Since my last visit to Taiwan a sad, sad thing happened… the tore down the under-bridge computer market on Xinsheng Rd.
It was such a cool place. Dozens of rabbit-warren like shops selling computer components, MP3 players, cameras, cable bits, videos, books and Japanese pornography. It’s the only place I’ve ever been where you can see a hot girl walking down the street carrying the parts to go home and assemble her own computer!!! (No pictures of that, sadly.)
What a tragedy that the city decided it was unsafe, or in the path of a new subway line or some lame excuse like that, and tore it down. No trace remains of the bridge. (Incidentally, the bridge appeared to serve little logical purpose whatsoever in terms of traffic. My father-in-law tells me that, in the old days, the bridge was to take traffic over the train tracks. Now the trains are underground, but the bridge remained.)
This isn’t a completely sad story, though. They’re building a new, multi-story high-tech computer market nearby to replace it. Just one little problem: They tore the old one down before the new one was built. That seems to sum up project management in Taiwan in two sentences.
Instead of reversing the order, instead they’ve built a third computer market – this one a temporary one made out of prefabricated sheds. And this one is every bit as ramshackle and warren-like as the original.
The new one is supposed to open in 2007, but I can’t see how this multi-story new building is ever going to capture the spirit of the original.
Why is this not the sort of stuff that makes it on DiggNation? Why aren’t Kevin and Alex trying to record an episode where hot asian chicks buy computer parts? (And, there’s porn… it seems a natural.)