Live Performance @ Xinyi District (信义区)

Along the Xinyi District area, mainly at Taipei City Hall Station (市政府站) area, near Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越), there are various live performances in this area, most of which I noticed are singing or band related performances.

During crowded night time, there are even traffic police standing in the middle of the road, controlling traffic conditions. This is really something very common that I've been observing at various more crowded area of Taipei. In fact, I believe the police might have been there every night, just to ensure that the traffic will be smooth.

This group is perhaps the most popular performers on the street as they mainly performs and sell their CDs of their music with lots of crowd surrounding them, enjoying their performance. I would say that their performance is really pretty good. :)

Apart from Chinese performance, there's also this black american guy (I think), playing guitar and singing on the street.

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Goodwell Cheese House (固德威) @ Eslite Xinyi Store (诚品信义店)

My favorite Cheese House @ Xinyi District (信义区).

The Cheese set meal that comes with 3 dipping and breads.

The sausage platter 

Address: 台北市，松高路11号B2
远企店 台北市，敦化南路二段203号 B2
Hotline: 02 2892 0365
Website: www.g-well.com.tw

How to get here: 

Take MRT (捷运) and alight at Taipei City Hall Station (市政府站) . Exit the building and look around. It should be quite obvious.

Note: There's a minimal spending at this place on a per person basis. We usually have our heavier breaks there, e.g. lunch / dinner. If you did bring the ANZ or Citibank Credit Cards over, you might be entitled to some promotion. :D But I didn't bring mine

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Xinyi Shopping District (信义区)

Obviously, there's the usual (atlas) shopping center: Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越). A pretty common and grand shopping mall in Taiwan. It reminds me of Takashimaya (Ngee Ann City) from Singapore, where the higher floors from level 1 onward sells branded stuff and the basement sells food and other interesting stuff that are less expensive.

Too bad, we aren't there late enough to see the Japanese Exhibition... (日本商品展).

It's at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越) where they celebrates Taiwan's 100 anniversary or was it their own anniversary? Whichever the case, it doesn't matter as there's really huge sales going on, with some of the counter cosmetic products selling at around 70% discount!! I almost bought the eye mask set they are selling if it comes in smaller packs at similar prices.

Address: No. 9, Sōngshòu Road , Sinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110
新光三越信义店, 9号，松寿路，信义区，台北市，台湾110
You just need to  exit from the Taipei City Hall Station (市政府站) and you will be able to see this place.

Of course, along that stretch of road, there are other high class shopping area as well..

Inside one of those shopping malls, I saw this interesting looking seats of a restaurant / cafe I guess, where it has little sushi figuring, hanging on top of big human size cups where people gets to sit inside them.

And there's this antique type writer that I can't help taking photo of at the Eslite Shopping Mall.

And this is the Eslite Bookstore and Shopping Mall at the Xinyi Shopping District (信义区). This is just next to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越) building.

There's a water feature in front of one of the shopping malls.

One interesting sight is that I saw a DBS building in this area!! So proud to be a Singaporean as our banks are located at one of their high class district area. :D

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Xinyi District (信义区) - Taipei City Hall Station (市政府站)

At Taipei City Hall Station (市政府站), apart from all the high class (atlas) shopping experience, you also get to see Taipei 101 and various interesting structures. All you need to do is to alight at the Taipei City Hall MRT Station (市政府站) and get out of the building.

You will see the wheelchair like seats, where kids enjoy playing with.

The robot like statue...

With some luck, you might see other structures around like this "RICH" structure next to one of the shopping malls that I can't help taking photos with.

Here's me imitating the book reading panda :P

And Me again, just wanna feel rich and waving the notes in front of the middle panda..

and me again with my last pose with the cute RICH pandas.. :D

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WuFenPu Fashion Area (五分埔)

As mentioned previously, the Houshanpi Station (后山埤站) is a commoner shopping area where Wu Fen Pu Fashion Area (五分埔) is located at. Near the area, was the Rainbow Bridge (彩虹桥) and Raohe St. Night Market (饶河街观光夜市). 

Here's the map to the area:

Address: 台北市信义区五分埔 (110, Taiwan, Taipei City, Sinyi District, Wufenpu)

How to get there: As shown on the map above, Take the MRT (捷运) to Houshanpi Station (后山埤站), Take Exit 1.

Once you reach the Wu Fen Pu Fashion Area (五分埔), you will see lots of fashion shopping area. As I was there too early so mostly what we see are mainly those few shops that are opened which is the kids shopping zone. There's an entire stretch of shopping street selling just kids and dogs clothes!!

Finally, we reach somewhere that sells adults fashion clothes but due to the weather being autumn, most of the clothes are preparing for winter so we didn't managed to get anything. (I was here at around mid to end Oct)

Of course, we managed to find some tasty butter Crepes (可丽饼) sold by Mr Crepes (可丽饼先生)

Spotted a very cute and interesting looking helmet.

 Quite a number of Temples is located in the area...

With an interesting street decoration...

Here's the rainbow bridge!! Wasn't interesting in the day probably it's the decoration and lighting at night that's interesting but I was too tired after various days of shopping and walking around to walk over and take a look again when night falls.

Here's the yellow bridge nearby as well.

There's the Raohe Night Market (饶河街观光夜市) just a short walk from the Rainbow bridge but because it's only opened from 4pm, we gave it a miss and didn't visit it again at night. Neither did we drop by during our next trip. It's in my bro and sis-in-law's itinerary so let's see what they got to say about this night market when they get back :)

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Shopping @ Sinyi District (信义区)

At Sinyi District (信义区), there's 2 main shopping area:

1. Taipei City Hall Station (市政府站) - High Class (Atlas) Shopping Area
2. Houshanpi Station (后山埤站) - Commoner Shopping Area - Wu Fen Pu Shopping District (五分埔)

As recommended by our guide book,  for full day tour, we should visit the Taipei City Hall Station (市政府站) first, followed by Houshanpi Station (后山埤站) as the Wu Fen Pu Shopping District (五分埔) is more of a night market type of place, so a lot of the shops aren't quite opened too early in the morning.

However, during my first Taiwan trip, I didn't quite noticed this part and ended up visiting the places in the opposite order which means, I was shopping at a almost dead town as the shops aren't mostly opened, with lots of stores selling dog clothing (that resembles kids clothes) and real kids clothing. So, the Taipei City Hall Station (市政府站) is still opened at night so not that bad. Just that we probably need to visit the Wu Fen Pu Shopping District (五分埔) again the next time round.

We learned a lesson of reading the recommended guide area prior to the trip in order not to waste our precious travelling time. :)

The good thing is that, we still got to see the Taipei 101 building in both day and night view. The night one is pretty much more spectacular than the day view thought. So, I'm still pretty glad that I was nearer to the building when night falls.

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