five-year refurbishment we’ve undergone is intended to help visitors enjoy this gracious and graceful environment.” The preservation of the original architecture that one appreciates Taiwan Folk Arts Museum is true to the originality and comprehensiveness. This classic heritage site is unmatched as a paragon of Japanese two-level wood architecture.

The two-level main museum building, of appealingly refined wood construction, houses two long rectangular rooms. The slanting, diagonal connecting hallway is in what is called an echelon pattern (雁 行; lit. “wild geese row”) layout arrangement. Each room has a smaller front space in the size of three tatamis, with a main space of six tatamis. The connecting hallway lays out in dark Chinese cypress; the

16 Discover Taipei 17 moment you walk through the front portal you are embraced by the delicate fragrance of the scented wood. To protect the materials, visitors are required to remove shoes and wear only soft, comfortable socks.

The Japanese build their timber-motif inns in a style very different from normal wooden houses. The function of the inn is to provide the traveler an joyful experience different from their daily life. Therefore, the great fastidiousness is shown in the particulars 1 of the interior décor; all of the Japanese-style room doors and windows are works of superb artistry 1.The Taiwan Folk Arts Museum has a history of over which displays the unique creativity and skills of the 100 years, and is a classic model of Japanese wood craftsmen. The airy hallway, which faces the front construction. 2.The I-Ran Tea House uses seasonal courtyard, has its main function that drawing in the flowers to augment the classic aroma of its kaiseki tea- fun offering. 3.The giftshop provides articles of ingenious lovely scenery toward the interior space. make and classical elegance. 4.The 2008 special The Taiwan Folk Arts Museum has a rich trove of exhibition on wedding traditions. 5.Visitors can book special tea ceremonies enhanced with music and cultural artifacts from the Taiwan folk-arts tradition dance. and the aboriginal experience, numbering over 4000 in all. In addition to the permanent exhibit on the south side of the first floor, each half of a Information year would see the opening of a new exhibit on a special theme. You should be sure to spare time to visit The Art of Wedding Traditions (花嫁風情—婚 Taiwan Folk Arts Museum 俗藝術特展) in the second half of this year, which （ 北投文物館） explores the cherished wedding customs through Hours: a grand selection of precious artifacts which 10:00am-5:30pm; guided tours Sat- includes Japanese, Han Chinese, and Taiwanese Sun at 11:00am and 3:00pm; closed native peoples — a cross-cultural exploration of the Mon; extended evening hours for history and traditional rites and ceremonies. Note main building, I-Ran Tea House, and that when you visit you can choose from among Tao-Ran House can be arranged with advance notice. the audio tours in Chinese, English, and Japanese, available all the times. On Saturday and Sunday, Tel: (02) 2891-2318 you can also join tours conducted by expert guides Address: 32, Youya Rd., Beitou District (two times per day) and enjoy a documentary film Website: www.folkartsm.org.tw reminiscing on the glories of old times.

Please refer to the map provided on p.63.

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16 Discover Taipei 17 ARCHITECTURE

Shann Garden Former Residence of General Zhang Xue-liang

he Shann Garden (禪園) is one of priceless treasures in Beitou, located at the unparalleled natural- Tcultural landscape of the unique Hell Valley (地熱谷) area, matched with the nearby hot-springs, important historical architectures, and Beitou Hot Springs Museum (溫泉博物館). With a history of a century- plus as a hideaway hot-springs spa oasis, the area’s abundant traces of history can still be clearly discerned in everywhere you see.

Shann Garden facility was part of the complex of the Xin Gao Hotel (新高飯店), built in the 1895-1945, Japanese colonial peroid. In 1920, it was made as a club for the Japanese military; it was also a final R&R spot during WW II for kamikaze pilots before they headed out on their do-and-die missions. After 1949, it became a place of house arrest for Manchu warlord General Zhang Xue-liang (張學良; of China’s Xian Incident ) when Chiang Kai-shek brought him to Taiwan. Lucky for us, owners after this period were all devoted to keeping all original features intact – even down to the trees and bushes, including Zhang’s favorite cherry trees.

Located directly above the steaming, mysterious Hell Valley, great wafts of sulphurous white steam and cloud often come curling up slowly from the buttom. The building is a centerpiece of a wonderfully pretty tableau, of classical Japanese design, windows intricately latticed, the peaks of the majestic Yangmingshan massif serving as magnificent scenic backdrop. This is a much-loved escape from the city hubbub below, the city’s Arcadia, its Xanadu. Standing here, far away you can clearly make out the distinctive profile of Mt. Guanyin (觀音山). The view is especially scintillating as the sun sets. Whether day or night, the views of the Guandu Plain (關渡平原) and Danshui River rolling by, like miniature movie sits, are riveting. But seeing is believing – best get out there yourself, don’t you think？!

Shann Garden, which covers 1000 ping (1 ping = 36 sq. ft.), is divided into two main sections, a restaurant and the Emerald Tea House (翡翠軒茶坊). Both were main areas in General Zhang’s residential quarters. The interior, of Chinese cypress with ancient Japanese atmosphere, has a compelling rustic simplicity and elegance, and the roof tiles were specially flown in straight from specific Japanese makers. Great care and much time has been poured into maintaining the site’s dignity and style, and from the gallery of the Emerald Tea House you can enjoy a good, close look at the exquisite Japanese roof tiling, stimulating a deeply evocative sense of the artistry and ambiance of vintage cultural flavor.

18 Discover Taipei 1 2

The right side of the restaurant was the main living space of General Zhang. In the former master bedroom visitors now see a large, round, 16-person banquet table for eating Chinese cusines. Elsewhere, the former study, guest room, dressing room, and other rooms have each been made into dining spaces with a round table for 10 diners. Spread out along the restaurant’s left side are the abundant ingredients of the expansive Mongolian BBQ buffet, with the soothing musical accompaniment of either a vocalist or a band from Wednesday to Saturday, from 7 to 9 in the evening.

Don’t leave immediately, dear readers, there are more you need to know about! As a bonus for guests, helping them enjoy more in the beauty of Beitou’s hot-springs sites in Shann Garden, the management has specially installed open-air white-sulfur-spring SPA facilities on the grounds. Manager Ray Chen states that the Garden’s white-sulfur waters are all-natural, unfiltered, and contain minute muddy particles that make it murky. That is, of course, the best condition, for the mineral-rich waters are thus at their most curative. The whitish waters are what locals admiringly call “milk soup” (牛奶湯), chock-full of minerals, believed for enhancing the body’s immunocompetence and great for bones, joints, and relieving arthritis. Diners can enjoy a soft, soothing, salubrious soak for an additional outlay of a mere NT$100, making for two wonderful body-stimulating experiences in a single outing.

1.The white-sulfur open-air SPA facility at Shann Garden 2.The Shann Garden restaurant facility was once the home of a noted historical personage, Zhang Xue-liang 3.The century-old facility well reflects the harmonious aesthetics of architectural yesteryear

Information

Shann Garden（禪園） Tel: (02) 2896-5700 Address: 34, Youya Rd., Beitou District (beside Yangtou Highway) Website: www.shann-garden.com.tw

Please refer to the map provided on p.63. 3

Discover Taipei 19 ARCHITECTURE

The Three Architectural Jewels of Beitou Longnaitang,

I-Tun, 1 Whispering Pines Inn

eitou’s fortunes as a hot-spring resort area began to bubble and percolate during the Japanese Bcolonial rule (1895-1945). Spas lined the valley as thick as carp swimming along a valley stream. Today, among the surviving establishments are Longnaitang (瀧乃湯), I-Tun Hotel (逸屯), originally called Xingnaitang (星乃湯), and the Whispering Pines Inn (吟松閣). These venerable vintage bathhouses are rightfully praised as “The Three Architectural Jewels of the Beitou Hot Springs” (北投溫泉建築三寶).

The hoary Longnaitang was born in 1907, approximately. Its baths are the oldest in stone in all of Beitou. The character “long” (瀧) signifies a hot-spring waterfall, and this heritage spot is thus identified as a “pure bath” (純浴場), meaning communal soaking – no private rooms/lodgings or board. Its style is that of the past, the Japanese essence in its architecture and courtyard simple and pure, the aura deeply redolent of the richness of yesteryear. At just NT$90 per person per session, this is a heritage classic at a fantastic price.

During the era of Japanese overlordship the I-Tun Hotel, then the Xingnaitang, was an R&R enclave exclusively reserved for Japanese military personnel. It was recognized by all as being the hot-spring resort of the highest quality as well. Its styling, inside and outside, today still captures its Japanese essence, and its tasteful and tranquil courtyard and gardens as always still harbors great beauty and elegance. This is a place of contemplation, not self-declaration, an oasis of peaceful serenity, not boisterous revelry.

The pines of the Whispering Pines Inn began whispering their welcome to arriving guests in 1934. The architectural theme is wood, in the traditional Japanese-inn style, and it is stylishly capped with a lovely hip-and-gable roof. In the secluded courtyard the privileged visitor strolls among such treasures as stone steps, a fishpond, and other sculpted-garden gems, the overall effect that of a pleasing miniature tableau in the high mountains. The services here exclusively encompass food and lodgings, not the pure hot-spring spa services. The Whispering Pines is one of the few places remaining where you can enjoy Nakashi (那卡西) musical performances, a traditional form that once could be heard just about every recreational spot in the region.

Information

Longnaitang（瀧乃湯） I-Tun Hotel（逸屯） Whispering Pines Inn Tel: (02) 2891-2236 Tel: (02) 2891-2121 （ 吟松閣） Address: Address: Tel: (02) 2895-1531 244, Guangming Rd., Beitou 140, Wenquan Rd., Beitou Address: District District 21, Youya Rd., Beitou District Hours: 6:30am-9:00pm Hours: 10:00am-10:00pm Hours: 9:00~24:00

Please refer to the map provided on p.63.

20 Discover Taipei ARCHITECTURE

Beitou Puji Temple 4 A Japanese Creation in Chinese Han-Tang Style

uilding was launched on the Beitou Puji Temple in 1905. BIn 1915 Japanese railway workers, along with local officials and gentry, came forward with donations that enabled its completion. Because of this it is commonly called the “Iron True Hall” (鐵真院), for this is one of 2 the oldest, and only, examples of temple architecture practiced by the Shingon (True Words) sect of Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism (日式真言宗佛寺). As a Japanese architecture in the Han-Tang style, completely displaying the architectural features in Japanese Nara and Edo period, with the invaluable structure, manner and preserved cultural artifacts, the temple was declared a city historical relic by the Taipei City Government in 1988.

The temple combines elements of three Japanese religious traditions, that of the Wayo (和樣), Daibutsuyo (Great Buddha; 大佛樣) and Zen Buddhist styles(禪宗樣) . The structure features a single-eave hip-and-gable roof, and its facade is not as wide as most Buddhist temples, featuring three pillar-framed modular bays (三開間). The building is a perfect square rather than rectangular.

The roof is in the traditional Japanese version of the hip-and-gable style called irimoya yane (人母造), the eaves 1.The intimate Japanese- style grounds of the Whispering sweeping forward over the entrance area to create a Pines Inn is perhaps its most alluring vestibule or foyer (玄關). Looking up, the visitor is regaled attraction. 2.I-Tun Hotel (Xingnaitang) was a top- with delicate and beautiful sculpting highlighting the flight hot-spring resort inn during the Japanese colonial era. 3.Longnaitang has the oldest stone brackets and rainbow beams. The overhanging eaves seem bathing pool in Beitou. 4.The century-old Puji to move up in step fashion, what the Japanese refer to as a Temple is a Japanese-built architectural relic in kouhai (向拜; step canopy). In the main hall the raised floor Han-Tang style is covered with tatamis, enabling more comfortable worship when kneeling. To the side of the temple’s main portal is an exquisite window portal in a bell shape; Chinese cypress of Information the highest grade was used as the material, ensuring the preservation of the artwork in the most exquisite condition. Beitou Puji Temple The main deity in the Puji Temple is the Tangshou Guanyin （ 北投普濟寺） (湯守觀音). Guanyin is the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. In Tel: (02) 2891-4386 Japanese, the character tang (湯) means a hot-spring, and Address: thus tangshou (湯守) means “protector of hot-spring.” It is no 112, Wenquan Rd., Beitou District wonder, then, that local Beitou folk see this temple, and this Hours: 8:00am-7:00pm deity, as a crucial cog in their lives, forever on protective watch over their precious hot-spring heritage. Please refer to the map provided on p.63.

