For better or worse, Taipei's Xinyi business district offers a wide variety of restaurants, nightlife and entertainment. It's been good to have a lot of choices close to the office and hotel, but as a result I've only been out of the area a few times.
On one excursion, I visited the two memorial halls to the founders of moden Taiwan, Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek. Both were built with traditional Chinese architecture, if in a monumental (i.e. big and imposing) style. Also in both, a small set of honor guards patrolled in formation below huge statues of the two men. Finally, both are utilized often for public events - in the Chiang Kai Shek memorial's broad plaza, the government had erected a patriotic display of highlights from across the island, a series of large aerial photographs showing everything from mountains and beaches to city landmarks and humble villages.
That's the tourist side - Taipei's nightlife is much more interesting. Back in Xinyi, highlights included the Warner Village and New York New York shopping centers, abuzz with teenagers and young adults. Warner Village in particular is a movie/shopping complex built by the American Warner Brothers firm and its modern but bland design looks straight out of Los Angeles (at least to me). Nowadays big-budget movies launch across the globe simultaneously, so I saw Batman Begins and Mr. and Mrs. Smith at Warner Village with McKinsey colleagues. Also in the area, Brown Sugar, a swanky jazz bar, and Cash Box, a popular karaoke chain, provided some R&R after long weeks of work. Taxi drivers in the Greater China region provide an interesting window into their local cultures. Cabbies in Hong Kong and Shanghai are very efficient, but rarely talk to you, even if you try. Beijing cabbies, on the other hand, can talk your ear off and are generally well educated (or at least opinionated). On the flip side, they're the most likely to rip you off if you don't know your way around. Taipei's cabbies are in between, relatively efficient (the cars are clean and tech-savvy) but friendly and often talkative. Obviously, taxis only tell you a bit about the local cuture, but in this case they do match Taipei's reputation as a warm and welcoming place.
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