Taipei 101
The city’s tallest building, Taipei 101, made sure its Christmas tree stood out from the crowd by cooperating with Tiffany & Co to create a fantasy gift tree. The 15m-tall tree sits on top of a giant Tiffany & Co gift box in the luxury jeweler’s signature blue and white packaging, while the tree itself is cloaked in countless more gift boxes.
WHERE: Taipei 101 (台北101), 7, Xinyi Rd Sec 5, Taipei City (台北市信義路5段7號)
WHEN: Until Jan. 4, 2009
DETAILS: Daily from 5pm to 6am. Tel: (02) 8101-8898
Core Pacific City Mall
Made with 35,000 LED lights and 350 silver balls, the conical 11m-tall Christmas tree outside City Living Mall contrasts with the shopping center’s globular structure.
Although LED lights cost more than traditional bulbs, they are an environmentally friendly choice that reduces the tree’s carbon footprint and saves the mall a packet in electricity costs, spokeswoman Chou Yong-pui (周永蓓) said.
WHERE: Core Pacific City Mall, also known as City Living Mall (京華城), 138, Bade Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市八德路四段138號)
WHEN: Until the middle of next month
DETAILS: Lights go on daily from 5pm to 10:30pm. Tel: (02) 3762-1888
Xinyi Vieshow
Xinyi’s Vieshow has, unsurprisingly, opted for a cinema-themed Christmas tree. A gigantic roll of film spirals upwards to create a conical shape for the “tree,” adorned with stills from classic Hollywood films. The scarlet frame of the Vieshow building and the blue Christmas lights on neighboring trees complete the theatrical Christmas scene.
WHERE: Xinyi Vieshow (信義威秀), 16 Songshou Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路16號)
WHEN: Until Wednesday
DETAILS: Daily from 6pm to midnight. Tel: (02) 8780-5566
Breeze Center
The fashionable Breeze Center shelled out a hefty NT$20 million for its 14m-tall Christmas tree blanketed by LED lights that give an icy silver glow. The half-dozen trees nearby are similarly outfitted in silver lights to resemble snow-covered trees, creating the atmosphere of a winter wonderland on the streets of Taipei.
WHERE: Breeze Center Civic Boulevard Entrance (微風廣場市民大道入口處), 39, Fuxing S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段39號)
WHEN: Until today
DETAILS: Sunday to Wednesday from 5:30pm to 9pm; Thursday to Saturday until 10pm.
TEL: (02) 6600-8888
Miramar Entertainment Park
Against the backdrop of Miramar Entertainment Park’s towering Ferris wheel stands a 10m-tall Christmas tree — erected in the middle of the complex’s fountain. The tree is decorated with gold-sequined ribbons, red and green balls and 40 strands of sparkling LED lights. As the lights change color at regular intervals, the tree resembles a brightly garnished multi-tier cake.
WHERE: Miramar Entertainment Park (美麗華百樂園), 20 Jingye 3rd Rd, Neihu Dist, Taipei City
(台北市內湖區敬業三路20號)
WHEN: Until Feb. 9, 2009
DETAILS: Daily from 5pm until the following morning. Tel: (02) 2175-3456
June 2 to June 8 Taiwan’s woodcutters believe that if they see even one speck of red in their cooked rice, no matter how small, an accident is going to happen. Peng Chin-tian (彭錦田) swears that this has proven to be true at every stop during his decades-long career in the logging industry. Along with mining, timber harvesting was once considered the most dangerous profession in Taiwan. Not only were mishaps common during all stages of processing, it was difficult to transport the injured to get medical treatment. Many died during the arduous journey. Peng recounts some of his accidents in
“Why does Taiwan identity decline?”a group of researchers lead by University of Nevada political scientist Austin Wang (王宏恩) asked in a recent paper. After all, it is not difficult to explain the rise in Taiwanese identity after the early 1990s. But no model predicted its decline during the 2016-2018 period, they say. After testing various alternative explanations, Wang et al argue that the fall-off in Taiwanese identity during that period is related to voter hedging based on the performance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Since the DPP is perceived as the guardian of Taiwan identity, when it performs well,
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on May 18 held a rally in Taichung to mark the anniversary of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20. The title of the rally could be loosely translated to “May 18 recall fraudulent goods” (518退貨ㄌㄨㄚˋ！). Unlike in English, where the terms are the same, “recall” (退貨) in this context refers to product recalls due to damaged, defective or fraudulent merchandise, not the political recalls (罷免) currently dominating the headlines. I attended the rally to determine if the impression was correct that the TPP under party Chairman Huang Kuo-Chang (黃國昌) had little of a
At Computex 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) urged the government to subsidize AI. “All schools in Taiwan must integrate AI into their curricula,” he declared. A few months earlier, he said, “If I were a student today, I’d immediately start using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini Pro and Grok to learn, write and accelerate my thinking.” Huang sees the AI-bullet train leaving the station. And as one of its drivers, he’s worried about youth not getting on board — bad for their careers, and bad for his workforce. As a semiconductor supply-chain powerhouse and AI hub wannabe, Taiwan is seeing
RSS