Discover Taipei 21 ARCHITECTURE

hat exactly is a “green architecture” W(綠建築), you’re asking Structures that fit in with the local ecology, save energy, minimize waste, and are built on health-enhancing principles—that’s what! In Beitou stands the prettiest library in whole Taipei city, and the very first and foremost green library on this island: the Beitou Branch of the Taipei Public Library.

The library sits perched in the middle of a dense thicket of trees, smack-dab in the pristine eco-environment of Beitou Park (北投公園). The entire 650-ping eco- friendly complex (1ping equals 36 sq. ft.) is made of wood and some reinforced steel, following the natural contours of the landscape. All materials can be recycled, meaning minimal negative impact on the fragile environment, and Beitou’s natural lay of the land has been kept intact.

The effect of the wood motif is an ambiance of simplicity, calm, and dignity, and the building’s features change remarkably as your viewing angle changes. From straight ahead you think you’re looking at a giant treehouse, but if looking from behind and afar you think you see a cruise ship. The effect blends with the thick mists long emanating from Beitou’s hot-spring and pools and works, blending seamlessly with them to create a magical and miraculous world of spirits and spirituality. The green library is as though at the center of a secluded “secret garden” within the tranquil oasis which is Beitou Park.

Taipei’s Leading Green Library A Space for Reading Seamlessly Fused with Mother Nature’s Beauty

22 Discover Taipei 23 ARCHITECTURE

The magnificent sloping turf roof preserves humidity and moisture build-up and drains water to rainwater recycling troughs. The recycled water is used to water plants and flush toilets, playing a key role in the facility’s greenification and reducing water-resource wastage. Rooftop photovoltaic cells are also in place to capture solar energy, capable of generating an impressive 16 kilowatts. In addition, deep balcony coverings and perpendicular 1 wood window latticing reduces the entry of thermal radiation into the interior, lowering energy consumption and enhancing energy-saving efficiency.

In addition, a monitoring system for photovoltaic cells has been positioned on the wall of the first floor, which gives clear indication of the amount of electricity being generated by the solar-cell bank. The many eco-friendly approaches here described led to the library being awarded first prize in the coveted 2007 Architecture Awards (2007年臺灣建築獎首獎).

The facility sports three levels, one below ground and two above. The two above-ground floors have balcony extensions that create a reading space which blends 2 seamlessly with the surrounding natural environments, overflowing with the airs of a rural idyll. Inside lovers of the printed word—perhaps we should say “the printed character” here—can explore a newspaper and periodicals section, reference section, computer-search section, locality documentation section, Chinese-language books area, open-air reading balconies, special-collections section, and much more that will stimulate.

The diversified seating and 110-cm display shelving lend a sense of openness and soaring height to the interior. The oppressive sense of cut-up and cut-off space evident in most libraries by high, large-block shelving is avoided. Liberal use of wall glass allows full viewing of the parkland on the south and running stream on the north sides, and 3 also allows natural sunlight to stream inside, creating 1.From the front the Beitou public-library branch beauty, brightness, and invigorating sensory stimulation. looks like a giant tree fort, and from the rear like a vast cruise ship. 2.Visitors to this Beitou green space What has been created here is a place where one and can immerse themselves in a tranquil reading oasis. all can take full advantage of the right and the privilege to 3.This eco-sensitive architectural masterpiece is made completely of wood and steel. read within a space providing a woven tapestry of green shade and a secluded oasis of solitude and contemplation. So why don’t you hop on the MRT’s Danshui line right now, Information then head down the short Xin Beitou branch line, to get yourself to a place that is physically close yet so very far Taipei Public Library Beitou Branch away from the regular din of the city, enveloping yourself in Hours: the fascinatingly fragrant world of the written word! Tues-Sat 8:30am-9:00pm / Sun-Mon 9:00am-5:00pm; closed first Thursday each month Tel: (02) 2897-7682 Address: 251, Guangming Rd., Beitou District Website: www.tpml.edu.tw

Please refer to the map provided on p.63.

22 Discover Taipei 23 ARCHITECTURE

Discover Taipei’s Hundred Years of Blessings The Ximen Red House Retakes the Stage as Centennial Diva

n the youth-happy Ximenting area you’ll find one of the early city’s boldest and most confident Iarchitectural expressions, Ximen Red House (西門紅樓). This heritage beauty was brought to life way back in 1908 by a Japanese architect, Kondo Juro (近藤十郎), who gave the complex a cross (十) design and gave the main building a compelling octagonal shape. During its century on the local social stage, from its beginnings as Taiwan’s first public food market, all went well until the heartless God of Fire Zhu Rong (祝 融) attacked in 2000. In 2002 the city’s Cultural Affairs Department stepped in to save the day, putting into action its blueprint for Heritage Site Renaissance – Red House Theater (古蹟再造—紅樓劇場), breathing new cultural life into this key yet neglected historical relic. In 2008 the Red House grabbed hold of its original market role once again, becoming a dazzling bazaar for new local-brand creations and for cultural tourism. The theme is to capture the place’s “unique commercial character flair” (商圈特性), and this has been a grand success, the market becoming a must-visit hotspot for local branded articles of great cultural creativity and innovation.

The Ximenting area was specifically created by the Japanese as an entertainment district during their period of colonial rule. Here they created the island’s very first department store. The idea behind the plan was to recreate a little bit of Japan in Taiwan to lift the spirits of early Japanese colonialists far from home. It was also a miraculous eye-opener for local folk, their first exposure to a world of international goods. After WW II, the Japanese were sent back home and the great Kuomintang exodus brought performing-arts talent and Chinese snack-food talent from various corners of China, gathering right here. Though money was tight for most of the non-privileged new-comers in the early years, they flocked to the Red House to eat traditional snacks from their home land and take in home-style stage shows. The local Taiwanese soon acquired a taste for these tasty new foods as well. City folk born in the 1950s, for their part, wistfully attest the key role that the 2nd-run Western films shown at the Red House played in their formative years; the Red House played an important role as a window to the West in those days.

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1.Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin presided over the opening ceremony of the Red Theater century-celebration exhibit. 2.The century- celebration exhibit uses the classical treasure-box display approach to show off myriad historical relics. 3.At the opening ceremony a special traditional folklore-style show was given at the second-level theater.

Visit the grand concourse at the Red House and you see many smiling Western tourists taking in the great and varied panoply of Taiwan-style cultural expression on exuberant display here. The emphasis is on youth and their wild and innovative cultural imaginings and heated quest for vitality and originality. But mixed in is a healthy dose of the silver-hair crowd, who walk at a slower pace and do their own thing because they know who they are, are in no hurry, and know what the best and eternal flavors of life are through long experience. They look on today’s youth and fondly recall their own ostentatious displays here in their own youth. Movies, street dancing, traditional eats, and fashion were long the reasons for visiting Ximenting, but these images disappeared with the demolition of the wonderfully eclectic Zhonghua Market (中華商場) in the 1990s, which had stretched right down the middle of Zhonghua Road for decades. Finally, after the widening of the road and its lining with shady trees, and with the inauguration of pedestrian-only areas and the opening of the local MRT underground and under foot, inviting Ximenting once again emerged as a magnetic draw for city youth, a vibrant hub of exuberant zest for life and living for the moment. This is the Ximenting of today that you must get to.

This year (2008) is the Red House’s 100th year and a big birthday party has already been kicked off. The diverse series of birthday events started on July 30th and will run through Dec. 31st, called collectively Hundred Years of Blessings, Stories of The Red House (百年祝福紅樓物語). Individual special exhibits will have as their themes the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Days (大東亞共榮時期), Drama Arts Flourish Days (影藝薈萃時期), Movie Days (電影時期), and Multi-Diversity of Styles Days (多元風格時期), in chronological order shining a spotlight on the Red House and area’s successive periods of glory while at the same time explaining and celebrating the architectural virtuosity and movement influence of the Red House complex. As they say, “come one, come all,” to experience the grand Red House cultural renaissance— and by “one” we mean “you.” The Red House stands waiting, ready with a gift box of new Red House memories that have your name written on it and stamped “Reserved.”

Information

The Red House（西門紅樓） Hours: Sun-Thurs 11:00am~9:30pm (closed on Mon); Fri-Sat 11:00am~10:00pm Entry: Free (general area) Performances: Purchase of admission ticket necessary for shows in the Octagon Hall (八角堂) 2nd floor theater Tel: (02) 2311-9380 Fax: (02) 2314-2927 Address: 10, Chengdu Rd., Wanhua District Website: www.redhouse.org.tw

24 Discover Taipei 25 FOOD

The Beitou Character Choice Foods Not to Be Missed

Information

Penglai Fried Pork Ribs （ 蓬萊排骨酥） Tel: (02) 2891-2778 Address: 238, Zhonghe St., Beitou District Hours: 11:00am-2:00pm 5:00pm-9:00pm; closed first Mon each month he locally iconic Penglai Fried Pork Ribs (蓬萊排骨酥) restaurant Thas been pleasing happy diners’ palates for over 60 years. What is deftly served up at this popular joint is a well-diversified menu and the most attentive care. Locals come in droves, driven by word of mouth promotion, but what is more startling is that the place even gets repeat foreign guests—and not expatriates but folks from overseas who head back to Beitou when back on the island for some of the renowned fried pork ribs!

The friendly lady owner says that the secret is to purchase only the freshest and best-cut ribs, marinate them for a full day, then wrap them in sweet-potato flour and cook them up only on being ordered, right in front of the appreciative customer. The result of all this effort is the crispiest skin and the most savory, delectable meat, customers just about drooling as they work their way dreamily through their food. You simply must order this recommended dish, but what to do？ You also simply must order the other house specialty as well, the wonderfully names Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (佛跳牆), a terrific and complex traditional Chinese stew that contains pork rib, scallops, abalone, sea cucumber, and more than 10 other tasty ingredients. Let’s hope your appetite is as big as your ambition.

Here, a welcome added dose of friendly hospitality adds to the fact that you enjoy a great meal of substantial quantity at such a reasonable price. After your repast, you are provided with free in-season fruit to help your digestion and get you on your way comfortably to a soothing open-air hot-spring soak in the immediate area. Since we are talking about food here, let’s call it the perfect icing on the cake, the cherry that tops the perfect sundae! This Please refer to the map provided attentiveness has resulted in fervent customer patronage, and the on p.63. boss lady recommends you phone ahead to reserve seats in order to save time waiting with many others who come crowding through the doors at all hours. Don’t say she didn’t tell you!

26 Discover Taipei 27 Your Best Choice after a Hot-Spring Soak Manlai Hot-Spring Hand-Pulled Noodles

eitou is renowned as Taipei’s hottest hot-spring Bhotspot, and in the eyes and heart of Boss Lu (盧老闆), Information owner of Manlai Hot-Spring Hand-Pulled Noodles (滿來 溫泉拉麵), the impression one gets of this district is similar to that of Japan’s Hokkaido, bright, vivid, and bursting Manlai Hot-Springs Hand- with color. And keeping with the Hokkaido way, after Pulled Noodles steeping yourself in a steaming, reinvigorating hot-spring （ 滿來溫泉拉麵） bath, there’s no more refreshing follow-up than a bowl Tel: (02) 2893-7958 of delicious hand-pulled noodles to bring you to that Address: desired state of bliss you seek. This bright idea, you won’t 110, Wenquan Rd., Beitou District be surprised, was born here at Beitou’s very first shop for hand-pulled noodles.

All seats have derrieres in them when meal time rolls around at this tiny yet cozy eatery. So the staff place four or five chairs outside, streetside, for additional noodles dining alfresco style. And stuffed between this already well-stuffed indoor/outdoor space for diners are folks waiting for their takeaway orders; the roar of stomach pangs caused by watching others eat is quite audible.

Bowl after bowl comes rolling out of the kitchen, filled to overflowing with flavour. Start with miso, Chinese pickled vegetables, and white broth or Japanese soy-sauce- based soup stock accompanying the noodles, then add plum-blossom barbecued pork or specially made pork rib, and the salivating begins. Customers that is, not the kitchen staff. Boss Lu says that the house specialty Heroes’ Please refer to the map provided on p.63. Barbecue Pork Hand-Pulled Noodles (英雄叉燒拉麵) sees special demand because it receives her extra-special attention, for she adds extra slices of pork to satisfy the incredible hunger stimulated in customers that have just finished a long hot-spring soak nearby. With the enhanced quantity comes much valued enhanced nutritional value, well appreciated by the “heroes” with manly— and womanly--appetites big enough to down this extra- big meal!

