A Taipei shopping district looking to bring in customers over the long National Day weekend seems to have accidentally invented a new sport.
Though it has no connection with National Day, an unusual competition that’s taken place in the shopping area has drawn public attention. Could this be the birth of a new National Day tradition?
This National Day, Taipei’s Huayin Street shopping area wants you to come over and buy something. Stalls of all kinds have been set up over the long National Day weekend to draw in potential customers, creating a kind of fair. By far the most colorful part of the event is a race that has shut down a section of nearby road.
Inspired by a Chinese expression, organizers of the weekend fair have put together a suitcase-carrying race. The stakes may not be that high- winners can expect to take home…well…a free suitcase. But competitors are still taking the race seriously. In his determination to win, the shopping district’s director general even slipped and took quite a tumble.
It seems that he feels the fall was worth it. The shopping district is searching for a new lease on life, and it’s working hard to move past its roots as a collection of wholesale stores. The 20% increase in visitors that the street fair brought on Thursday alone will do much to help keep the area’s shops going strong.