After 17 months of reconstruction, the 93-year-old Chien-Cheng Circle food market in Taipei's Tatung District reopened yesterday evening.
Due to the two devastating conflagrations in 1993 and 1999, Taipei City Government decided in March 2001 to revitalize the time-honored food market. Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) ordered the demolition of the Chien-Cheng Circle and announced that its reconstruction was one of the projects aiming to revitalize Taipei's older districts.
The reconstruction cost the city government about NT$160 million in construction and NT$50 million in compensation for old vendors residing in the former building.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Located at the intersection of Chungching North Road, Nanking West Road and other four arteries, the Chien-Cheng Circle has been part of the collective memory of many Taipei citizens as well as international visitors because of the Taiwanese delicacies available there all night.
Dubbing the opening of the new circle as "the reappearance of Taipei's halo," the city government yesterday gave away 700 food-tasting coupons of NT$100 each and organized a tour of the historical building.
The tour was led by Chuang Yung-ming (莊永明), who is a vice chairman of the municipal historical research department and also a professor at Taipei Medical University.
Branded Taipei's new delicacies landmark, the brand new Chien-Cheng Circle is a cylindrical two-story glass building accommodating 20 food-vending booths, as well as a performing arts center on the top of the building.
Designed on the theme "the circle of life," the architect Lee Tsu-yuan (李祖原), a nationally distinguished architect who also designed the Taipei MRT's Hsintien Depot, said that he wanted to let people enjoy traditional fare in a modern building, attracting both old and young customers.
Blooming since the Japanese colonial era, the Chien-Cheng Circle was the most bustling and popular night market in northern Taiwan.
In its heyday during the 1960s and 1970s, there were about 100 booths selling popular Taiwanese snacks such as glutinous rice dumplings, oyster omelettes, fish ball noodles, unfried spring rolls and other delicacies.
During the reconstruction, the engineering team unearthed a reservoir from the center of the circle which was constructed by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
The city government has announced the reservoir as the 105th historic spot in Taipei.
Huang Jung-feng (
"It is Taipei's pride," Huang said.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
RSS