26 Discover Taipei 27 FOOD

Snacks at Common Prices Great Erudition at Chienxi Mandarin Duck Geng Thick Soup

ut of MRT Xin (New) Beitou Station, off to the Oright down Guangming Road (光明路) you go. Keep moving straight ahead, but before you hit many famous hot-spring and spa sights of the area, make it your duty to drop in to the Chienxi Mandarin Duck geng thick soup (千禧鴛鴦焿) street-vendor’s stall, a treasure-house of traditional snack treats. Though small in size this is a spot big in reputation, offering up a number of signature snacks that contain as a primary ingredient of deep culinary wisdom.

“What the heck is mandarin duck geng thicksoup？” ask people not in the know as they walk up. Proprietor Lin (林老闆) has a fail-safe answer: Sit down, have a bite, and then you’ll know, and if you don’t like it, you don’t pay. While he ladles out a bowlful he proudly and warmheartedly advises the customer that “Mandarin duck is my own original invention – using shrimp and squid in traditional thick geng (焿) soup.” Mandarin ducks are famous for the loyalty of couples, and here the couple are shrimp and squid rather than actual duck. Clever.

When you first bite into the dish you’ll no doubt be startled. People wonder how it can be so fresh and savory. Lin explains that he approaches preparation Information in a bold new way, replacing the fish paste generally used to thicken the geng with two types of squid, huazhi (花枝) and ruansi (軟絲). In doing so, not only Chienxi Mandarin Duck is the savoriness of the meat enhanced but the Geng Thick Soup taste of the geng is heightened as well. No artificial （ 千禧鴛鴦 ） sweeteners are necessary, or ever used. Lin also takes Tel: 0919-210-918 deep pride in his traditional braised-pork rice, using a Address: tried and trusted age-old approach to preparation, 220, Guangming Rd., Beitou District first scalding the meat in boiling water to eliminate (beside Wellcome supermarket) any unpleasant fleshy taste, then carefully placing small cuts, done all by himself, in the soy-based broth Please refer to the map provided on p.63. for stewing. Yes indeed, it takes a special skill to make such tender and delectable melt-in-the-mouth morsels as these!

28 Discover Taipei 29 Su Family Beef Noodles In the Top Three of Favorite Local Purveyors

he Taipei City Government launched the popular Tannual beef-noodles festival in 2005, inviting all culinary masters to throw down the gauntlet and enter the competition to see who made the best beef noodles and to introduce the joy of the best in beef noodles to gourmands both here and from overseas. The Su Family Beef Noodles ( ) shop, situated not far from MRT Xin Beitou Station, is a deep favorite with the city’s folk, and for two years running from 2006 has placed in the top three in the prestigious competition. What this means is that it is a place you miss at your own great loss when in Beitou.

You start from the meat, says the owner. The choice is thus Australian beef, to ensure nothing but the very best is given to the valued customer. Information For the noodle soup, to ensure the finest broth only genuine thick broad beans are cooked to maximize Su Family Beef Noodles flavour and aroma while ensuring the Sichuan-style concoction is not overly spicy. （ 粟 家牛肉麵）

The recommended dish of Su Family eatery is Tel: (02) 2893-7803 NT 200 per serving. It not only contains beef but Headquarters Address: 2, Yongxing Rd., Sec. 2, Beitou District delicious marinated tripe and tendon as well, (corner of Datong St.) granting lucky patrons the chance to dig into three types of taste, all extremely popular with locals, in just one sitting. That’s not all, so keep salivating— for your bowl of beef noodles you get to choose the type of noodles that best fits your mood of the moment, including the house-specialty long noodles, regular noodles, bean-flour noodles, or rice-flour noodles.Just follow your heart—it’s right on the way to your stomach. The house also has a gourmet’s selection of 20 side dishes, cold dishes and braised／stewed items, to please your tastebuds and complement your entrée.

Please refer to the map provided on p.63.

28 Discover Taipei 29 FOOD

Taipei’s Special Mid-Autumn Festival Mooncakes With Both Deep Tradition and Infinite Innovation

he mooncake is the very definition of the Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival, and by happy circumstance its Ttastiest traditional treat. Among the favourite choices are the renowned cakes from Leechi Cake Shop (犁記餅店), Kuo Yuan Ye Traditional Cakes (郭元益), or the Suzhou-style mooncakes from Din Tai Fung (鼎 泰豐) restaurant, or other favorite old-time purveyors, and from other five-star fine-food sellers such as the Caesar Park Hotel, Ambassador Hotel, Agora Garden, and Hotel Royal Taipei. In Taipei you can purchase and taste-test to your heart’s content—and tummy’s—for the flavors come in endless variety and the packaging from each uniquely tickles the eye!

Traditional Shops of Long Standing — Fame Firmly Based on Fact Kuo Yuan Ye, a century-old shop, has this year outdone itself with the creation of the Literary Lights ‘Fermented Moon’ Giftbox ( 文采釀月禮盒), directly inspired by the Eight Great Men of Letters of the Tang and Song Dynasties (唐宋八大家). One of the choices is deliciously savory Dong-po Cake (東坡酥), its filling the yellow rice wine and braised Dong-po Pork (東坡肉) invented by literary giant Su Dong-po (蘇東坡), with mushrooms added. This delicious and savory center is embraced with the traditional mooncake pastry that only a century of baking skill can create. Adding to the literary theme are other creations capturing the character of other literary lions such as Li Bai (李白), Du Fu (杜甫), and Ouyang Xiu (歐陽修), the cakes ingeniously wrapped in a cylinder for painting and calligraphy scrolls. In this way you might say that the light of the moon that shone on these literary lights reaches across a thousand years, to shine on you and me.

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1.Kuo Yuan Ye brings a century of baking skills to the kitchen in creating the fragrant and crispy layers of its Dong-po Cakes. 2.Taipei Leechi, another century-old food purveyor, is renowned for its green-bean cakes. 3.Taipei Leechi is also renowned for many other treats, including delicious pineapple cakes. 4.Din Tai Fung offers quintessential Suzhou-style mooncakes and other pastries, rolled under the hand of experienced masters.

Another century-old shop, Taipei Leechi, is known far and wide for its traditional approach to making confectionaries and traditional choice of ingredients. The widespread appreciation for this decision is seen each year around Moon Festival time in almost unbelievably long lineups of excited customers. The savory Leechi green-bean cake was unveiled in 1984, age-old culinary tradition oozing with every bite through the green-bean filling and its accompanying sesame, soysauce-stewed pork, and Beigang (北港) red onion. As they say, the sum is much more than the parts, and this sweet and savory treasure will leave you asking for more. One cake costs about NT$70. Another favorite is the mushroom vegetarian cake, rolled out with a nod to the modern seriously health-conscious customer. The scrumptious innards are mushroom, dried skin of beancurd (豆皮), sesame, and other goodies, added to the green-bean paste, allowing vegetarians to join the happy fray of festival-time green-bean mooncake munching. And here’s an important news flash: among the other numerous treats here are mini green-bean mooncakes (綠豆小 月餅) and non-festival always-in-demand faves such as classic sun cakes (太陽餅) and pineapple cakes (鳳 梨酥), selling for anywhere from NT$15~NT$40 a unit. They sell like hotcakes as soon as they come from the oven—while they still are in fact “hot” cakes, of course—so get ’em while the gettin’s good.

The iconic Din Tai Fung restaurant is known, not just in Taiwan but internationally as well, for such Shanghai-style delicacies as xiao long bao (小籠包; steamed dumplings). But for Moon Festival days a special menu of treats is rolled out, delicious Suzhou-style mooncakes in five flavors: fresh tender meat and jujube, bean, sesame, and taro paste. Master craftsmen expertly work the yellow alkaline noodle dough and oil crisp into two-layer shells, the skin thin and the filling generous, the crispy and flaky texture giving happy eaters much food for thought. Though you are like all other Din Tai Fung patrons, filling yourself with regular savory Chinese treats, make sure to leave enough room for a Suzhou-style mooncake for dessert.

30 Discover Taipei 31 FOOD

Elite Hotel Five-Star Mooncakes — New Tastes and Presentation with a Nod to Tradition For this year’s festival the Caesar Park Taipei is unraveling brand-new tastes building on the classic tastes of Guangdong-style mooncakes, presented to you in dainty yet practical gift-box designs. You have a choice of either the Caesar (凱撒) or Shining Moon (映月) giftbox series. If you opt for the first, inside the classy leather-skin box you’ll have four choice flavors for your Guangdong mooncake: white lotus and egg yolk, nonpareil X.O. cognac, black date with red date and longan, and mochi with bean-paste. The latter, you get eight mini mooncakes of differing taste sensations in each box, each wrapped in a delicate, dainty bowtie, making this a superb gift memento to present to others, whether for the Mid-Autumn Festival or any other reason.

Let’s go knocking now on the doors of the Agora Garden, for what we hanker for now is the traditional cakes containing egg yolk, complemented delectably with pine nut, vanilla, and medlar, or with oolong tea and tea plum, or with fig and sweet osmanthus. The series is enticingly called the Elegant Bright Moon Egg Yolk Cakes (風華明月蛋黃酥). There is also the indescribable Guangdong-style series of custard cakes called the Imperial feast Mooncakes (皇家京饌月餅). Mooncakes have traditionally been heavy and very rich, but these series go easy 5 on the fat and sweet stuff and are easy on the pocketbook

5 too. Last year the Ambassador Hotel had a banner year for sales of its prestigious mooncakes. This year its main cake line is being called, in simple and direct fashion, the Delicious Traditional Mooncakes (好吃的傳統月餅). Its packaging design and inner goodies are seamlessly complementary and have special appeal for your inner child, returning you to a simpler time of the original and pure. Fillings include the hotel’s signature gongbao seafood and scallop (宮保海鮮瑤柱), “top-grade” lotus paste and egg yolk (極品蓮蓉蛋黃), “lovesick cold skies” red bean (相思寒天紅豆), and “golden thread” jujube and longan (金絲棗露桂圓). In addition to this you must make time to try the 6-cake Mooncake Giftboxes (月光禮盒), featuring the tastes of France and Japan via use of ingredients from these culinary meccas. The Japanese version contains assorted nuts (堅果伍仁), the French Marseilles chestnut paste. Both transport you instantly to these exotic places far away.

Finally we pull up before the boutique Hotel Royal Taipei, a destination of long standing and noble repute. Its contribution to the Mid-Autumn culinary revelry this year is the Colored Butterfly Invite the Moon Mid-Autumn Giftbox (彩蝶邀月中秋禮 盒) series, with mooncakes containing absolutely no additives or preservatives. You have two choices, the Colored Butterfly Mooncake Giftbox (彩蝶月餅禮盒) and the Invite the Moon Egg Yolk Cake Giftbox (邀月蛋黃酥禮盒). These cakes are both delicious and nutritious, your mooncake choice nonpareil for 6 today’s health-conscious consumer.

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5.Caesar Cantonese-style Mooncake Giftboxes from Caesar Park Taipei. 6.The Hotel Royal Taipei offers the Moon Egg Yolk Cake Giftbox. 7.The Agora Garden has created the delectable Imperial Feast Mooncake Giftbox. 8.The packaging for the Ambassador Hotel’s Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes is the epitome of purity and simplicity.

Information

Kuo Yuan Ye Traditional Cakes Caesar Park Hotel （ 郭元益食品） （ 臺北凱撒大飯店） Tel: (02) 2834-5211 Tel: (02) 2311-5151, ext. 2431~2435 Address: 546, Wenlin Rd., Shilin District Address: Website: www.kuos.com 38, Sec. 1, Zhongxiao W. Rd., Zhongzheng District Taipei Leechi Cake Shop Website: www.caesarpark.com.tw/taipei.php （ 臺北犁記餅店） Tel: (02) 2506-2255 Agora Garden（亞太會館） Address: 73, Sec. 2, Changan E. Rd. Tel: (02) 8780-1999, ext. 8406 Website: www.taipeileechi.com.tw Address: 68, Songgao Rd., Xinyi District Website: www.agoragdn.com.tw Din Tai Fung（鼎泰豐） Xinyi Branch Ambassador Hotel（國賓飯店） Tel: (02) 2321-8928 Tel: (02) 2551-1111, ext. 2174~2178 Address: Address: 194, Sec. 2, Xinyi Rd., Daan District (corner 63, Sec. 2, Zhongshan N. Rd., Zhongshan of Yongkang St.) District Zhongxiao Branch Website: Tel: (02) 2721-7890 www.ambassadorhotel.com.tw Address: 218, Sec. 4, Zhongxiao E. Rd., Daan District Hotel Royal Taipei（老爺大酒店） Fuxing Branch Tel: (02) 2542-3266 Tel: (02) 8772-0528 Address: 37-1, Zhongshan N. Rd., Zhongshan District Address: 300, Sec. 3, Zhongxiao E. Rd.,Daan District Website: www.royal-taipei.com.tw (B2F, Pacific SOGO Fuxing outlet) Website: www.dintaifung.com.tw

32 Discover Taipei 33 FOOD

Taipei’s Barbecue Joints A Great Indoor Option for 1 Mid-Autumn Festival BBQs

t the Mid-Autumn Festival you must BBQ or else, but you’re Abusy, and getting all the BBQ preparations done means significant expense in both time and money. So maybe the professional barbecue restaurant is what you need. It provides quality surroundings, good service, and all needed accouterments—all you need to make your celebrating convenient and simple.

