The Taipei City Mall (
Joined by city councilors and well-known entertainers, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-Jeou (馬英九) hosted the opening ceremony for the ambitious project, which took eight years to complete.
"Shopping here gives people shelter from the wind and rain, and the adjacent MRT system is convenient," Ma said.
The mall features 185 shopping units, and is located under Civil Boulevard, from Taching Street in the west to Kungyuan Road in the east.
The shopping area is divided into areas for food, consumer electronics, general merchandise, and clothing and accessories.
The new shopping center shares many of the advantages of the nearby Easy Mall, featuring direct links to transport centers, including the main railway station and Taipei's network of MRT lines.
It is also the new home for the 810 previous shop operators of the China Plaza (中華商場) on Chunghwa Road, which was demolished eight years ago.
The Taipei City government, under former mayor Huang Ta-chou (
The move is part of the government's compensation arrangements for these operators, city officials said.
Former China Plaza operators said they were happy with their new home.
"After eight years, we in the China Plaza have finally found a second home," said Lin Hsien-chung (
"For the past eight years, I have been fighting `guerrilla warfare' throughout the city," said a snack food operator who refused to be named, while serving food to a long queue of customers. "Now business is brisk, even on our first day here."
Current operators also included other business people who had rented space in the new mall from former China Plaza operators.
"I paid a monthly rental of NT$200,000 to six operators," said Kao Ming-tsun (
Visiting DPP City Councilor Yeh Hsin-yi (
"Some of these former China Plaza operators are earning income by renting out their assigned space to other people, and I think it's an expedient measure," Yeh said.
Yeh said the original design of 3.5 pings per unit was too small, and an investment in such a unit is doomed to failure.
It's sensible to allow several units to be combined as a single space and then to rent the space to others, he said.
But not every space was ready for operation yesterday.
The current mall management said only 50 percent of the shops were currently ready for possession -- and the early opening was to encourage business opportunities before the mall becomes fully operational.
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