We had already seen the other two big cities' story in Asia, Beijing and Shanghai, this time let's see another amazing city, Taipei, which is where I'm from.
If you Google image "Taipei" you will mostly get the image of Taipei 101 which is the most symbolic building in Taipei. Taipei 101 is as known as the Taipei World Financial Center it is a multi-purpose building, if you want to step out from the image of a serious busy city surrounding by skyscrapers and take a breath you can go on the top of Taipei 101 and view the gorgeous city view from the tallest point, and the beauty of this city will amaze you. But Taipei 101 is not the place I want to recommend today.
Today I would like to introduce some other place Eslite bookstore is a place you can relax, read, and spend your afternoon or whole day there. People loves to go to Eslite in
middle of the night maybe take a sip of coffee and spend rest of your night in books. In Eslite you can find almost every kind of published lectures in major languages such as English, Chinese, French, and some others. Eslite usually has café that people can buy books and stay there and eat and read. Go to Eslite had become a “fashion trend” in Taiwan especially Taipei, some tourists listed Eslite as one of the must-to-do when they visit Taiwan and of course my family and I really enjoy the environment in Eslite.
Just like Austin, TX, Taipei is also a place full of live music and independent music. In Taipei we have plenty events every year for people who want to show off their skills and share their music, the
government has push and encourage people to try out for those music events. In Taipei there are many neat live houses for example, Legacy Taipei, THE WALL, and Witch House they have live music concert every weekend. Listen to concert in the live house is different from listen to concert in the big concert, in the live house people dress casually and everything is soft and touches your heart nothing fancy but the purest voice and the power through the music. A lot of singers love to take their guitar, stand on the stage and sing what they feel to sing at the moment, nothing is in rush or worried.
I really liked your post because it is simple and shows a different side of the city. In class and in majority of these blog posts, we have been focusing on the extremes. Extreme poverty or extreme wealth. The posts Shanghai shanghai and The Children of Migrant Workers in Beijing both acknowledge the presence of the bright lights in city and all the luxuries these cities have to offer, whilst focusing on the poverty and decay that is also present. However, those posts and our class discussions have not brought up the lives and surroundings of average people. The video shows Taipei for what it truly is. The essence of the city is not hidden behind lights, and extravagant technology. There are normal people living their lives, going through their daily routines. Nothing fancy just simple and straight to the point. I also like how you chose a bookstore as a second area of focus. Knowledge is something everyone can connect to and gain something from. Something as simple as this can bring so many people joy and happiness.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nolu that your post offers a different view point of the urban life than what we have been focusing in class. I think your introduction of the Taipei well reflects the ordinary folks' everyday life. I also like how there are venues for independent musicians to express themselves in front of a group of laid back audience; these details represent the comfort of living in such an urban city.
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