BBQ, Hotpot — Whatever You Desire Is Yours for Hire It’s all here — all the ingredients you need, in the quantities you’re capable of, for a fabulous feast. Ingredients in splendid variety, guaranteed fresh, for either the Chinese, Japanese, or 2 Western style BBQ or hotpot. This is Jiujiner (Nine Catties Two) Smokeless BBQ (九斤二日式無煙碳燒), which has your cooking apparatus embedded in the center of your table and has charcoal barbecuing. This cooks your foods much faster, meaning flavor is locked in. Your drinks are also, you’ll be happy to know, all-you-can-consume. And it keeps coming—after your meal you can also dig into shaved-ice and ice-cream desserts, and puddings and sweets of many other kinds, to your heart’s and stomach’s content.

In Taipei you’ll also find the inimitable ShaoBa Japanese BBQ House (燒霸日系炭火燒肉店), which also allows you to switch back and forth as you please and for all you desire between barbecue and hotpot dining. Here your fire is from 3 a combination of charcoal and gas. The BBQ and hotpot 1.Jiujiner (Nine Catties Two) Smokeless BBQ ingredients come in mind-boggling and tongue-tickling variety, uses charcoal heating and has ingredients in but don’t forget ShaoBa’s other signature dishes, especially countless variety. 2.At the ShaoBa Japanese the extremely popular beef in soysauce-seasoned stew (滷牛 BBQ House you can enjoy both BBQ and hotpot in tandem.3.Plum River Korean 肉) and spicy-hot duck-blood cakes (麻辣鴨血). Then wash it all BBQ lets you eat till you can’t eat more, down with silky-creamy world-famous Haagen-Dazs ice-cream, an unbeatable quantity and quality duo. which the ultra-generous owner also provides all-you-can-eat. 4.At Duke you can try five different types of handmade breads that accompany numerous types of Western-style kebabs.

34 Discover Taipei 35 Korean Style, Western Style — Special Meat Selections Like an Emperor's Information Table The area of Gongguan in Taipei has a small forest Jiujiner (Nine Catties Two) of top-notch Korean barbecue joints, and Plum River Smokeless BBQ Korean BBQ (梅江韓國烤肉) is the granddaddy of （ 九斤二日式無煙碳燒） them all, pleasing customers more than a decade Nanjing Branch now. The boss lady is a Chinese-Korean lady whose Tel: (02) 2753-4591 ancestors originated in China’s Shandong Province, Address: and because of this pedigree the big attraction at her 1F, 6, Sec. 5, Nanjing E. Rd., Songshan restaurant is the Korean copper-plate approach to District barbecuing. This, along with the fact there is no limit to Civil Blvd. Branch the amount of ingredients you can ask service staff to Tel: (02) 2577-9738 bring, means customers always go away satisfied and Address: 1F, 159, Sec. 4, Civil Blvd. with a very full stomach. The place’s beef, pork, and mutton have all been meticulously steeped in delicious Plum River Korean BBQ marinades. The flattened, partly spherical copper- plate design allows customers to place their tender, （ 梅江韓國烤肉） marinated meat cuts atop the convex section to Tel: (02) 2364-4785 BBQ, and the juices run down into the convex trough- Address: like section on the side, in which you can cook finger- 10, Siyuan St., Zhongzheng District licking, delectable greens that are not oily or greasy in any way. ShaoBa Japanese BBQ House （燒霸日系炭火燒肉店） Kebab Duke is on the other side of Gongguan from Plum River. This eatery is not like your standard Korean Tel: (02) 2711-6120 or Japanese BBQ joint. The kebab is lord here, along Address: with terrific specialty breads. Even foreigners well- 53, Lane 160, Sec. 1, Dunhua S. Rd. versed in the pleasures and intricacies of kebabs and Hours: 12:00pm-12:00am breads sing its praises. The interior is resplendent in the moods of lamp lighting and deep, mysterious blacks Kebab Duke（肉串公爵） and grays, the chic air especially attractive to the Tel: (02) 2368-9816 mod young customers. Duke sets out to sate the "Big Address: 16, Lane 283, Roosevelt Rd. Appetite for Meat" (大口吃肉), accentuating Western- style kebabs and extra-healthy portions. The owner also revels in inventing novel house-only sauces, including American-style, satay, teriyaki, and other variations. The handcrafted house breads are a huge hit with the expat crowd, the five recipes specially concocted to complement the different kebab flavors.

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34 Discover Taipei 35 LIVING IN TAIPEI

Beitou Hot Spring Park Soak to Your Heart’s Content at Great Prices

n 2002 the Beitou Hot Spring Park (北投溫泉親水 Because the mineral waters here are from nearby I公園) was the proud winner of the Community Hell Valley, and have a PH value between 1.2-1.6, Participation in Space Development Outstanding even though they have been diluted, you must Achievement Award (社街區參與營造空間傑出獎) as switch between hot and cold pools if you have a part of the first Taipei Urban Landscape Awards sensitive skin in order to avoid problems. That is why (臺北市都市景觀大獎). The space is centered on the facility has two cold pools using piped water. the Beitou Stream (北投溪) and thus has a thin, The manager advises that the Hell Valley elongated layout, and has the comfortable, waters contain minute traces of radium, and thus rustic Beitou Open-Air Public Hot-Spring Baths (親 radiation. This is a very special phenomenon, found 水露天溫泉) as its core attraction. The facility is in only one other place on the globe, Japan’s Akita built sloping down toward the hot-spring stream. prefecture. The enhanced waters’ powers are On the way up to the stream valley you pass by superb for convalescence, health-enhancement, the exquisite landscaping of Xinbeitou Park (新北 and beauty embellishment. Your entry into this 投公園), the distinctive aboriginal flavour of the magical world is just NT$40, with absolutely no Ketagalan Culture Center (凱達格蘭文化館), and time limit. Visitors also love a round or two in the the exquisite Beitou Hot Spring Museum (北投溫泉博 coin-operated massage chairs in the entrance 物館), a heritage site of the third grade sitting within area. Locals say this is the great value for, and the the lovely Beitou Hot Spring Park (北投溫泉親水公 locals know what they’re talking about! Note that 園). In the valley you finally come to the fabulous in the communal pools here, meaning ladies and fairyland of the mystical Hell Valley (地熱谷) with its gentlemen bathe together, swimgear is obligatory. thick wafts of sulphurous steam twisting skywards. Didn’t bring any? Not a problem, there’s some on The expansive park takes up a total of about 60,000 site for sale. square meters, a grand outdoor display room of Beitou’s natural and manmade scenic wonders. As said, the source of the hot-spring waters at the Beitou Open-Air Public Hot-Spring Baths is Hell What you can do is hop on the MRT system, get Valley. Management of the operations is entrusted on the Danshui line, and get off at the Xinbeitou to a private group by the city government. In 2000, Station. From there walk no more than 10 minutes Ma Ying-jeou, then the mayor of the city and now and you’re face to face with the Beitou Open-Air the president, presided at the official opening of Public Hot-Spring Baths. Head inside and ready the baths and also had a soak and a chat with yourself for fun. You’ll have to choose between hot- other hot-spring-loving citizens. Because of this the mineral-water soaks at four different temperatures, baths are also sometimes unofficially referred to as in four pools. These are adjusted according to the “Millennium Baths” (千禧湯). varying winter and summer climatic conditions.

Information

Beitou Open-Air Public Hot-Spring Baths TAdd: 6,Zhongshan Rd., Beitou District Hours: 5:30-7:45 , 8:30-11:15 , 12:00-14:45 , 3:30-6:15 , 19:00-21:45 Entrance: Full ticket NT$40; concession tickets NT$20

36 Discover Taipei Photo courtesy of Beitou Hot Spring Museum 1

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1.The Beitou Hot Spring Museum, third-grade heritage site, explores the culture and history of the Beitou hot springs. 2.The Beitou Hot Spring Park is focused on the Beitou Stream running down its center, covered with pleasant green. 3.Hell Valley, an enchanting fairyland always shrouded in hot-spring mist, has a water temperature of 90℃~100℃ 4.The water of the Beitou Open- Air Public Hot-Spring Baths contains beneficial traces of radium, great for convalescence, health-enhancement, and beauty embellishment.

Beside the current public baths, just down to the soon come to mysterious Hell Valley, known as one of valley, you’ll see the attractively ornate Beitou Hot the “eight natural beauties, twelve scenic wonders” (8 Spring Museum, housed in a large, classical building 勝12景) of the Japanese era. Here, throughout the year built by the Japanese during their era of colonial rule a thick mist simmers and saunters up and out of the to house public baths for the people of that time. In narrow valley, strangely and hauntingly changing hue today’s museum you’ll gain deeper understanding of in the shimmering sunlight. The phenomenon has led to the Beitou hot-spring culture and history of yesteryear. the lovely moniker, “Jade Mist of the Sulfur Springs” (磺 Up-valley and upstream from today’s public baths you 泉玉霧).

Beitou Hot Spring Museum Hell Valley地熱谷 北投溫泉博物館 Add: Zhongshan Rd. near entrance of Tel: (02) 2893-9981 Wenquan Rd., Beitou District Add: 2,Zhongshan Rd., Beitou District Hours: Tues-Sun 9:00am-5:00pm; closed Mon Hours: Tues-Sun 9:00am-5:00pm; closed Mon Entrance: Free Entrance: Free

Please refer to the map provided on p.63. Discover Taipei 37 LIVING IN TAIPEI

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1.The scrumptious cranberry pineapple cakes at Jiade Bakery 2.The recipe for the soysauce-stewed meat at Shanghai Lao Tien Lu is an old family secret. 3.The Taipei food-and-eats map on a handkerchief is an ingenious and attractive design by Milu Design Co. 4.The Taipei 101 Damper Baby doll

The Perfect Gifts and Souvenirs for the Foreign Visitors Taipei City’s Premium Gift Items 3

hat’s the best gift, meaning both quality and representativeness, that Wyou can take home as presents for kith and kin from an international and cosmopolitan place like Taipei? The answer is being provided for you by the Taipei City Office of Commerce (臺北市政府商業處) with its Taipei Gift – 2008 Taipei Gift Item Promotion (臺北尋禮—2008臺北市伴手禮推廣) program, focused on recommendations from the public and registrations, which are ended on July 10th , by local enterprises, and preliminary selections were made during 4 the period August 1st to 8th. The goal is to select the City’s Most Representative Goods (城市代表商品), Taipei’s Must-Buy Famous Products (臺北必買名品), and Best Creative Concept Products (創意概念商品), with no more than ten entrants in each category. These will be the finalists in a general election for all the people of Taipei to decide the city’s favorite gift items.

In the City’s Most Representative Goods category, the 32 entrants enthusiastically put forward by public and retailers in the first round, including tea, pineapple cakes (鳳梨酥), and city-landmark souvenir-gift series. These are focused on numerous variegated themes--commerce, geography, place of origin, culture, style and flair, livelihood and landmarks. Each item captures a unique characteristic that defines Taipei.

38 Discover Taipei 3

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1.City gift memento - a Taipei walled city keyring 2.City gift memento - Glory of the City Paperweight, an I Love Taiwan memento - gift clock item 3.City gift memento - Metropolitan memories coaster series 4.City gift memento - Little ‘eco-green’ people paired-cup series

In the Taipei Must-Buy Famous Products category, the definition of what is a quintessentially “Taipei” good is that it be a food or gift article that helps to “tell the story of the city,” like quality goods of exquisite craftsmanship and cakes, pastries, and snacks of myriad unique taste sensation. The environment peculiar to this place gives rise to distinguished local-brand farm produce. Taipei’s iconic landmarks have created their own-brand gift items, and local century-old shops offer traditional goods found in only these locations and nowhere else on the globe. You have no doubt heard much detail by word of mouth about such famed retailer and venerable century-old shop brands as the meats stewed in soy sauce of Shanghai Lao Tien Lu (上海老天祿), the famous teas of Dadaocheng’s Wangs Tea Co. (大稻埕有記名茶), and Bright Star Bakery (明星西點麵包), or the innovation of branded products representing the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101, Taipei MRT, Maokong Gondola, and other iconic spots, all of which fly off the shelves. Each of the many familiar and iconic products not only represents the enterprise that has invented and presented it to the public, but is itself the embodiment of a moment in time, a precious slice of the city’s history.

