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Taipei Travel

DISCOVER TAIPEI Mar/Apr 2013 Vol.94

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Roaming Traditional Markets, 

Exploring Taipei’s Many Lifestyles





Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city, takes great pride in showcasing uniqueness of style and diversity of development in its architecture, public facilities, and streetscapes, and in April will be submitting its formal application for World Design Capital designation in 2016. The city is ready and waiting to show the world its sense of innovation and its prowess in the design realm! 



Change and novelty are part of the daily routine of this bustling metropolis, right down into the grassroots culture of everyday ordinary folk. This is true even in places you wouldn’t expect. To see what we mean, just stroll through the city’s traditional markets. Our theme this issue is “Walkabouts Through the Lives of Taipei’s Ordinary Folk,” and taking you to morning markets, night markets, and spruced-up old markets offers a taste of the warmth and friendly sense of community with which local people fill their days.



The city has also added numerous new attractions of late. Open the door to our Taipei New Images department for virtual visits to the recently opened SPOT-Huashan cinema complex at Huashan 1914 Creative Park, the Chen Dexing Hall, which has regained its original, elegant visage following renovation, and the Discovery Center of Taipei, the redesigned entrance area of which invites visitors in with a luminous new image and video presentation. Travelers who enjoy novelty will find these new-milestone destinations worth including in their visit. We also have a special report on the Ten Major Projects of Taipei, now in full 

swing, that are central to a new vision for the city and will repaint the Taipei landscape.



Over in our In-Depth City Culture Explorations department, we introduce you to the unique beauties of Taiwan’s traditional glove-puppet theater, detailing the history and evolution of this colorful art form and presenting acclaimed virtuoso puppet-master Chen Xihuang. We also introduce several places where performance techniques of this old art form are taught.



The city’s spring line-up of cultural-arts events is especially rich this year, with the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, MOCA Taipei, Huashan 1914 Creative Park, and Songshan Cultural and Creative Park all staging world-class exhibitions. Elsewhere, the Taipei Story House is celebrating its tenth anniversary as a museum and 100th as a heritage site, and we’ve specially invited founder and Executive Director K.C. Chen to talk with us about her experience reactivating this historical relic and about upcoming celebrations, including shows and activities—to which you are of course specially invited. In addition, we’ve mapped out a day-tour complementing this year’s Walk Daan Culture Festival, exploring Daan District and its hidden old irrigation waterways and other places of cultural interest.



It’s spring in Taipei, and the range of fun things to do runs the gamut, from physically active to quietly contemplative. Whichever you choose though, in Taipei we guarantee it’s always fun.
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