Someone told me there was some big Christmas market in town? Anyone have some info on it?
Beside 101, called Strasbourg market,very busy ,small, sold out most stuff on weekend.
Thereās videos on Youtube on how long the queue is.
The market itself is in the fountain area on the north side of 101. The line wraps around all of 101 from the north side.
Also hear itās not worth the wait.
According to what I heard ā¦ entrance fee: 500NT$
iāve not heard anything good about it either.
Oh shame. Times like this I wish I was in China. I just lower my shoulders and ram through grandmas and childrenās alike to get to the front of the line.
I heard the entrance fee can be used a vouchers to buy a things.
Lao Ren Cha had a lengthy blog post about it being mostly terrible:
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^Lol her Trudeau-Tsai phone call post is pretty awesome.
Ouch sounds terrible. I was hoping for more of a festival like thing with lots of food and drinks.
In the Bellavita mall lobby you can play with white pebbles as pretend snow. I saw people (grown ups) pick up the rocks or whatever and try to throw it as a snowball.
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That is brilliant.
The entrance fee (voucher) is probably intended to get rid of loads of freeloaders just walking around and for controlling crowds ā¦ making money in one go.
The Strasbourg Christmas market is one of the more famous ones, but why would āStrasbourg Christmas Marketā come to Taiwan when itās pretty busy in France for about 3-4 weeks?
Tiny crappy overpriced marketā¦sounds like NO fun at all.
My friend told me there was no entrance fee, that you could wander around looking ta the stuff, but to buy anything, say, a beer, you had to buy the vouchers.
Thatās whacked beyond whacked.
I went to the Huashan one yesterday and it was packed beyond belief. A little smaller than the one at 101, but not worth it.
The sidewalk from Zhongxiao Xinshen MRT all the way over to Huashan on Zhongxiao East Road was also packed. Makes me never want to go anywhere on a weekendā¦ever.
Have heard itās no different with the one in Taichung.
I expected a lot worse than what the blog says. As soon as I saw them advertising a Strasbourg Christmas Market, I know it is a bunch of bullshit. Especially considering the beautiful pictures of the real Strasbourg Market they use in their false advertising campaign.
Sheās got a point regarding it is becoming a marketing gimmick.
Which reminds me of something: we have gotten several negative messages in our Facebook page, regarding the celebration of Christmas in Taiwan. Whenever we put a photo story related to it, like this Strasburg Mraket, the lights at Banciao Plaza, or some really gorgeous Christmas tree, we get a barrage of messages saying it is so sad they are doing this here as āit does not belong to the cultureā.
Being our beloved Facebook page and avoiding clashes and all that jazz, I say nothing, but seriously, it is just a marketing ploy. In Japan, they justify it as part of the copying US customs after the war -and there was some US troops presence here, too. Christmas celebrations were thought to promote peace. There has also been in Taiwan for a long time a not so large but rather free Christian/Catholic community -unlike Japan, which were persecuted a long time ago- which interacted with the locals and may have gotten them into the spirit. So I do not see it as such a ācultural invasionā.
But the most important thing is shopping: it is the time of the year for parties and concerts and going out to eat and shop and stroll and have fun and spend money in charitable and non charitable ways. And that is good for all. Work in seasonal jobs helps people. Spending helps people. Charity helps people. There is no cultural limit to that, me thinks.
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Yesterday I went to the one behind the 101.
The good:
- no entrance fee
- some good food
- nice decorations
The bad:
- almost everything is terribly overpriced
- very few really ātraditionalā Christmas dishes
- way too small and overcrowded
'twas 'lright, but it feels a bit like a missed opportunity.