To give new life to old ways, and form the new image for the city, the Best Original Concept Designs (創意概念設計) section has been specially set up. The idea behind this is to bring exposure and serve as incubator for brand-concept products that have not yet reached market or have not reached critical mass, thus fostering the next generation of unique brands that will be responsible for the city’s future brand image.

Whether inspired by the traditional spirit found in the city’s many village-like neighborhoods, or from the world of modern multifunctional-product novelties, this is where you should come to look for clues as to the identity, character, and iconic symbols of this city in days yet to arrive.

Besides, the Publications and Souvenirs Shop on the main floor of Taipei City Hall unveiled a select- choice lineup of 8 premier gift and souvenir items this spring. Take the Glory of the City Paperweight (臺北 市耀文鎮) for example, it features a combination of iconic imagery from the scenic landmarks in each city district, and also has a clever keychain attached. The city-focused souvenir items are being promoted under the clever “The City Is the Brand” (城市就是品牌) concept, promoted as part of aggressive activities spreading the city’s brand image far and wide. The goal is to create an image of this city as a place of travel that is brimming with limitless attractions and boundless originality. This summer a whole new bazaar of ingenious-design items has been rolled out, including a series of paired cups, paired souvenir watches, key rings, souvenir insignia, metalwork bookmarks, exercise-use water containers, LED hanging ornaments—which have tickled the fancy of tourists looking for special commemorative things.

Information

Taipei Gift – Publications and Souvenirs Shop, 2008 Taipei Gift Item Promotion Taipei City Government Event Hotline: Add: 1, Shifu Rd. (Taipei City Hall, main west (02) 2325 5223, ext. 145 entrance facing Renai Rd.) Event Website: Tel: 1999 (Outside Taipei City, www.taipeigift.com.tw please dial: 02-2720-8889) ext.3391 Hours: 9:00am to 6:00pm

Discover Taipei 39 LIVING IN TAIPEI

Taipei, Top-Flight Destination for Medical Tourism

hese days, smart people place ever greater emphasis on Tpreventative medicine, looking at this as the first step in protecting their health. Carrying out its responsibility and its promise to make Taipei a Healthy City (健康城市), last year the City Government, following the national Department of Health’s Medical Service Coordination International Flagship Plan (醫療服務國際化旗艦計 畫), looked closely at coordinating its transportation, tourism travel, medical-treatment facilities, and other attributes to make Taipei a premier choice for medical-tourism travel.

In 2007 the city’s Department of Health launched a plan to combine the Department of Economic Development with the Taipei City Hot Springs Development Association. The visionary blueprint is to bring together all those elements needed to foster a special brand for local medical-tourism travel: the splendid hot-spring natural resources of Beitou, hot-spring hotels, nearby renowned Guandu and Yangmingshan scenic attractions, cooperating Shilin and Beitou district medical-treatment facilities such as Shin Kong Hospital, Yang Ming Branch of Taipei City Hospital, and Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center. Last year, during the Hot Springs and Blooms Festival (湯花戀), part of the Taipei Season of Hot Springs festival, special- event packages combining health examination and spa bathing was promoted; a spectacular success, by popular demand they are being included again this year.

Currently, under the oversight of the Taipei Healthcare Tourism Product Examination Committee (臺北市保健旅遊商品審核委員會), The splendid tea and refreshments three major hospitals and 13 hot-spring spa enterprises have been at Maple Garden Landis Resort brought together to provide various professional packages in six Beitou major types, including options in the high-, mid-, and low-price range plus special upgrade packages in which you pay just 80% of the original package prices on average. These prices are in fact lower than going directly to a medical facility for a straightforward health check-up, and offer super value hard to find anywhere else.

40 Discover Taipei More information is provided below for reference, and you can also visit the City’s Department of Health’s website on medical travel for further details.(Taipei City Govt. Department of Health Healthcare Tourism Website: www.healthcity.net.tw/special/travel_health/product_list.asp)

If you’re interested in trying hot-spring healthcare tourism, you can consult directly by phoning the Taipei City Hospital Yangming Branch, Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center, and Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, and with cooperating hot-spring businesses.

Medical Facility Spa Hotel Special-case Product and Price

Health Examination (choose 1 of 3 options)

package A NT$4,300 (combined Chinese and Western preventative medicine and health examination plus hot-spring bathing)

package B NT$8,800 (Jingying “Elite” M or Zhuoyue “Deluxe” A package featuring health examination plus hot-spring bathing)

package C NT$16,800 (Zunjue “Nobility” C package Taipei City Hospital Maple Garden Landis featuring health examination plus hot-spring bathing) Yangming Branch Resort Beitou Details on Hot-Spring Bathing (choose 1 of 2 options)

(02) 2838-9198 (02) 2898-6866 At the white-sulfur communal baths of the Maple Garden Landis, here males and females can enjoy relaxing nude bathing in separate pools. Treatments include health- Landis Resort enhancing bath products. Also included are tea and light Yangmingshan snacks (if a light meal is desired, there is a surcharge of NT$200), valet parking or shuttle pick-up service at the MRT (02) 2861-6661 Beitou station (with advance notice). The facilities are open every day from 8:00~23:00. As one person receives a health examination, companions (4 people and under) can together take advantage of the rest of the package. Includes communal white-sulfur water pools (separate nude-bathing facilities for men and women), plus one serving of Shanlan restaurant light refreshments or afternoon tea, use of pool filled with mountain-spring water and gym with full facilities. Open daily 8:00~21:00. As one person receives a health examination, companions (4 people and under) can together take advantage of the rest of the package.

choose 1 of 3 options choose 1 of 8 options Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su SweetMe Hot Spring Hotel Memorial Hospital Spring City Resort (02) 2838-9488 Spa Spring Resort Single person Half-Day Health Check, choose 1 of 3 Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Asia Pacific Resort options + Open hot-spring touring choose 1 of 8 options Medical Center Chyuan Du Spring Resort (02) 2826-4525, ext. 2488 Lotus Spa Hot Spring Hotel Taipei City Hospital, Aqua Bella Hotel Yangming Branch Shan-Yue Hot Spring Hotel (02) 2838-9198

choose 1 of 3 options choose 1 of 11 options Shin Kong Wu So-Hu SweetMe Hot Spring Hotel/ Memorial Hospital Spring City Resort/Pacific Beitou Healthcare Tourism package A NT$10,999 (health Hot Spring Hotel/Asia Pacific check for two people, plus hot-spring bath session) Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Resort/Chyuan Du Spring Beitou Healthcare Tourism package B NT$13,999 Medical Center Resort/Lotus Spa Hot Spring (health check for two people, plus hot-spring resort Hotel/Jiabinge Hotspring Taipei City Hospital, accommodation) Yangming Branch Resort Hotel/Aqua Bella Hotel Kyoto Hotel/Beauty Age Spring Resort/Shan-Yue Hot Spring Hotel

Discover Taipei 41 LIVING IN TAIPEI

2008 Taipei Hotel Festival Finding Local Accommodations “In Your Own Flavor”

y Taipei Hotel, My Home! (臺北旅館我的家) This is the slogan of the 2008 Taipei Hotel Festival, and this Mindeed captures the special cozy charm of your accommodations during a stay in the city. Like a family visit, your hosts eagerly await your arrival and then go all out to make your stay unforgettable and make you come back again.

This city is hard at work making itself a homey getaway filled to the brim with green recreational spaces, culture and arts, attractive heritage sites, and other attractions. Her location along major international travel routes, and as the hub of a high-quality domestic transport network, has made her a premium international tourist destination. The local accommodation industry has upgraded in lockstep with this evolution of cosmopolitan sophistication.

The traveler to Taipei is blessed with quality choice. From international tourist facilities to standard tourist locations and on to standard accommodations, the number of hotels and inns, large and small, totals a whopping 351. You’ll have no trouble then finding a place “In Your Own Flavor” (對你味兒). Japanese classical elegance, European-style luxury, modern chic, traditional rustic, and on to rooms with stupendous landscape views and soothing hot-spring resort inns…whatever you desire, it’s here for hire.

If we’re taking an autumn/winter trip, to not spend time in Beitou reveling in some hot-spring soaking is a serious adventure faux pas. Area hot-spring resort hotels and inns do their part for the October Hot-Spring Season (溫泉季) festival by offering valuable package deals that enable you to double your leisure joy, with special One Night’s Stay, Two Meals (一泊二食) and Hot-Spring Soak and Health Check (泡湯+健檢) combo deals. The city’s nightlife is moreover a colorful and zesty circus of festive variation, a tremendous draw for the tourist crowd. The lights sparkle ever brighter and more riotously as the night parties on, but if on any night you don’t feel like heading too far from your hotel for a big pub crawl, not a problem!Stay closer to “home” by sliding yourself in to the plush, upscale pubs or lounge bars that so many of the quality local hotels run—no doubt including your own.

42 Discover Taipei 1 2

The intent behind the 2008 Taipei Hotel Festival is to help you learn even more about the many and varied individual charms and allures of the city’s hotels and inns. The organizer, the city’s Department of Information and Tourism, is printing up 60,000 copies of a specially prepared activity-info booklet in which you will also find a great selection of accommodation and meal coupons, thus giving you both valuable background on the newest and hottest inns and hotels and also giving you preferential deals for a personal exploration. And that’s not the end of it! Inside you’ll also find useful information on such things as special tourist-friendly taxi services and suggested tours around the metropolis, taking you to special spots you might never learn about in your overseas-bought guidebooks. The booklets will primarily be distributed via travel agencies in the country’s center and south, on the HSR (High Speed Rail) network and at some select MRT stations in Kaohsiung. In Taipei you get the booklets at select MRT stations,Visitor Information Centers and those 61 participant hotels at the festival. For details on locations, please dial 1999(outside Taipei City, please dial 02-2720-8889)ext. 7574,or visit http://www.taipeihotel.tw 3 The 2008 grand event includes a special Taipei accommodations exhibition that started July 31st and will run through Oct. 7th. From Sept. 1st through 30th will see the staging of two series of activities, the Hotel Stay, Go Online for Goodies (住旅館，上網拿好處) and Identify the Hotel, Get Big Prizes (猜旅館、中大獎) promotions. On Sept. 21st come enjoy the Hotel Carnival (旅館嘉年華). But don’t head home just yet! During the Hotel Carnival there will be a hotel signature-cuisine sampling activity, a competition pitting hotel personalities against each other, slapstick races in bed-making and wine-glass carrying for invited industry personnel and from related school programs, food and lodging service-staff competitions, and other related performances and activities. Barrels of fun will be served up, so come get your share!

2008 Taipei Hotel Festival – Dates and Events:

7/31—10/7 Taipei Hotel Exhibition

8/15—9/15 Essay Competition 4

9/9 Promotional Media Gathering and Awards 1.The magnificent 170-ping banquet hall at the Grand Victoria Hotel 2-3.The alluring 9/1—9/30 Hotel Stay, Go Online for Goodies restaurant and suites at the Cosmos Hotel Identify the Hotel, Get Big Prizes 4.The luxury extends right through the menu Hotel SP (Sales Promotion) and Performance at the Ambassador Hotel. 9/21 Hotel Carnival Procession of Fine Foods (taste-testing of hotel signature foods) Hotel Know-it-All Grand Competition http://www.taipeihotel.tw

Discover Taipei 43 Lin Hwai-min Founder and Artistic Director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan A Leading Artist And Taipei City at the Heart of Lin Hwai-min

he Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) is perhaps Taipei’s, and Taiwan’s, leading cultural lights. TAnd Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) is the founder and artistic director of that light. Says Lin: “The roaming and drifting in my younger days has given me a lifetime of artistic nutrition.” Lin and his troupe have been to the earth’s four corners, regaling enthralled and sophisticated audiences, to what exactly is the nutrition that Taipei has provided to keep the creative juices flowing? Lin says simply: “The people!” What is the image of the denizen of “Taiwan North”—the literal translation of “Taipei” (臺北) that Lin holds dear in his mind’s eye? “The folks here have a coffee at Starbucks, then go home to drink tea. They go to the National Palace Museum to take in an exhibit, then go to temple to worship, then head home to surf the Internet!” To him, this city is a stimulating, brilliant marketplace fusing East and West, the traditional and modern, and a super-abundance of constantly streaming knowledge and culture.

