Halloween is right around the corner and you still don’t know what to dress up as. You’ve been to the costume stores in Ximending (西門町) on Hanzhong Street (漢中街) and the good ones are already spoken for. It’s time to get creative on the aptly nicknamed Halloween Street, a block northwest of Taipei Main Station. This two-block area on Changan Rd (長安路) between Chongqing North Road (重慶北路) and Chengdu Road (成都路) boasts 14 stores that sell a variety of Halloween supplies ranging from disco wigs to swords filled with fake blood to superhero costumes for toddlers.
The Holiday House (節慶屋) at 95 Changan W Rd (台北市大同區長安西路95號), tel: (02) 2559-4897 is geared more towards women with the requisite flirtatious Little Red Riding Hood and risque female versions of Captain America costumes. Prices are between NT$499 and NT$599 for adult costumes and NT$100 less for children. Unfortunately, the Holiday House seemed like a Christmas store moonlighting as a Halloween shop.
A few steps down the road is Lucky House (吉祥屋) at 109 Changan W Rd (台北市大同區長安西路109號), tel: (02) 2550-0262. At first, the list prices on everything seemed to be a bit higher than the Holiday House, but soon the owner came over and started offering better deals. She turned out to be a spirited bargainer and a costume that contained a hat, wig and sailor’s dress went from being NT$970 to NT$750 with a few clicks on the buttons of her oversized calculator. Eventually, a price of NT$700 was settled on, but not before using the time-honored pretending-to-walk-away tactic of negotiation.
Photo: Marcus Aurelius
Technically not on Changan West Road but worth mentioning because it’s very visible from the intersection at Changan and Taiyuan is Party World Thematic Warehouse (派對世界) at 63 Taiyuan Rd (台北市太原路63號), tel: (02) 2559-9758. This two-level shop had the widest selection of all with kids’ costumes, fairy wings and tons of pirate paraphernalia. One of their specialties is all shapes and sizes of mylar balloons, which ranged in prices from NT$100 to NT$450 filled with helium. Overall, Party World would be the first place to shop to decorate for a Halloween party.
A few other tips for this area would be to do a walk through of all of the stores before making any purchases. Never pay the actual price on the tag for anything if it’s over a few hundred dollars. Add items together and ask for a group discount. If you want to dicker with the salespeople, they are more willing to cut down the prices, but do it out of earshot of other customers. Also, try to go at a time that is less busy. Every night from now until October 31 will be crowded with people looking for last-minute costume ideas. A stroll through in the early afternoon is recommended.
The Taipei Times will have complete Halloween coverage — from bars and clubs to dance halls — in next Friday’s Features section.
Photo: Marcus Aurelius
In the space of a few decades, Taiwan has changed from a place where characterful old buildings were thoughtlessly bulldozed to make space for wider roads or bigger homes, to a society much more likely to cherish physical reminders of the past. The authorities have poured money into restoration and renovation work. According to a Nov. 10, 2020 post on Tainan City Government’s Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage Web site, in the first nine months of 2020, the Ministry of Culture’s (MOC) Bureau of Cultural Heritage approved 13 such projects in the southern city, setting a total budget of NT$281.6 million.
Writing about environmental issues can be dispiriting, but the outlook isn’t entirely bleak. Here in Taiwan, in recent decades, public attitudes to the environment have certainly changed for the better — even if citizens’ daily behavior doesn’t always reflect the priorities they express in opinion surveys. In this country as elsewhere, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) make it easier for concerned citizens to support and participate in conservation work. Nonprofits have played a key role in several successful environmental projects, including the two profiled below. SOCIETY OF WILDERNESS AND SHUANGLIANPI Protection of habitats and natural ecosystems is a core objective of Society Of Wilderness
The greatest worry Ma Yu-chuan (馬幼娟) has about death is not properly saying farewell to a loved one. And she should know. The practising Muslim recalls that she had a falling out with her father when she was in college. One night he tried to make amends, but she angrily rebuffed him. He died in a car accident the next day. “Why do we fear death?” is among the many questions posed in the first corridor at the Museum of World Religions (世界宗教博物館) in New Taipei City, where Ma serves as director. There is no correct answer, she says, but
Every day for the past 14 years, 72-year-old Masaoki Tsuchiya has set out before sunrise to search for a bird rescued from extinction in Japan. Starting his car under star-dotted skies unpolluted by light, he works alone in the pre-dawn chill, marking sightings or absences in a planner, interrupted only by the crackle of a walkie-talkie. The bird he is looking for is called “toki” in Japanese, and its presence on his home of Sado island is testament to a remarkable conservation program. In just under two decades, Japan’s population of wild toki has gone from zero to nearly 500, all on Sado,
RSS