On Monday, we went to Taichung and we went to a big department store called Sogo. This is the fanciest and most classiest department store I have ever seen. I don't think the departments stores in North America even come close. It's a huge 15-level department store. What got my attention first was the elevator host/tesses. I wish I could show a picture of one of them but they wouldn't allow me to take their picture (company policy). They all wear white gloves. The female elevator hosts wear a white-pink uniform and the male elevator hosts wear a white shirt and grey trousers. They elevator girls look really cute, especially when they say: "Shaang lo, shaang lo." (Eng.: "Going up, going up”).
What makes the Sogo department store so special is the way they display their products for sale. Each floor is divided up according to the brand names. They sell all the biggest brand names from Europe, U.S., and Japan. The fashion here seems to be newer and more up to date than in North America. Sogo has 3 floors just for women's clothing: one for young ladies, one for missies, and one for ladies. When you pass by they will try to make a sale so a person must be careful and tell them firmly that you are: "just looking." For brand name fashions, their prices seem to be comparable to those in Canada and the U.S.A. This lavish and luxurious department store is such a contrast to the cheap no-name brands sold on the local street corner.
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You've got to take a trip to the Xinyi district of Taipei. It takes Taichung SOGO look positively ancient. There's Taipei 101 (tallest building in the world complete with a great English bookstore and amazing food court), Mitsukoshi (big Japanese dept store), Eslite (biggest bookstore I've ever seen), an 18 cinema multiplex and a couple of other buildings with more dept stores. Even though there are about 9-10 different buildings, located in different places, they're all connected by an elevated walkway that takes 15 mins just to walk from one end to the other, without stopping in the stores. It crosses over roads, goes through buildings and is lit up at night. In fact, the whole area looks amazing at night.
Craig, thanks for the tip. I'll be going to Taipei, hopefully, on the weekend of June 29-31. I've heard about the bookstore but you've whet my appetite and curiosity to visit Taipei 101. I've gotta see it now. By the way, you've got great photo shots of Taiwan.
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