“In this city, if you ask for directions from a person on the street, they might possibly escort you to where you want to go. In this city, when you hail a cab, 1 the driver often throws in non-stop conversation for free, and more and more are now able to speak English!” In this city, Lin feels, the people are unusually warm-hearted and open. It is the people that often make the deepest and most positive impression on visitors. The culture of open-heartedness and open- mindedness has resulted in a journalist friend from China wonderingly declaring to Lin, after returning to his homeland, that “Taipei is a place so hard to forget, a place of rich traditional Chinese cultural elegance behind a sophisticated modernist international facade, a place that had me mesmerized.” And what are the spots that Lin sees as capturing the quintessential character of his home? Yangmingshan’s Shi-Yang Restaurant (食養山房), the Villa 32 (三二行 2 館) hot-spring spa resort in Beitou, and the magnificent and always alive with people Longshan Temple (龍山寺) in Wanhua District.

What he likes at Shi-Yang is the superb traditional landscaping, organic foods, and Song-Dynasty feel, all of which capture the essential character of Eastern culture and are sources of pride. Villa 32 was named among the globe’s hottest hotels by Conde Nast Traveller in 2006; Lin considers this as Taipei’s very best spot for a hot-spring soak. If you hop the MRT for a ride to Longshan Temple, follow your nose before entering to Herb Alley (青草 巷), right along the temple’s wall on the right side. Here you are transported 3 to a world that exists both today and yesterday, old Mom-and-Pop shops long in the tooth that help citizens feel young at heart with their terrific array 1.Longshan Temple is an of fragrant medicinal herbs and other mysterious healing things. Helpful inimitable model of local information boards in Chinese, English, and Japanese line on wall, explaining religious tradition, dense what is bedazzling you. And do not forget the iconic Tainan Tan-Tsu Mien (臺 with incense smoke. 2.Herb Alley, beside Longshan 南擔仔麵 ) restaurant on nearby Snake Alley, one of the island’s name-brand Temple, is a veritable night-markets. Says Lin admiringly: “There’s no other place like this. You dine pharmacopoeia of on fisherman-invented traditional noodles served on Wedgwood finery and traditional herbal medicines. surrounded by coruscating crystal lamps and chandeliers. This strives to be 3.Tainan Tan-Tsu Mien a place of old-money classic elegance, but better captures the style of the restaurant is a first-class joint with foods served on nouveaux-riches. This makes it so very Taiwan—and so much fun!” Wedgwood. “Tea” and “Taipei” and “Taiwan” can be seen as synonyms. And quality tea is perhaps the best possible idea for a souvenir gift to bring back home to family and friends. You walk into a tea shop, maybe one of the many dedicated purveyors around Longshan Temple, and the question to ask is “Laoban (boss or owner), how much for one liang?(老闆，茶葉一兩多少錢?)” The savvy tourist soon learns that the liang is the key unit, 37.5 grams weight. This passion for the good things in life brings more zest and fun to life! “Especially around the Mid-Autumn Festival,” says Lin, “good mooncakes go together with quality tea like wine and cheese for the French. You just can’t have one without the other!”

If you want a taste of the true Taipei, Lin Hwai-min’s recommendations are the perfect set to start you on your way. Whether during the Mid-Autumn Festival or any other time, you the adventurous foreign traveler have much to savor—and best of all, to savor the best just the way the Taiwanese do!

Discover Taipei 45 LIVING IN TAIPEI

First in the Heart of Lin Hwai-min Shi-Yang Culture Restaurant

in Hwai-min (林懷民) is a busy man. The stage- Lperformance artist is constantly overseas with his dance troupe. But when he has foreign guests here the place he most loves to entertain them at is the attractive Shi-Yang Culture Restaurant (食養山房). There’s no menu here, no conspicuous shopsign. So what in the world is it that draws the great master here? Discovery Channel once sent a crew here for a special shoot, and the director had nothing but praise for the place: take the essential simplicity preferred in the East, express this flawlessly as done here, eliminate the reserve and inhibition of Japan and replace it in all meticulously prepared details with a sense of homey comfort and sense of ease, and you have Shi-Yang.

The tables and chairs are made of thick and solid log. The floors are covered with tatamis. Each dining table is screened from others by a large white partition wall. The walls are adorned with masterly traditional Chinese paintings and calligraphy. Each night after dusk the 1 place comes twinkling to life with candles lined up beside 1.Shi-Yang Restaurant windows and pathways, and Buddhist music wafting lightly is home to age-old through. The setting of mountains and high-peaks air Eastern attention becomes gently imbued with a Zen-like meditative aura. to simplicity and Each recipe of the menu is the personal invention of owner, deliberate spaces of cultured aesthetics. Lin Bing-hui (林柄輝), which follows the seasons and the 2-3.The kitchen whims of the house master and maestro. Ingredients are principles are focused sourced for quality from many a different land--taro paste 2 on freshness and and gaozha (糕渣; tofu-like snack made from chicken lard, health enhancement pork, and starch flour)from Taiwan’s Yilan County, fresh fish and shrimp specially airlifted from Japan, and exquisite sauces from France and Italy. They all add up to Lin culinary classics. With their essential ingredients thus fresh, palatable, and nutritious the courses are whisked to the tables by staff who explain in detail all the culinary notes 3 that make up the particular musical score of this dish. The Shi-Yang dining experience moves far beyond the pleasant filling of the stomach; it is a trip to the culinary opera, the diners transported to a heightened realm of the senses by the inspired and original artistic performance. Information An idyllic mountain-nestled retreat, the Shi-Yang’s high-hills companions are streams, lush green foliage, Shi-Yang Culture Restaurant cloud and mist. Before your meal take a walk; many Tel: (02) 2862-0078 almost forget to come back. At Shi-Yang, both space Add: 160, Lane 101, Jingshan Rd., Shilin and food are seen as art, as is the owner’s approach to life, a life into which you are cordially invited. This District (in Yangmingshan’s “Pine is a special getaway, a nivana hideaway, an entry Garden”) into international sophistication, an entry into Buddhist Website : www.shi-yang.com meditation. A priceless lesson in living and meaning.

46 Discover Taipei Villa 32 , Lin Hwai-min’s Choice as Best of the Hot-Spring Inns

hen foreign friends have come from afar, out-of-body experience stemming precisely from Wperformance-arts impresario Lin Hwai-min likes body sensual stimulation. Beyond natural cooling to take new arrivals to a destination of relaxation for the high-heat mineral waters, the spring waters and rejuvenation where bones and spirit wearied here undergo no filtering or processing. What the from long travel are given sustenance. Villa 32 is the mountains prepare is what you get, all-natural, no place. For just NT$1,500, he says, you are granted alterations. At night, the bewitching mist from Hell a genie’s wish of sensual peace and contentment, Valley (地熱谷) floats high over the oasis gardens four hours of hot-spring spa soaking, lazily gazing behind the villa, and you’d swear you’d put yourself at the floating whites on blue skies background, in a place where fairies live. walls of limestone and foliage of whispering green Villa 32 is impressively expansive, yet there are shades and hues, flower blooms bursting and just five guest rooms. Each has been constructed mineral waters gurgling. This, he says, is one of this at tremendous expense. In the three European- city’s most leisurely and carefree hideaways. style rooms the décor is regal plush, the furnishings At Villa 32 Mother Nature reigns supreme. and sleeping accommodations exuding the feel Seamless fusion with the local ecology is the of continental nobility. The two Japanese rooms aspiration. On the grounds nature is left to conduct have been designed by a respected master from its own art, trees luxuriant and fragrant, the palate the home islands. In the age-old Japanese manner a universe of greens, with no artificial additives. great attention has been paid to the most minute Camphor trees and maples stand like giants long particulars. Top-grade Taiwan cypress has been predating Villa 32, this is their home, the villa simply used for the spa pool outside your door, the primal, a temporary guest. The spa has a complete lineup calming wood wafting in and filling indoors. Here, of soothing water choices—three separate types of “busy” is a dirty word, and watches are put away. hot springs, plus Beitou’s original green and white “Relax” is the word of the day, deep breathing the sulphur springs and high-mountain cold-water approach to the day. springs—and the switching between all adds up to contentment akin to Zen-like speechlessness, an

2 3

1.The Villa 32 grounds are embraced by the mists wafting in from neighboring Hell Valley, creating a fairy-tale paradise ambiance. 2.The creation of an organic space seamlessly fused with the surrounding natural environment has been a success here. 3.The fine food creations have all-natural combinations as their primary focus.

Information

Villa 32 Tel: (02) 6611-8888 Add: 32, Zhongshan Rd., Beitou District Website: www.villa32.com 1

Discover Taipei 47 LIVING IN TAIPEI Foreigner's Reflections on Taipei

From the States, Jason was engaged in historical researches when back home. He found himself growing even more interested in Taipei through the acquaintance with various friends of Chinese descent, and early this year took the adventure-travel plunge, coming to Taipei to pursue Chinese-language studies.

Travel is a major part of Jason’s approach to historical research. He’s traveled far and wide, exploring many lands, including Tibet. Living in Taipei is to him just another style of travel, one more place in his larger explorations of East Asia history. In Beitou he has found a veritable treasure-vault of Japanese-era (1895-1945) cultural and architectural relics, and this has become his favorite local haunt. Beyond the myriad sites of scenic and historic interest related to the area hot springs, he loves visiting the Beitou Puji Temple (普濟寺), which is a hundred years old and still looking great. Jason “You come to Beitou and you’re instantly transported light years Age: 25 away from the roar and thunder in city, embraced by a feeling Occupation: Student of warm comfort!” says an exuberant Jason, who despite his short Country of Origin: USA time in this metropolis, just three months, has gone up to old Beitou (New York) about 15 times already. Reason in Taiwan: Chinese- language studies Time in Taipei: 3 months

Laura, a Spaniard, flew from her homeland to the other side of the globe seeking a new life experience, landing and setting up camp in Taipei. She’s not much more than 20 now, and when asked to describe Taipei and East Asian culture she could only say “incredible!”

Her scheduled time in Taipei was a short 30 days. Before coming here she was aware that Taipei was a cosmopolitan place with an advanced and convenient mass-transit system, making it a choice location as a travel destination. In Spain she bought a travel guide to the city and mapped out a full itinerary of excursions so she could take full advantage of her time here as an international exchange student. The heavy, thick guidebook introduced countless famous sites at length, but the spot that created the deepest impression was Beitou: “Classic architecture that possesses the quintessential character of the Orient, unlike anything I’d ever seen before in my homeland.” Now, after first- Laura hand experience of the city, the deep warmth and friendliness Age: 21 of the people of Taipei has also created the strongest and most Occupation: Student positive of impressions with her. Country of Origin: Spain Reason in Taiwan: International exchange student Time in Taipei: 1 month

48 Discover Taipei Young and very likeable Gladys came to Taipei as an international exchange student, and was fortunate to have a residence right by Taipei Main Train Station, meaning super- convenient public-transport options. She was constantly hopping on and off the MRT system to visit the city’s many famous scenic and cultural sights of interest, and grew particularly fond of heading for the sky-high observatory at Taipei 101 at nightfall, reveling not only in being able to take in the beauty of the setting sun from Olympian heights but also in watching the countless beauties of the city laid out below twinkling to life in the twilight— beauty that left her breathless (“beautiful! amazing!”). Among her other favorite sorties were MRT trips to Taipei’s renowned Longshan Temple (龍山寺) and to the sensational food and goods bazaar, Shilin Night Market (士林夜市), for tasty traditional Taiwan snack treats. She’d never before experienced many of the food delicacies, but to her the most magnificently delectable were the xiao long bao (小籠包; steamed dumplings) and rice noodle soup (米粉湯). Mmmm, delicious! Gladys Among her other not-soon-to-be-forgotten experiences Age: 22 were sojourns to Beitou for hot-spring fun and to the venerable Occupation: Student heritage site Puji Temple (普濟寺). When it came the time to head Country of Origin: Spain back to Spain she was extremely reluctant, and has vowed to come Reason in Taipei: International back to visit again…this time with family in tow! exchange student Time in Taipei: 1 month

Vandy came to Taipei entirely by chance. In the city just under one year now, he currently lives in the Daan District (大安 區) and has been to Beitou twice. The first time was on a quest for personal knowledge, to satisfy himself on the hows and whys of the Beitou hot-spring phenomenon. The second time as a tour guide, for his younger brother and friends were in town and Vandy wanted to be sure they got to experience themselves the joys of Beitou hot-spring bathing.

