14 May 2023
Skyscraper district
Exploring the Qiqi district of Taichung
First of all, I went back and looked at my previous visit to Taichung from 2014. I now realise I had been to the museum with the giant butterfly before, and even the same Japanese themed food street before. But many of the tall buildings I will show tonight were not here then.
The Qiqi district is the 7th (qi) redevelopment zone of Taichung. According to an article I just read, prior to building skyscrapers there were nothing but a few farmhouses here. This explains why it is far from the old city, they didn't just bulldoze and rebuild, they found a new spot for the new city.
The buildings are nice, there are footpaths, but there are no people. I do not think it is a ghost town, but I think most people who live here still go to the old night market areas rather than hang out at a wine bar in Qiqi.
I was bloody starving. First I tried to go for fancy ramen in Japanese food street, but that was a 60 minute wait! at 6pm! So I went back to the food court for pork and beef double steak surprise. It was great.
Here is a new apartment building. Joined at the top.
There are of course malls in this area, I think I ate at this one in 2014, when it was on the edge of town.
This is the Taichung national theatre, a very impressive building.
Example of modern architecture, no scooters anywhere.
I realised my previous shot was the back of the theatre, here is the front.
Very nice clean modern street. Door men look at me with disdain as I went past.
Back close to city hall now, here are some more decorative commercial buildings, the previous ones were mainly apartments, at least on the upper levels, there are always shops at the bottom.
One last architecture shot for this evening. These were all taken hand held, under exposed, and heavily edited to find something viewable. Tomorrow is a rest day. I have no plan!