Taipei Travel

Major cities in Asia tend to have multi-storied buildings selling electronics. In Bangkok it is Pantip Plaza, in Singapore it is Sim Lim Square. Here in Taipei it is Guanghua Digital Plaza and Syntrend Creative Park, two buildings side by side. These buildings are accessible by a short walk from Zhongxiao Xinsheng Metro stop. While Guanghua seems to be the bread and butter of electronics for sales, Syntrend is fashionable, elegant advertising. Guanghua has six floors of computer related electronics, gaming, toys, knick knacks, toys, all crammed into each vendor’s store space. Syntrend’s displays are spacious, high end for design, and usually paid for by major companies like LG, Samsung, Sharp, Huawei, Microsoft, and others. The architecture of Syntrend is unique and modern. All the major companies are here: Asus, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba, Vaio, Razer and other brands for electronics. Syntrend features lifestyle electronics so TVs, washing machines, massage machines, fans, etc are there for the showing by LG, Sharp, others. Also sold toys, creative arts and crafts, which is why it is called ‘Syntrend Creative Park’. There are actually 12 floors in this building with a movie theatre at top, but I got only to 9th floor of restaurants, before taking elevator down. I actually had a lot of fun browsing the floors in this building. Getting back to metro, a block away, I walked through narrow lanes lined on both sides by little restaurants, all busy selling snacks and foods. It was such a neat little food street, really cute.

I was expecting to find some cheap electronics there, but the prices were at the same USA level. This made clearer to me that Taiwan is not China in the real world. But the place has a large variety of things, this is true. Anyway I recommend the visit if you are in Taipei.

This place gives you a fantastic choice of electronic goods - that I can’t deny. You can find everything there. Take your time and compare prices as there are so many stores all selling the same product. However I have found that sometimes I can find the same product on Amazon cheaper or more up to date. The advantage of going to Guanghua is you can discuss the product with the seller. Go with à Chinese speaker or the storekeeper may lose patience ! It’s the Ali Baba’s cavern of electronic goods. There’s a small food court downstairs so you can spend more time there!

This plaza is the typical IT plaza you’ll find across Asia. Small shops on multiple levels, selling every possible computer part and accessory you could think of. Along with printers, audio parts and accessories, phone accessories and general tech bits and pieces, you’ll find it all, somewhere in this plaza. Prices seemed to be average, with no real bargains to be had. As always, it’s best to know what you want and what prices you’ll pay back home, before making an impulse purchase here. There is also a small food court on the ground level, offering a variety of local dishes at very reasonable prices. We had beef noodle soup from the second stall and it was really delicious. We also had freshly squeezed apple and pineapple juice from the third stall, which was also delicious and fresh and no filler, just juice. The mall had restrooms available that were free of charge and of average cleanliness. Remember to take the toilet paper from the outside of the stall before entering the stall, as there is no toilet paper within the stalls.

Good place to spend an afternoon. Lots of electronics stuff for techies and those left behind by the digital age (like me). Haggling is accepted, vendors are generally polite and friendly. Bring cash because they give discounts for cash purchases. Toilets were old but clean, with plenty of paper towels provided. There's also a food court on the 1st floor for those who want to rest and eat. Overall, a very good place for digital finds at reasonable prices