Taipei
There is nothing Taiwanese about the Astoria Cafe in Taipei. And that is what made it special. The place was opened over a half century ago, on the west side of Taipei. It is a bakery, which sold fresh bread and homemade cakes downstairs. On upstairs level, it served dark bitter Russian coffee.
The capital of Taiwan also has unfolded history. Business boomed. Taiwan bet early on high-tech manufacturing and the island was gadget maker to the world.
Taipei these days is full with narrow avenues, tiled facades and crowds of street vendors, office towers, shopping malls, restaurants and foreign boutiques sprouted from the city’s new glass-and-steel east side. But there are echoes everywhere of the turmoil that shaped the city and signs of an uncertain future.
In any boomtown, things vanish and other things take their place. But something more has happened in Taipei. Near the National Taiwan university there’re a cluster of old Japanese-era houses. They’re astonishing.The side street are crooked and lovely and lined with bookstores, cafes with tiny round tables and boutique sellingJapanese street fashion.
Taipei’s shiny east sideis hometo the world’s tallest building. Taipei 101. But Chiang Kai- shek’s memorial casts a longer shadow. It sits in the middle of a sprawling walled garden, towering over a severe plaza that spans several city blocks.
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