Landmark consigned to history

Watching the excavator reduce her work place to rubble, 65-year-old Cheng Pao-yueh (鄭寶月) could not help but weep.

Cheng has sold rice porridge at the Chien-Cheng Circle (建成圓環) in Taipei's Tatung District for over 40 years. Yesterday morning she came back to catch a final glimpse of the circle before the Taipei City Government began to demolish the 93-year-old food market to make way for the construction of a modern, two-story building housing 50 food-vending booths and a performing arts center on the 500-ping (1,650m2) site.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now. My heart just aches to see it torn down like that," she said.

The NT$600 million, 16-month project is part of Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) ongoing efforts to revitalize the city's older districts.

Supervising the demolition project yesterday, William Chen (陳威仁), director of the city's Bureau of Urban Development (都發局), said that the city's revitalization project was in high gear.

"As soon as the demolition and clean-up project is complete, which may take about a week, we will plant trees and lay out lawns. The reconstruction project itself, however, may not begin until May," he said.

The Chien-Cheng Circle, located at the intersection of Chungching North Road and Nanking West Road, has been one of the city's better-known landmarks since the Japanese colonial era. At its peak during the 1960s and 1970s, there were about 100 booths selling such popular Taiwanese snacks as glutinous rice dumplings, oyster omelettes (蚵仔煎), and meatballs.

Two devastating fires in 1993 and 1999, however, prompted the city government to ponder the future of the time-honored food market.

Cheng said the 1999 fire, which started in the kitchen of her booth, had cost her a lot, both financially and emotionally.

"I had to spend more than NT$3 million on renovations after putting up with being harassed by other vendors whose booths were damaged in the fire. The city government should at least have found me a suitable place to continue my business before it tore this place down," she said.

Chen Chen-sheng (陳震盛), director of the Tatung District Public Service Society (大同區民眾服務社), said that although the city offered NT$530,000 to those vendors who chose not to move back after the reconstruction, those who intend to move back are not entitled to take advantage of the offer.

"It's because the city has set aside 25 booths for those who are interested in moving back. Also, we could continue our business at the nearby Yung Le Fabric Market (永樂市場) in the meantime. But, to be honest, it's a bad choice because the market is closed after 2:30pm and the vendors over there are very hostile to us," said Chen, 62, a second generation oyster omelette seller at the circle and one of the 25 vendors planning to move back.

Chen said that at first he opposed the revitalization project but eventually gave in.

"Reconstruction costs much more than remodeling. The land alone cost the city NT$450 million, not to mention the NT$160 million in reconstruction costs and the NT$50 million cost of compensation. I just hope that the revitalization project will work and bring back more customers," he said.