Back in the summer i believe that I showed a picture of what is left of one of the staples of Taipei's architecture. It was a row of old chinese style town houses which were now in a horrid state of decay and dilapidation. Serving as make shift dumping grounds for trash and unsafe shelter for homeless people. Their sad state is even more heart breaking as they are one of the few things left of 1800s Taipei.
A friend recently told me about one area of the city which not only has some of these homes still standing, but that people have renovated and modernized them. As you can see in the picture there are quite a few which are in various stages of being renovated. You can't really tell from this picture but quite a few of these houses have long yards that are extremely stunning in the way that they have been designed.
Seeing the outside, I'm dying to see the inside, so when I got back home i checked the internet to see if any were listed for rent or for sale. At the moment not so luck, but I will keep looking. However i did find some other older buildings of a different style which are for rent, one being a former museum, and another being the japanese take on a european colonial building. I look forward to trying to have a viewing.
As for the title, well I'm assuming one of the reasons that a lot of the other buildings like this are not around is because of all the bombing that america did on taipei during WWII. This destruction, coupled with the fact that influx of chinese mean that in their place soviet style apartment buildings had to go up to accommodate all the new residents. While this part of the city is the western edge, and more away from all the targets of value so it must have been spared the worst of it. And what better way to get revenge than over half a century later to be looking beautiful and making an american jealous that he can't live there.
