[Hsinchu, Taiwan] Bigcity shopping mall

 

Chinese version is here : http://jeffreyxuan.blogspot.com/2012/05/blog-post.html

While my clients, most of them are technicians and sales, came to Hsinchu from all over the world, I was always embarrassed when they asked “What’s fun in Hsinchu?”. The new shopping mall “BigCity”  could be the answer for boring engineers in Hsinchu. It is the second largest shopping mall in Taiwan, follow the largest one “Dream mall” in Kaohsiung in south Taiwan. The “BigCity” contains super large indoor sport center, supermarkets, restaurants, and department stores. It is just beside the Hsinchu train station.  
 

Take a look at the characteristic landmark in BigCity: The man-made landscape “San Francisco” located at 7F of BigCity. I’ll show you the comparison between real San Francisco and BigCity with the photos I took several years ago:
 

And the famous “Fisherman's Wharf” at Pier 39 in San Francisco:

Of course we also need the cable cars running through the streets in San Francisco: 

This gigantic facility was called “Wind Dance shopping mall”, which was closed 4 years ago due to improper management. The new BigCity did a lot of improvements from the lesson learn of its sadly history. We can see the stores inside are much more targeting to the demand of Hsinchu’s citizens, and more restaurants with full-course meal to keep people spend more time inside.

Take “meet citizens’ demand” as an example, 4 years ago there was a Godiva chocolate store located at the front gate, with some expensive clothing in local brands which most people never heard before. In present time Bigcity invited more global brand masstige stores of consumer electronics, cosmetic, and clothing. People in Hsinchu will be more easy to pull money out of their pocket in these stores.

Bigcity is still planning to invite higher-priced French bakery “Paul”, let’s hope people will enjoy bread more than chocolate. The Bigcity is using new illumination and energy technology to decorating inside, such as LED and wind power generator. All these fancy stuff is creating an image for Bigcity, this is a shopping-mall of 21th century, it will not be an in-door night market any more.

Kids are the key members of a family, parents always chose their shopping locations according to their kids like it or not. The BigCity deployed amusement facilities and  stores for kids in almost every level : TomsWorld at 7F, Eslite at 5F, Kids’ ball pool at 3F, and plus the clothing for children at 5F. Children will chanting around their parents for taking them to these places.
The gundom and dinosaur hobby model at 5F, little boys’ Never Land:  

 

The ball pool at 3F, be aware of the mosquitoes here, my little daughter got several bites at here.
 

Mini bowling at 7F in scale of 1:1.5, including gutter ball preventing function. Funny bowling for every kid. 

The different between boys and men is the size of their toys. The real luxury bowling alley is located at Taruko Sports Plaza at 7F, and also the baseball/golf swing fields. All these facilities are combined with bear bars and snack restaurants. Friends can enjoy their party here while everybody playing in turns and others sitting at the bar watching ESPN with 55 inches TV.


 

Peak time is holidays. You will also be surprised at everyday afternoon between 12:00~16:00 is also peak time. The photos below are taken at some Monday afternoon.
Lining in front of movie theater. In case of someone happened to play hooky caught in this photo, I did some mosaic on faces.

The cover of food court is huge, but still crowded even at 15:00 pm: 

The parking lot in the basement is a maze. Every post looks like the same. Welcome to the biggest dodgem field in Taiwan while you bump into both people try to get in and out. I recommend to park your car at the parking tower instead, the entrance is just behind the basement entrance. The traffic flow in the parking tower is much better, and you will also save time for taking elevator after parking.

BigCity open from 11:00am~22:00pm. Location information as below. You can take a free shuttle bus at the SOGO department store in front of Hsinchu train station. The bus interval is 15~20 minutes, I thinking it will be a long lining game. The optimized path for driving from high way to Bigcity is through Dong Guang Rd.. This will bypass the traffic jam near the train station.

GPS coordinate：
X:120.947962 Y:24.809487
longitude 120 degrees 58m 31.7s
latitude 24degrees 48m 34.2s

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[新竹] 巨城百貨(原風城購物中心)

 
English version is here : http://jeffreyxuan.blogspot.com/2012/05/hsinchu-taiwan-bigcity-shopping-mall.html

來新竹工作的科技業人士, 到了假日只能往台北跑, 因為好逛的百貨公司都在台北. 現在終於有了一個新選擇 ：2012年新開幕的Big City號稱北台灣最大, 規模全台僅次於高雄夢時代. 它就在新竹火車站旁邊, 很好玩, 很休閒, 什麼都有, 新竹人終於有了可以吹一整天室內冷氣的娛樂中心.

先來看一下這間購物中心的特色設施:位於7F的舊金山造景. 我翻出幾年前去舊金山開會拍的照片來比對, 下圖左方是真正的金門大橋, 右邊是BigCity的造景:
 

下面這張圖, 上半部是真正的舊金山漁人碼頭螃蟹招牌, 下半部則是BigCity造景.

沒有纜車就不算舊金山了, 想坐真的會在路上跑的纜車新竹也是有的, 另外一家新竹百貨公司大遠百的接駁車就是纜車造型.

這個巨大建築物之前叫做風城, 曾經因為經營不善關閉了四年, 新開張的BigCity可以明顯感覺出改善, 有更多貼近民眾購買需求的商店, 以及搭配吸引人潮的娛樂設施.

舉例來說, 大門口配置的店家, 四年前的風城配置的是貴死人不償命的高階服飾店跟Godiva巧克力店, 現在的BigCity則是配置了消費性電子, 化妝品, 以及平價服飾. 這些才是新竹人最喜歡常常逛的店.

