State-run Chunghwa Post’s recent spending of NT$9 million (US$275,162) to refurbish Taipei’s Renai Road Branch Post Office (仁愛路郵局) has prompted criticism as being wasteful and “privileging the rich and famous” of the nearby upscale neighborhood.
The Renai Road Branch Post Office is just 30m from The Palace (帝寶) luxury apartment complex, reportedly the most expensive property in Taipei.
The post office was chosen as the pilot branch for Chunghwa Post’s project to update the appearance and interior design of its aging offices.
Photo: Huang Li-hsiang, Taipei Times
The upgraded Renai Road branch office has a touch-screen ticket machine, designer chairs and sofas, public tablet computers, reduced-height counters and a calligraphy banner by Buddhist Master Hsing Yun (星雲), among other aesthetic and utilitarian features.
Renai office manager Ho Wen-chin (何文錦) said that members of the public have been enthusiastic about the appearance and convenience of the office since it reopened last week, adding that the response was “good for morale.”
However, some people slammed the Renai Road post office as “wasteful” and “privileging the rich and famous,” especially as Chunghwa Post has been considering downsizing that would result in the closure of about 100 locations nationwide.
Photo: Huang Li-hsiang, Taipei Times
An unnamed Chunghwa Post Assets Operation Division official said that critics of the Renai Road branch office who called the project wasteful fail to understand that the renovation project was “not a simple matter of interior design.”
The money spent on renovating the Renai Road post office branch was necessary to improve the 53-year-old building’s structural reinforcements, piping and electrical wiring and telecommunications, the official said.
While Chunghwa Post wants to make post offices “as pleasant as our customers’ living rooms at home,” only necessary spaces have been redesigned, the official said, adding that the engineering budget for a bigger post office, such as Taipei’s Minsheng Road Branch (民生郵局), would likely cost more than NT$10 million.
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