Wandering along Civic Boulevard the other evening, one of the local temples was putting on a show of movies, projected from proper reel, down the pavement. I am not quite sure who was supposed to be watching, as it only seemed to be the guy operating the projector and his mate in the audience. I don’t even remember if there was any sound. What a great concept, though.
A night at the movies.
IMAX, almost.
Awesome warning signs – sorry about the cam phone quality!
On the way to lunch…
Snapped some snaps at lunch time – what fantastic work sign warning graphics. Somewhat different from the ones I have talked about before … see here:
Cycle Lanes in Taipei
The incredible increasing interest in cycling in the last year is encouraging the city government to install cycle lanes along some of the major streets in the city. It’s a great initiative, and I appreciate the spirit, but next time, how about guiding them away from fire hydrants, up steps less than 20 cm and out of the way of oncoming traffic? One step at a time, chaps.
I had a day wandering the streets in the rain last weekend, and it was well worth checking out some of the nooks and crannies of Taipei that I have not returned to in a while. It has been seriously pissing it down for months now (without much exaggeration) with a seemingly daily shower timed to coincide with leaving the office. Its really getting a bit boring and predictable!
Orange Adidas hit the MRT escalator
A taxi lies in wait
Wandering off to Guanghua Arts District to check out one of the graduation shows.
Zhongshan / Zhongxiao intersection while waiting for the lights to change.
I love Taipei.
All the building developments in the city have an enormous amount of money thrown at marketing and branding, usually ending up gleefully making impossible promises about the life-changing factors that come along with purchase of your, as an example, ‘Noble City Castle’.
However, there are times when the English checking team clearly left early for the day, and you end up with such incredible names as this – opposite the Siemens / Nokia building on MinSheng and Fuxing – it must have made their day.
Town in Town = TiT
And seen in context … of one of the busiest intersections of the city.
Looks like we got an answer to our big question!
Yes. I do!
There has been more than a little controversy over this proposal… which surprise surprise turned out to be a fake, and an attempt to drum up business for the world’s (maybe) tallest building.
The cost for proposing in this way? About 300,000 US$, so you better be sure he/she says yes! (I wonder, is the reply included in the price?).
Taipei 101 – now available for rent … I wonder if she said yes?
… Quite a trend of using the world’s tallest buildings to propose, eh Ele?! 🙂
Coming home from a blast on the bikes, I needed to pop into Sean’s bike shop after shredding another rear tyre. I am, indeed, that extreme.
Sean’s, apparently, does the best business in Taipei. As such, he is having a nice refit with a shiny new frontage. Many of the workers in Taiwan don’t stop for Sunday, so it was no surprise to see them hard at work. What was surprising was to see them drilling through a water pipe several times, and then leave the drill perilously close to the stream of water.
A danger to passers by and to any potential user of the drill, all anyone could do was laugh an embarrassed guffaw when i started snapping away with my camera-phone.
You are now entering a work area
Growing up in the West, there are many things that you assume to be universally acknowledged as a Good Thing, but this is not always the case. Windows are a nice example; in the West, they add greatly to a living environment and raise the value of property by allowing light in and a view to be presented to the lucky inhabitant.
Here, they seem to be a necessary evil, added as an orifice for the air conditioning units. If the small size of the windows was not enough, very often a layer of dark plastic is applied over the top to stop too much natural light in, and bars are then drilled into the fabric of the building. People have explained these bars in various ways – for security, to stop babies falling out, and so on – but I am positive it is much more culturally ingrained than that. I am just sure that the link between the inside and outside world is much less obvious here.
In general, people seem to place much less emphasis on the outward appearance of a dwelling, focusing instead on the interior decoration. This is not always the case, as there are too many stylized European villas and castles to explain it that way, but there is something different going on with the relationship.
Enjoy the view
… it must be, because the Taipei Municipal Government says it is.
