Department Stores

..

Department stores in Taiwan are highy elegant - often from the outside, always from the inside. This is true for the big cities, but also for the small ones, like in these photos taken in Chiayi, one of the smaller cities in Taiwan.

..

..

Nicely illuminated at night, they are the very eye-catchers among all their neighboring buildings, the stars of their surroundings, so to speak. In front of them, there is often a smaller or bigger area of recreation where people can take a rest and enjoy looking at the shop windows to get inspired for their later purchases.

..

..

And inside, you find real elegance - a shiny world with many technical gadgets attracting people, often those which are not so showy or obvious, but which accompany the beholder's eyes - often going unnoticed, but always present. Such a gadget can be seen in the picture below where there is not a photo or painting on your right, but a video of a fashion defilé played again and again. This makes people stop. This is a must for being noticed.

..

..

Last but not least, department stores are meeting points for people. This is what Taiwanese often do. They won't meet in restaurants or other places "in the middle of nowhere", but in a department store. The reason for this is simple: In a department store, you can easily find your friends, you can't ge mixed up with the place. For all other places, misunderstandings might arise. So department stores are safe places in every respect. They represent communication centers: There you will find each other... .