Songkran Taipei - PrThaiairways.com

CITY OF THE MOMENTThis page,clockwise from topWith thedevelopment ofthe Xinyi district,Ximending – knownas the “Shinjuku ofTaipei”– has becomeslightly less crowdedSkater boys ofXimendingEclectic fashioncan be found in thepopular Xinyi andXimending districtsBut what a collection it is. Dating back 8,000 years,it spans the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Thereare so many bronze, jade, ceramic, painting and historicalartefacts that both galleries combined would take 12years to show them all. The rest are stashed in mountainstrongholds nearby. Whether Chiang, who was derisivelyknown as “Cash-My-Check” in the western diplomaticcircles of the time, wanted to safeguard the collection orsaw it as the spoils of war is still open to fierce debate.What isn’t questioned, however, is the role thatthe collection has played in propping up the arts in thecity. “The sheer breadth and quality of it allows themuseum to trade pieces with the best museums in theworld,” says Frank Mueller, a nauseatingly good-lookingChinese art PhD candidate from Berlin. “When you canget access to the Louvre, British Museum and New YorkMet, it filters down through the entire community. Ideasbecome that much easier when you can see Picasso, theMoscow Ballet, Damien Hirst and van Gogh for a fewdollars each week.”By the time we get to the Xinyi district, anentertainment and commercial hub punctuated by fivestarhotels, the towering Taipei 101, fancy boutiques,flashy clubs, bars and eateries – and even flashier boys andgirls – I’m not thinking much about art.I’m hungry. I’ve also grown a slight limp thanks toWu’s Jiufen death march.According to the locals who know, Din Tai Funghad been serving up the best xiao long bao, or steameddumplings, for decades before it was “discovered” andvoted the world’s seventh best restaurant by The New YorkTimes in 1993.It’s one of the omnipresent ironies of the Taiwan-Chinarelationship that much of the best of Chinese culture isfound outside the Middle Kingdom’s borders. Food is one ofthese areas where Taipei holds its own with its Shanghai andBeijing big brothers on the mainland.Din Tai Fung doesn’t disappoint. Each steamedbamboo basket gives way to elegant pork, shrimp andcrab roe pleated dumplings, each one filled with anintense broth that ostensibly renders it the inverse ofchicken and dumpling soup. We churn through sixbaskets between the three of us.My friend calls them “foie gras taste for a potatochip budget”. We debate whether they are the snackfood of the people, before agreeing that they areindeed the People’s Champ – but only if that champwas wrapped in a robe of layered sophistication.It’s a fitting end to a highbrow day. And onethat will pick up again tomorrow when we check outthe Taipei Fine Arts Museum. But for tonight, it’soff to one of Xinyi’s frenetic watering holes and ahealthy dose of self-medication to wash the real, orimagined, aches away.THAI operates daily flights to Taipei. For moreinformation, please visit www.thaiairways.com36