Taoyuan Nights

Presently, the Red House in Ximen district is hosting a digital art exhibition, “Openplay“, which is free for the public to visit. The artwork includes graphical, audio, video, physical and interactive exhibits. The exhibition is open until Sunday, from 2pm in the afternoon till 10pm in the evening (Saturday) or 9pm (Sunday). You can play [...]

Do you have an Apple Mac or an iPod? Then this may be useful if you ever need to get it repaired.
Although there are a number of Apple stores in Taiwan, most of them do not offer a repair service themselves. Instead, they will accept your damaged Mac or iPod, and post it off [...]

While walking around a buxiban area near Taipei Main Station, I came across what I think was a school, which had a giant map on the wall of the English-speaking countries of the world. As you can see, it’s quite interesting and unusual.

Map of the UK.
Today’s Lesson: The capital cities of the United Kingdom!
London, the [...]

From the Taipei Times, July 31 2007:

New report paints mixed picture for housing market
By Jessie Ho and Amber Chung, Tuesday, Jul 31, 2007, Page 12
The housing market continued to boom in the second quarter as both the value and quantity of properties for sale increased, but whether the supply would be absorbed [...]

Many of you will have heard of the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ $99 laptop project. I’ve had my eye on the OLPC for some time, but it was never clear that I would ever be able to actually buy one. Unfortunately (for me), the OLPC project is targetting developing countries, and is not selling to [...]

Here are some thoughts I’ve been musing over for many months, since I first arrived in this country.
Point 1: Old people are screwed. Can’t get a good return from the bank on their lifelong savings, because of low interest rates. Can’t effectively invest in assets like housing and stocks (prices are sky high, since people [...]

You can now easily find the Nintendo Wii in Taipei – for example, in K-mall (near the Taipei Main Station) and also at malls nearby many MRT stations.
The normal Wii is typically priced at $7999 NTD. If you look around, you should be able to find places selling it with a modchip pre-fitted for [...]

One of the biggest problems I face when shopping in Taiwan, is that prices magically start rising as soon as people see me. Mobile phones, hard disks, you name it – prices often shoot up to 50% higher than what they would otherwise be, particularly for high value items such as electronic goods.
Heck, I’ve [...]

Previously, I wrote about a quick trip I paid to Banqiao at night by mistake. I went back again the next day, on my way to Taipei, to see how the place looked during the day.

Banqiao has some reasonable green area nearby the HSR, MRT and train/bus terminals.

Tequila Sunrise – 42 XinSheng S. Rd., Sec 3, (02) 2362-7563, Hours: 11:30 am-2 pm/5:30 pm-10 pm. Near Gongguan MRT station.
If you felt like eating Mexican food, Taipei might perhaps not be the first place in the world you’d pick to dine. And rightly so, this meal would unfortunately seem to indicate – [...]