Emilie, one of the groups of friends, excitedly reports that Vandy went all-out on their grand Beitou exploration. “Vandy certainly didn’t disappoint us, and you certainly get more than your money’s worth in Beitou! First he took us to Hell Valley (地熱 谷) to see the fabulous giant sulphur-spring pool. Then it was off to Beitou Garden Spa (親水露天溫泉), the open-air public baths. Such quality for just NT$40 per person! After that we headed out for some shabu shabu. Oh, that was so delicious!” Vandy, acting as host in the time-honored local style, did everything to Vandy make sure all had a great time, for they had specially come to Age: 21 see him from a place very far away. Naturally he also made sure Occupation: Student to introduce Taiwan’s many special products, such as the local Country of Origin: Spain teas, rich artistic world of carved seals, jade jewelry, and other Reason in Taiwan: specialties, all wonderful mementoes and take-home gifts! International exchange student Time in Taipei: 1 month

Discover Taipei 49 BEST OF THE BEST CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATRE OF TAIWAN Photo by Atsushi Iijima

elebrating its 35th anniversary, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan was founded in 1973 as the first Ccontemporary dance company in any Chinese speaking community. Directed by internationally renowned choreographer Lin Hwai-Min, Cloud Gate transforms ancient aesthetics into thrilling modern celebrations of motion. The 24 dancers of the company receive trainings from the West and the East, including Tai Ji Dao Yin (an ancient form of Qi Gung), meditation, martial arts, modern dance, ballet, and calligraphy.

With frequent appearances in the international arts festivals, including the Next Wave Festival, Cloud Gate has received high acclaims throughout the world. Among them, Cursive: A Trilogy was elected as the “best dance choreography” of 2006 by Ballet-Tanz and Theaterheute, Germany, while Moon Water topped the list of best dance events of 2003 chosen by the New York Times.

Moon Water LIN HWAI-MIN Founder and Artistic Director

Founder and Artistic Director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Lin Hwai-Min is heralded as “the most important choreographer in Asia” (Berliner Morgenpost) and “unchallenged giant in Asia . . . one of the greats of the twentieth century” (South China Morning Post, Hong Kong). He draws his inspiration from Asian cultures and aesthetics to create works with contemporary resonance which has prompted the Dance Europe to acclaim: “No company in the world dances like Cloud Gate. It presents a distinct and mature Chinese choreographic language. The importance of this evolution in Asian dance is no less profound than the impact of Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt on European classical ballet.”

In addition to receiving rave reviews internationally for his choreography, Lin is also a recipient of many awards and honors, including Honorary Doctorates from Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan University, National Chiao Tung University, National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan, and Hong Kong Baptist University; “Choreographer of the 20th Century” by Dance Europe and “Personalities of the Year” by Ballet International; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Department of Culture of New York City; the Joyce Award of Chicago; the 1999 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the so called Nobel Prize of Asia;” and the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award. In 2005 Lin Hwai-min was honored by the Time Magazine as one of the “Asia’s Heroes.” In 2008, Lin was bestowed the French cultural award “Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.”

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan 35th Anniversary Programs Moon Water

26-30 September, 2008 National Theater, Taipei (29-30 September featuring live performances of the internationally renowned cellist Mischa Maisky)

For its 35th Anniversary programs, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan proudly presents Lin Hwai-min’s internationally renowned signature work, Moon Water , at the National Theater from September 26th through 30th, 2008. Topped the list of best dances in 2003, selected by the chief critic Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times, Moon Water has been presented by festivals and venues all over the world, receiving rave acclaims since its premiere in 1998:

Best of the Best Sydney Morning Herald

Moon Water presents a distinct and mature Chinese choreographic language. The importance of this evolution in Asian dance is no less profound than the impact of Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt on European classical ballet. Dance Europe

Taking off from a famous Buddhist proverb, “flowers in a mirror and moon on the water are both illusory,” Lin Hwai-min transforms Tai Ji Dao Yin into an original and expressive dance vocabulary. Set to a selection of J. S. Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello, recorded by Russian cellist Mischa Maisky, Moon Water features a simple stage set with mirrors hung in mid air, reflecting a watery stage and soaked dancing bodies in slow motion towards the end.

In Moon Water, Bach’s cello suites and Lin Hwai-min’s Tai Ji blend together as if they had waited for each other for hundreds of years. Ballet International

51 ARTS

World Premiere

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan 35th Anniversary Programs Whisper of Flowers

3-12 October, 2008 National Theater, Taipei

In 1998 Lin Hwai-min selected slow movements from Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello to create Moon Water , a work of sublime beauty that was raved in dance capitals of the world and was selected as the best dance production of 2003 by the New York Times.

Ten years later, in 2008, Lin returns to Bach’s Suites and uses its fast movements for Whisper of Flowers to celebrate Cloud Gate’s 35th Anniversary.

Whisper of Flowers takes off from Chekhov’s Cherry Orchid with a theme on exuberance fading into an unknown darkness. Lin forsakes characters and drama of the original play and illustrates this universal theme with metaphors.

The work opens on a stage full of red petals. As dancers leap and run with abandonment, petals are splashed into different “geographies.” Wind blows, the petals tremble and scatter, and eventually flow into the wings.

Wind continues to blow. Black human hairs sneak in and roam on the white stage floor. Dancers keep on spinning and jumping, unaware of the changes around them. Hairs are stirred up by their movements and stick to the sweaty bodies until it is too late for them to run away. Hairs continue to float and whirl. . . .

Images of dancers’ plight are reflected onto the two walls of shimmering mirrors, which seem to be derived from the set of Moon Water. In fact, Whisper of Flowers can be considered as a prequel to Moon Water.

While Whisper of Flowers is about exuberance and loss, Moon Water meditates on a quiet and empty state. They make a couplet in contrast styles, yet echo and mirror each other.

Information

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan 5F, 19, Lane 231, Fu-hsing N. Rd., Taipei 10542, Taiwan Tel: (02) 2712-2102 Fax: (02) 2712-2106 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.cloudgate.org.tw

52 Photo by LIU Chen-hsiang Promoting the Brilliance of Taiwan’s Craft Artists The National Taiwan Craft Research Institute

n Nanhai Road in Taipei is a special place of special Otreasures—the Taipei Exhibition Center (臺北展示中 心) – north arm of the Taiwan Crafts Center of the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute (國立臺灣工藝研究所). The NTCRI is based in the center of Taiwan, Nantou County, the Taipei Exhibition Center serving as its window in Taipei. It also serves as a key crafts-information resource for the enjoyment of domestic craft artists, designers, new handicrafts talents, students, studios and factories, and the public at large. Over its history the Taipei Exhibition Center has been the sponsor of a number of highly prestigious awards and events honouring the best in craftsmanship, including the National Crafts Awards (國家工藝獎), National Crafts Lifetime Achievement Awards (國 家工藝終身成就獎), and the Taiwan Craft Products Competition (臺灣工藝競賽), among others. These awards promote and stimulate creative designers, and make known the skills and spirit of creativity found everywhere in the Taiwan trade. Special handicrafts exhibitions are also constantly staged with both local and overseas talents on display to help develop the special culture and characteristics of Taiwan crafts, encourage design innovation, develop the cultural-creative industry, and stimulate international artistic interchange.

In its quest to discover and nurture new handicrafts genius, in 2004 the NTCRI took over oversight responsibility in the selection and entry of local talents in the prestigious annual international TALENTE competition, and in 2007 began exhibitions to show the talents of these successful entrants, the purpose being to help young Taiwan creative-handicrafts artists them enter international crafts competitions and exhibitions. Exposure to the ferment of the contemporary The Taipei Exhibition Center of the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute holds a special domestic-foreign exhibition once a year to serve as a platform for artistic interchange.

international creative arena will act as an in staging this exhibition is to provide inspiration, unbeatable source of creative nutrition and information, and interchange for other talents inspiration for the island’s artistic innovation and aspiring to expand their international exposure and creativity, spreading out before Taiwan creators’ business, helping creators expand into new artistic eyes all the best and newest in this field of artistic boundaries, bringing Taiwan’s crafts creativity and endeavor. By displaying the gifts of these artists culture to the attention of the entire world. in relevant competitions, it is hoped that via the The NTCRI has also come up with a series of NTCRI’s promotion and evaluation they can exciting events to complement the Exhibition for steadily improve their mastery of craftsmanship Selected Crafts, under the collective title “Sharing skill and proficiency and as well deepen the level the Creative Experience and Observations on of maturity and unique individuality in their design the Learning Experience” (創作經驗與考察心得分 and originality. 享), in which the six craft artists introduced above This autumn, opening Sept. 6th and closing Oct. will, on separate dates (Sept. 20th, Sept. 27th, and 12th, is the Exhibition for Selected Crafts in Talente Oct. 4th), share their experiences in the field and 2008 and Valcellina Award (2008國際工藝競賽入 in participating in exhibitions with peers working 選者特展). There are three main categories being in the creative-arts domain and those aspiring to celebrated — metalworks, fabrics, and ceramics – compete in creative competitions. and you’ll be able to inspect and admire the works of six outstanding award winners. Among these are three talented metalwork creators, Wang An-chi (王 Information 安琪), Chi Yu-fang (紀宇芳), and Chen Yuh-shyuan (陳郁璇), all entrants at Talente 2008; Chen Yi-hsin Taipei Exhibition Center, National (陳怡心), who competed in the weaving category Taiwan Craft Research Institute at Talente 2008; Wu Pei-shan (吳佩珊), who competed in the weaving category at the 2008 Add: 9/10F, 20 Nanhai Rd. Valcellina Award International Textile / Fiber Art Tel: (02) 2356-3880 Competition in Italy; and Tang Hsuan (唐瑄), who Fax: (02) 2356-3882 was a competitor in the ceramics section of Talente Website: www.ntcri.gov.tw 2008. Beyond proudly displaying the ingenuity of these new young Taiwan talents, another goal

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2008 2 Taipei Culture Passport Get Crazy for Culture, Play Crazy in Taipei

aunching in 2004, each year the city’s Department Lof Cultural Affairs (臺北市文化局) has brought out an invaluable booklet that guides culture vultures up streets and down lanes on explorations of Taipei’s cultural beauties. This summer the department and the city’s South Village (南村落) are cooperating for the first time on 2008 Taipei Culture Passport (2008臺北文化護照), proclaiming the contrasting theme Roots VS Originality (生根VS.創意) to gaze at both the tracks laid down in the city’s past and gaze into the limitless development possibilities of the future.

5 The program divides the metropolis in accordance with a geographical breakdown, north, south, east, 3 6 west, and contrasts the different characters and 4 attributes of these sectors via two major themes and related activities, “Make a Feint in the East and Attack the West” (聲東擊西) and “Sit in the North, Face the South” (坐北朝南). In addition, six high-quality bird’ s-eye-view maps are being brought out, each with a different tour theme, that users can use for deep exploration of this city’s myriad faces and her countless beauties, both obvious to all and below the surface. These are the Taipei Nature Map (臺北自然地圖), Taipei Tea Journey Map (臺北茶路地圖), Taipei Live Theater Map (臺北劇場地圖), Taipei Independent Bookstore Map (臺北獨立書店地圖), Taipei Aboriginal Culture Map (臺北原住民地圖), and Taipei Map for the Physically Challenged (臺北身障友善地圖). Whatever your need, whatever your interest, there is a map or two or many for you.

1.The Shida Living Circle Walking Tour takes you to Yin Foo-sun’s Residence. 2.The Jiuxiangju (“Old Fragrance Residence”) Bookshop is the organizer of the Taipei Memories: Ancient Books, Secondhand Books, Old Maps exhibition. 3.The Beitou Hot Spring Museum, on the Beitou Living Circle Walking Tour. 4.Liu Wei-gong, associate professor in sociology studies at Soochow University, leads walkers on tours of the city’s eastern district. 5.A Japanese- style dwelling on the Shida Living Circle Walking Tour. 6.The Shida area Shuangyu (“Pisces”) Shop, covered with Japanese ivy (lit. “Climbing the Wall Tiger”) 56 Discover Taipei Discover Taipei 57 There are four huge areas and six big themes. Taipei Culture Passport runs from July through August and on to the end of September, with 37 events. Here are the Sept. events:

9/8, 9/9 Wistaria House (紫藤廬茶館) proprietor Zhou Yu (周渝) invites you to taste-test the house teas while pondering the hows and whys of tea-drinking.

9/13 At the Lin Yutang House, Yangmingshan hills home of the Chinese literary master, writers Chen Yi-zhi (陳義芝) and Han Liang-lu (韓良露) will sit down to discuss the aesthetics of Song Dynasty poet Su Dong-po’s (蘇東坡) life with you.