1F之後還是會進駐一家法國連鎖高級麵包店PAUL, 希望買麵包的人會比買巧克力的人多. LED光源革命讓逛街的環境更明亮, 業主甚至號稱他們使用了風力發電來節省能源. 這些嶄新的規劃讓人感受到了進步, 迎接新竹人的是21世紀的西化購物中心, 不再只是把夜市攤搬進室內而已.

要抓住消費者得先抓住他們的小朋友, 孩子沒搞定的爸媽怎麼會有心情Shopping呢?  除了賣童裝之外還有很多讓小朋友玩的不亦樂乎的特色, 7F的湯姆熊, 5F的誠品玩具, 3F的球球池, 這些都會讓小孩吵著要爸媽假日帶他們來吹冷氣.
5F的鋼彈及恐龍模型, 小男生的天堂: 
 

3F的球球池, 小心蚊蟲, 我女兒在這裡被小黑蚊叮了北斗七星, 回家時才發現.
 

7F的迷你保齡球道, 2/3比例縮小版的保齡球附帶防洗溝功能, 任何小孩都可以在這邊輕鬆上手.

搞定小小孩的同時, 大小孩的玩樂慾望也是要照顧到. 7F大魯閣運動場有最豪華場地讓你玩保齡球, 棒球揮棒, 高爾夫虛擬揮杆, 更棒的是大空間的美式啤酒Bar台運動餐廳就在運動場地後方, 一群朋友可以輪流下場表演, 其他人坐在寬敞的Bar台看55吋電視ESPN.
 
 

建議來逛的時間點是週一到週五12:00之前進場, 人潮較少. 如果是假日或是下午4點之前, 人潮就會多到成這樣.
排隊買電影票的人龍(防止有人翹班看電影被我抓包, 人臉已經做了馬賽克處理XD)

美食街面積媲美棒球場, 但上班時間還是人擠人:

地下室停車場像迷宮,每根柱子都長得差不多, 找出口的人會跟入口進來的人迎面相逢, 像是在開碰碰車. 建議停車到地上停車塔會比較有秩序:

營業時間是11:00am~22:00pm. 位置資訊, 新竹火車站前面的Sogo可以搭免費的接駁巴士, 15~20分鐘一班車, 排隊應該會排很久. 建議還是自己開車過去, 最不塞車的路徑就如官網上介紹的”東光路直行過東光橋→自由路左轉中央路直行即可抵達”, 其他路徑都會塞很久.

【GPS座標】：
座標X120.947962 座標Y24.809487
經度120度58分31.7秒 緯度24度48分34.2秒

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[Hsinchu Luliaokeng, Taiwan] “Tung flower” blossom

It’s getting hotter in Taiwan while the summer begins, but a “snow falling” by the blossom of “Tung flower” that might help you cool down in this tropical forest. 

It will be an unique experience to join Tung blossom festival. We are familiar with cherry blossom, people gathering around the cherry trees and look above for flowers like this:
 
And we are also familiar with Cosmos blossom, people can stand beside the flowers like this:

Or for most of the garden plants such as Tulip, people look down to enjoy the sea of flowers like this:

However for Tung flowers, you might need to lie on stomach to have a closer look or photo with them, that’s the reason why we call it “snow in May” because of their mass amount and quickly falling down on the ground. 
 

Tung flowers grow on top of the tung oil tree with average height in 8~10 meters, so it will be a little hard for people to take picture with them, especially in the tropic forest they growth. Yet as the compliment from Japanese which honor the glory but short life of flower blossom, Tung flowers only have 48 hours from blooming to withering compare to 7 days for cherry flowers. The flowers are already start to fall from the beginning of Tung blossom show, and it is keep falling so fast that all the foot print of tourists will be covered in seconds. 

In spite of frequently thundershowers recently (2012/April), the blossom festival still goes well in Luliaokeng, Hsinchu. The meaning of Luliaokeng is “hunting lodge for deers”, the forest here is quiet and full of tung oil tree, tourists are able to “listen” to this blossom from the dropping sound of flowers touch down the dirt.  

A local point out to me it takes around 30 minutes to finish all the trial, but it also exists a branch trail in 10 minutes long for lazy tourists. The trail has been weeded periodically, most of the road is stable but covered with slippery moss. Tourists also need to take care of some trials already lost part of the roadbed.

In a distant view,tung oil tree with white flowers are spreading here and there among the mountains. The similar view can be found all along the routes and free ways in Taiwan.


 

Another famous spot in Luliaokeng is the “Wetland Farm”. Recently it has been modified as an outdoor photography studio for commercial wedding photos.
 

The Wetland Farm is located at the top of the mountain. Tourists can reach here by driving from road near the “STATS ChipPAC Taiwan Semiconductor Corporation”. The outdoor studio is only for contracted wedding photo company, however the hospitable owner of this land will show welcome if you can keep the land clean and leave with nothing but photos.

Location information: GPS N24°44’26.3”, E121°08’01.6”
Taxi or rental car will be the best choice. The place is located in a rural mountain. The google map information below shows how to get there by taking train and bus from Hsinchu high speed railway station. The train goes every 30 minutes in weekend but in weekday it only has few trains per day. You will see the garden facility as picture below at the entrance of the trail. You can find various of more convenience place for tung flower blossom such as West Lake Resortopia, however Luliaokeng will be you choice if you prefer a place with less commercial activity.

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