Eslite Bookstore 诚品书店 - Taipei 16-22 Aug Part 4

Eslite is the biggest chain of bookstores in Taiwan with a huge selection of books & magazines in Chinese (predominating), English & other languages.  If you are a book lover, you gotta to be there!  I noticed it has transformed itself to a lifestyle store, offering more than books & magazines.  It was so different when I visited it 7 years ago. 

There are many outlets in Taipei itself.  If you can only visit 1 outlet, the flagship store should be the one.  It is located 松高路 11号 (No. 11 Songgao Road), walking distance from Taipei City Hall MTR, very near Taipei 101 too.  On a normal weekday, it closes at 12 midnight.

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Without doubt, one can easily spend half a day or more in the flagship store.  It is almost like a departmental store with its focus on books.  Over here, you can even buy home furnishing, apparels, musical instruments, etc, much beyond your idea of what bookstore should be like.  If you like book shopping in Borders & Kinokuniya in Singapore, you will enjoy your visit to Eslite flagship store. There is even a designated floor for children's stuff!

A showcase on musical box

Such cute ukulele!

I like Eslite not just because of its environment, I am actually pretty impressed with the little details they looked into to take care of their customers.

Take for example, the paper bag.  It was during typhoon season when we visited Taipei in Aug. When I bought some books in Eslite, the staff there did not just give me a paper bag for my books, they even added a plastic cover to cover the entire paper bag & its content!  How considerate!  How not to love shopping there!

Oh yes!  & their toilets!  If you visit their flagship store, you must go visit even if you have no urge to pee or poo!  No joke!  The toilet seats are especially warm up for your comfort!  How 'hospitable' right?  You could do your business, long or short, comfortably regardless how cold it may be outside.  I remember how I hate visiting toilets during winter time in temperate countries.  It's like putting your butt on ice :(   I will definitely remember to install such mechanism in my toilets if ever I have a chance to live in temperate countries in the future!

So when you are in Taipei, do include visiting this bookstore into your itinerary! 

Read other parts of my Taipei trip here:
(1) The Stay in iTaipei Service Apartment
(2) The Bronze Winner
(3) Baby Boss
(4) Pingxi