9/15 The Lin Yutang House sponsors a musical performance by singer Xu Jing-chun (許景淳) and a Su Dong-po Hangzhou Dinner (蘇東坡杭州宴) feast prepared by the Ritz Taipei’s famed Tien Hsiang Lo restaurant (天香樓) to transport you back to consider the delicate tastes of famed Hangzhou dishes in Su’s time.

9/19 Architecture columnist Li Qing-zhi (李清志) takes you on a guided ramble through Ximenting to recapture the fuzzy, yellowing memories of youth and the Ximenting of yesteryear

9/19 Writers Han Liang-lu (韓良露), Hao Guang-cai (郝廣才) , Li Ming-cong (李明璁) , and Yang Zhao (楊照) sit down for a cup of coffee with you to discuss the intellectual ferment of the 1960s and the popular salon-type gatherings of artists and poets.

9/21 Historical-relic preservation specialist Li Qien-lang (李乾朗) explores the streets of old Wanhua district, in pioneer days called Mengjia (艋舺), to uncover traces of its brilliant heyday.

The Roots VS Originality concept is subdivided into representative Past (過去) and Future (未 來) divisions. “Roots” connotes beginnings, “Originality” a lasting flame. “Roots” meaning looking nostalgically at what has been, “Originality” the courage and daring to look at what can be. A beautiful, magnificent city accumulates layer upon layer of experience as the rivers of time flow by to get to the rich and colorful tapestry of today. This year, through 2008 Taipei Culture Passport, from the height of summer through the early bloom of autumn, you’re invited to “get crazy about culture and play crazy in Taipei” (瘋文化，玩臺北) through city walks, nature rambles, nostalgic talks, and a writer’s warehouse of other stimulating activities, grasping the colors and driving passions of this complex- personality city to broaden your understanding of her.

Information

2008 Taipei Culture Passport Website: culturepassport.culture.gov.tw/ South Village Website: www.southvillage.com.tw Activity Information Tel: (02) 8369-2963 (South Village)

The Friendship Exchange and Relics Rummage Sale was held on July 26.

56 Discover Taipei Discover Taipei 57 CREATIVE TAIPEI

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The Bohemian iPrefer Handcrafted Original Creations of Chang Ya-chi

he consumer of the present day is drawn to quality fabrics of handcrafted Tdesign, creation, and dyeing, which are unique items laden with emotion and vitality; that is the approach, and the love, taken at iPrefer by its founder, Chang Ya-chi (張亞琪), where handcrafted fabrics, attire, and adornments are lovingly rolled out. In order to share this love of the emotional side of life, and of beauty and aesthetics, with the public, Chang launched into study of the industry and brought together experienced creative hands of all types of expertise starting in 2000, starting as a greenhorn and ending up with iPrefer, a brand defining quality clothes design.

Approaching the craft from a background devoid of regular professional training in apparel creation, Ya-chi was able to resist the spell of orthodoxy and swim against the tide of accepted opinion. Most contemporary attire shows off the latest in fabric-creation technology, meaning synthetics, and iPrefer has chosen not to go down that road. Instead, it has turned to age-old tried and true dyeing technique, bringing bohemian freedom and creativity to make its artistic works, throwing off the fetters of

58 Discover Taipei Discover Taipei 59 Information

iPrefer Tel: (02) 2627-7758 Gongguan iPrefer: 10, Lane 52, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd. 1.The flagship iPrefer outlet at Miramar Wenzhou iPrefer Market: 82,Wenzhou St. Entertainment Park. 2-3.The iPrefer location at Eslite Bookstore on Dunhua S. Rd. 4-6.Chang Eslite Bookstore Xinyi Outlet: B1, 11 Songgao Rd. Ya-chi uses traditional dyeing technique with Eslite Bookstore Dunnan Outlet: B1, 245, Sec. 1, Dunhua S. Rd. a bohemian style to create trendy, creative, Miramar Flagship Outlet: 20, 22, Jingye 3rd Rd. modernistic accouterments of mind-boggling Website: www.prefer.com.tw/ variation.

the mainstream in favour of exuberant creative individuality. The motto is “people wear clothes” (人穿衣), the variety of selection allowing customers to define their own unique style, jumping past the dullness of mainstream clothing lines that force everyone down the same current.

Says Ya-chi, “From design to batik dyeing to hand-sewing and embroidering, and in all other areas, we make constant breakthroughs in the traditional techniques, synthesizing this with fashionable aesthetics and a contemporary feel. The end-product is a “metropolitan-style bohemianism” (都會式波西米亞風), found nowhere else on this Earth. The designer attire has been a monstrous hot with the young crowd, and the fact that the many different designs are brought out in just small production runs gives each article significant collector value.

iPrefer has been able, spectacularly, to overcome the limitation of the traditional hand-dyeing approach to dark tones. Its selections come in a rich panoply of beautiful bright fabrics and patterns. Customers constantly comment on how this brightness immediately brightens their spirits the

moment they walk through the door. The brand’s entire series of apparel iPrefer Director Chang Ya-chi items exhibit coordinated themes of whites, reds, yellows, blues, and other pastel shades, and the pure and simple articles have ingenious cuts that make them attire of great versatility that fully meets the designer’s concept of clothes “wearing is playing” (著裝即遊戲). As proof of this versatility, you’ll be amazed to find your top can be transformed into a skirt, your silk scarf can be transformed into a top, and your sarong becomes a dress. Go figure! No, really – go and try to figure out how in the world Chang can pull this off!

Brands often serve as declarations of identity and status. But Chang Ya-chi, approaching the game as a Taiwan indie-brand creator, sees the spirit of the iPrefer brand as saying: “One and all can enjoy this beauty!” (人人都可以享受的美好！). The outfit’s apparel prices for hand-dyed items primarily made of cotton and hemp are thus kept within a range of just NT$2,000~NT$8,000. Here, you can walk out the door with pure-silk attire that would cost you NT$20,000~NT$30,000 elsewhere in the city for just half of the price. Says Chang: “What we’ve done here is to create a place where, even if your budget has limits, you can create outfits of striking individual character and bright, eye-catching allure.” Your uniqueness will be clearly declared for all to see, and admire.

At the moment iPrefer has six outlets across Taipei. The flagship store is at Miramar Entertainment Park, measuring in at 80 ping (1 ping equals to 36 sq. ft.) with about half this space taken up by the soothingly relaxing Relax café. Plans are to also set up a free space for independent creators to display and sell their music, poetry, and artworks, in an effort to further foster a heightened sense of aesthetics in the local community.

58 Discover Taipei Discover Taipei 59 PRACTICAL INFORMATION

The 1999 Citizen Hotline Comprehensive Service and with Foreign-Language Assistance

Foreigners living or traveling in Taipei can enjoy the same convenience as local folk in getting help for any questions or problems they might be encountering. Just dial 1999 and then press 0, and on the line you’ll immediately be able to interact with a highly trained service representative in either English, Japanese, Vietnamese, or Thai.

The “1999 Citizen Hotline” (1999臺北市民當家熱線) was set up at the end of 2004, the first such service by a government at any level on the island. Citizens can conveniently get help on any problem relating to municipal services that they might encounter. In 2006 the service was extended to the online world, in keeping with the exponential use of online services by the public. No matter where a person is, he/she can contact the city governmemt or any organization or school coming under its jurisdiction by accessing the relevant web page, which will enable immediate, free Internet telephony access to the hotline. Not only does this help the public resolve problems more conveniently, it also helps citizens save all telephone charges.

In the initial period after the hotline was established, an average of 50,000 calls were handled per month, ranging from straightforward information and consultation inquiries to info about events and activities and on to telephone transfers ; statements, pleadings, reports, and recommendations on legal matters; to help with city outbound-call services and requests for faxing of application documents, and other matters. To ensure the most efficient, effective, and friendly service, the government seeks to grasp and to thereafter best satisfy the needs of the public. The experience of the New York 311 service was looked at for reference, resulting in the 1999 Citizen Hotline Improvement Project (1999市民熱線優化專案) in 2007, targeted at upgrading and updating the information system, simplifying and consolidating the service- provision flowchart, upgrading of the actual service-site facilities, and enhancement of service personnel quality. The ultimate goal in all this was to create an Integrated Center for City Services (市政服務整合中心) that would allow instant access and resolution of city-related matters for the public, by simply dialing 1999.

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AB-1234 Seeking to continually expand the scope of T h e c i t y g o v e r m e n t i s n o t o n l y operations, the number of service personnel has been incorporating the above-listed 16 items, increased to 60, and in addition to steadily enhancing which are the most commonly raised by already-existing services, the city’s far-flung network citizens, into its service system, but has also of various government units and their own special stipulated time limits for resolution. Citizens telephone services are being incorporated into the 1999 who phone in are called back with reports system. It encompasses nine separate organizations and on the handling of their concerns—this 16 major public-service functions: must be done within four hours. The 1999 Citizen Hotline is functioning, as hoped 1 Vehicle-parking violations and planned, as an easy-access and 2 Potholes on roads 8 meters wide or more easy-resolution resource for the full range 3 Problems with manholes of city-service matters. 4 Problems with street lighting 5 Street greenery 6 Ditch damage on streets 8 meters wide or more 7 Potholes on roads under 8 meters wide 8 Ditch damage on streets under 8 meters wide 9 Reports of water stoppage or leakage regarding water service 10 Reports of field or facility noise violations 11 Reports of environmental pollution (air pollution, foul smells,vibration, water pollution, garbage, toxic substances, soil pollution, public lavatories, environmental sanitation) 12 Assistance with disposal of large-scale items 13 Disposal of untraceable neighborhood garbage 14 Clearance of rainwater drainage channels 15 Noise pollution caused by human or animal sources 16 Problems with Trafic lights

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AB-1234 Discover Taipei 61 PRACTICAL INFORMATION

NON-EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBERS

Unit Tel. No. English Directory Service 106 IDD Telephone Service Hotline 0800-080-100 ext.9 Time-of-Day Service 117 Weather Bureau 166 Traffic Reports 168 Tourism Bureau (MOTC) 24-Hour Toll- 0800-011-765 Free Travel Information Hotline Tourism Bureau (MOTC) Toll-Free 0800-211-734 Traveler Complaints Hotline International Community Service 0800-024-111 Hotline Tourism Bureau Information Counter, Terminal 1:(03)398-2194 Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 2:(03)398-3341 Government Information Office, (02) 3356-8888 Executive Yuan Bureau of Foreign Trade (02) 2351-0271 Taiwan External Trade Development (02) 2725-5200 Council (TAITRA) Taiwan Visitors Association (02) 2594-3261 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (02) 2348-2999 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Citizens (02) 2380-5678 TAIWAN EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBERS Hotline Police Radio Station (02) 2388-8099 Unit Tel. No. Additional Information English Hotline for Taxi Service 0800-055-850 ext.2 Crimes, traffic accidents, and other incidents for Consumer Service Center Hotline 1950 Police 110 which police assistance is needed Bureau of National Health Insurance 0800-030-598 ext.3 Information Hotline Fire, injury or accident, or Fire 119 other urgent matters for Taipei City Govt. Citizen Hotline 1999 which emergency relief is needed AIDS Information Hotline 0800-888-995

2 4 - h o u r e m e r g e n c y , Women and legal information, and Children psychological services Source for Above Information: 113 ext.0 Protection for victims of domestic Information For Foreigners Service / Tel: 0800-024-111 Hotline violence and/or sexual abuse/attack Tourism Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications Tel: (02)2349-1500 ※ Entries in red indicate service in English provided

LIST OF TAIPEI VISITOR INFORMATION CENTERS

Designation Tel. No. Address Taipei Main Station Visitor Information Center (02) 2312-3256 3, Beiping W. Rd., Zhongzheng District Songshan Airport Visitor Information Center (02) 2546-4741 Unit 9, 340, Dunhua N. Rd., Songshan District East Street Mall Information Center (02) 6638-0059 Underground Mall 4-2, 77, Sec.1, Daan Rd., Daan District MRT Beitou Station Visitor Information Center (02) 2894-6923 1, Guangming Rd., Beitou District MRT Jiantan Station Visitor Information Center (02) 2883-0313 65, Sec. 5, Zhongshan N. Rd. MRT Ximen Station Visitor Information Center (02) 2375-3096 B1, 32-1, Baoqing Rd., Zhongzheng District Miramar Entertainment Park Visitor Center (02) 8501-2762 20, Jingye 3rd Rd., Zhongshan District Yangming Park Visitor Center (02) 2861-8975 26, Sec. 2, Hushan Rd.,Beitou District Maokong Gondola Visitor Center (02) 8661-8135 8, Sec. 2, Xinguang Rd., Wenshan District

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