Taoyuan airport is dreadful
In response to your Taiwan News Quick Take section, I feel one of your pieces vastly understated the deficiencies in the dining options at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (“Vending machines increased,” Feb. 11, page 3).
Food and drinks are far too expensive at the airport and the offerings are far too meager. I would go one step further and say that it’s an embarrassment to the nation.
Taoyuan, the gateway for most international visitors, has the worst airport food options of any airport I’ve visited, and I’ve visited quite a few substandard airports.
It’s not only overpriced, but the dearth of dining options mean that you have to walk for hundreds of meters before finding a place to eat. When you find it, the food available is a blight on the nation’s otherwise vibrant culinary culture. Soggy, mayonnaise-covered pastries for NT$180 each or NT$300 for a sandwich, coffee and cake — is this the best they can do?
Is this really the first and last taste of Taiwan that we want to give international guests?
The food is so dreadful and overpriced, not to mention hard to find, that I can’t help but wonder what politicians the food providers had to pay off to make sure there was no competition. Neither terminal operates many restaurants, with most of the space in both terminals taken up with either blank walls or identikit duty-free shops selling perfume and alcohol.
I realize that duty-free sales are more profitable for an airport than food sales, but there is so much blank space — closed, gray walls — that the airport could easily add more dining options and even a bar without taking away much space from the current duty-free shops.
Convenience stores and vending machines aren’t the answer nor is the recent “Food Fair” that was reported to be held there. I don’t see how adding a few convenience stores and yet another bank of machines that sell the same drinks would improve dining options. Eating a rice triangle with a bottle of tea in a seat at one’s gate is hardly a strong last impression with which to leave the country.
I suggest instead that Taoyuan look to Singapore Changi Airport. If it wants to provide a satisfactory airport experience for visitors, this is the standard to which it must aspire. I also recommend taking a good long look at the Breeze Center at Taipei Railway Station.
This is what Taoyuan should have — an impressive, generally affordable collection of food options, from full restaurants to stalls with food court seating to take-away stands. Add some better food and tea souvenir shops and you would have a truly impressive and comfortable place for passengers to shop, relax or have a meal.
My only question is this: Why hasn’t it happened yet?
Jenna Cody
Taipei
Looking for a real leader
It came to pass after almost three years of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policy of rapprochement with China — which he incidentally now wants people to call “the mainland” — some officials in the Philippines got confused and deported Taiwanese suspected of fraud to Beijing instead of Taipei. Now Taipei is irate, has recalled its representative to the Philippines and is threatening all sorts of measures against Filipinos. Of course, I am over-simplifying the situation, but that is what it boils down to.
Is it any wonder that the international community is confused about Taiwan’s real identity? The “one China” policy is effectively silencing Taiwan’s voice in the international arena.
The People’s Republic of China postures at every opportunity, reminding the world that Taiwan is part of its territory, while Ma’s behavior demonstrates that the appeasement of the communist government is more important than Taiwan’s sovereignty and the dignity of the Taiwanese he has been elected to lead, whose wishes he repeatedly ignores.
His behavior is that of a provincial governor hoping to get in Beijing’s good graces rather than that of an elected president of a free nation. Frankly, it appears as if everything he does is to further his own place in the history books and not for the nation’s future freedom, welfare and rightful place in the world.
His method seems simple. If something makes him look bad, he finds a scapegoat and makes him or her apologize, before tendering their resignation. If something makes him look good, he takes all the credit, hogs the limelight and gives himself a pat on the back by repeating some inane sentiment as to why he and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are on the right track.
Perhaps if Ma started leading like an elected president — if not creating unity within Taiwan at least some common ground, rather than ruling like an emperor bestowing favors only on those who agree with him — his image would improve and foreign nations would start realizing that Taiwan is Taiwan and China is China.
The “one China” policy only works for those eager to further their own agendas. There can be two nations who share a common language, history and past, but have different values and follow different paths, while still respecting each other’s space and choices. There just needs to be a leader who can and will speak up for Taiwan.
Pierre LaPorte
Chiayi City
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