quite like this one? Nary a bus in sight. This is the new shopping mall called Q-station in English. I’m not awfully sure yet of the Chinese name, but it recently opened and is new style of shopping mall in Taipei. In the years I’ve been here, Taipei has gone from zero malls to easily a dozen shopping malls, and more are sure to open.

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In fact, Taipei Station Area has three or four (depending on how you count) shopping mall areas, most of which are underground. The Taipei City Street mall and the new Q-station are next to each other (via underground walkway) but they couldn’t be more different.

I enjoyed the atmosphere of this mall much more than others in Taipei because, although it is crowded, there is plenty of vertical space, lots of boutique shops, but also lots of ‘real’ shops. The restaurants are a little pricy, compared to a street market, but I enjoyed the food there, and the food court itself seems much cleaner than a typical department store.

Worth checking out except for the surly security guards who told me not to take pictures even when I could!