Taiwan Storyland

After my meetings in Taipei on Monday, some gracious people from the office took me for dinner here.

It’s almost impossible to know where to begin with this.

Since most of the historical bits of Taipei have been razed to build desperately needed shopping malls, some clever entrepreneur decided to re-create an “olde tyme” Taipei neighborhood. In the basement. Of a shopping mall.

You enter the neon-clad K Mall near the Taipei central train station. Walk past aisles of flat screen TVs and digital cameras (cheap!) Then take the down escalator and arrive in a simple bygone time. It’s like Mayberry, ROC. There’s a giant fake tree in the town square. There are rooms fitted out like an old police station, a general store and a school. At the end of the tour they have a restaurant (where we ate) which serves traditional Taiwanese fare.

(Quick tip for Westerners abroad! If you’re out at a restaurant and you ask, “What is this meat?” And your host smiles and says, “Why don’t you try it first and decide if you like it?” The meat will be one of the following: 1) liver, 2) intestines, 3) tongue or 4) ???potpourri???.)

Amidst the kitsch there was a stage for a puppet show. That’s me between the puppets.

I'm back in Hong Kong now. Will be home in Shanghai on Friday.