Taipei's oldest food market, the Jiancheng Circle (
The city spent more than NT$200 million (US$6.17 million) to turn the market into a modern, two-story building housing 25 food booths and a performing arts center. But it finally conceded that the project was a failure.
The market failed to regain its competitiveness because of the building's design and problems with vendors, the Taipei City Markets Administration Office said yesterday in a written statement.
The Jiancheng Circle, located at the intersection of Chongqing N Rd and Nanjing W Rd, was once a city landmark. At its peak during the 1960s and 1970s, there were about 200 booths selling such popular snacks such as glutinous rice dumplings and oyster omelettes. But devastating fires in 1993 and 1999 contributed to the market's decline.
In 2001, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Food vendors who moved in to the new building, however, complained that its modern design did not reflect the market's history and culture. They said a lack of promotion and assistance from the city government also hurt business.
"The renovated circle is like a model, which is not practical at all. The glass design doesn't give a traditional, cultural feeling, and it's like a labyrinth inside," Chen Chen-sheng (陳震盛), former president of the Jiancheng Circle vendor association, told the Taipei Times.
Tseng Shin-ren (
"I decided not to move in after seeing the blueprint. The new booths were very small and the building lacked character," he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chen Yu-mei (
"But I will fight for the rights of the vendors and save these traditional flavors for next generations," said Chen, who is sponsoring an event tonight for residents to remember the market.
The Taipei City Markets Administration Office has given each vendor a relocation subsidy of about NT$800,000.
It plans to turn the market into a Taipei delicacies promotion center, which will open next month.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
RSS