So I live near a road called 林森北路 (Linsen Bei Lu). You might have heard of it. At night it’s crawling with girls wearing wedge heeled flip flops and makeup that looks like it was applied with a shotgun. My girlfriend and I call them “Linsen bei girls”.
I used to live next door to one, and her pop tart of a boyfriend. They would come home at about 2 o’clock in the morning, slam doors shout to each other at about 130dB and then leave. About twice a week they would return with some friends (customers?) and they would party, drink, play music and yell until 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning. Additionally they would smoke so heavily, the two of them would put out a bag of 15 or so empty cigarette packets for recycling every 3-4 days. The smoke would billow out from under the door of their apartment and into ours. (Needless to say, my gf and I complained enough times until they were forced to pack up their shit and leave).
Linsen bei girls can also be spotted in Linsen bei lu convenience stores in the early afternoon clutching a poodle with long acrylic nails and snapping at the clerk to get two packets of her usual. Sometimes the clerk can avoid a spraying by nervously clamouring for a packet or two in advance.
Their natural habitats during the late afternoon /early evenings include hair salons, nail spas and dress shops catering to only to the tackiest of tastes. In the morning when you’re on the way to work, they may be spotted getting reported by a police officer or having a disgruntled road side breakfast.
Is there anyone here on this forum who could shed some light on what exactly it is that they do and why there’s so many of them around here? (And also maybe why their attitudes are so bad).
It is actually an up and coming area, since most of the , ehem, business places for the girls have closed -tourists have moved elsewhere, and less tourists of that, ehem, kind.
As more of the old buildings are replaced by newer ones, as the real estate value of such a prime downtown piece rises, so will the girls have to find other places. It is a convenient location, I’ve looked there for accommodation but haven’t found a nice place, most affordable locations are quite rundown. Now, to buy a new place, that’ll be really nice. Close to work, markets, parks, cinemas, etc. Awesome.
Linsen Beilu has a lot of hostess clubs and restaurants that cater to Japanese business men. If you are not familiar with what they are, please refer to this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_and_hostess_clubs
They work from about 8pm to 1am or so. A lot of girls adopt a party life style so they will often go home or to another bar and drink with their co-workers and/or clients.
Yep mostly it is harmless stuff, the girls sit beside you having a drink or dance around and sing karaoke.
Some of them freelance after hours, they tend to have buy me an LV bag and I will be your once a week roll in the hay type relationships with the punters.
I live on Linsen! Funnily enough, on one of the two lanes mentioned above. I had no idea about the neighborhood when I first came over, but I’ll admit my Chinese teacher was shocked (jaw to floor) when I mentioned where I had found a short term apt. Aside from occasionally being asked on the weekends if I’m interested in “young girls”, I totally dig the neighborhood. Haven’t had any problems about loud noises or smokeouts (ok, one night of screaming at 5am in a courtyard—but I rolled back over and went back to sleep.)
Guess I don’t really have much else to add, but just wanted to give Linsen a little love.
What exactly is it they do? They are working KTV girls paid for by the hour (minimum 2 hours) for their company in a KTV room singing, drinking, entertaining, other things. Why are there so many around? The area has a history for Japanese businessmen, US military years ago, and locals which continues to be full of KTVs catering to men. Now they cater mostly to locals and foreign travelers. Not a good life and most of them come from broken or low income homes. Can be found in many cities and small towns around Taiwan.
I’ll probly catch some flak for this, but does anyone know of similar establishments in or around New Taipei City? Or is this strictly a Taipei thing? And have the barbershops become a thing of the past entirely?
