Taiwan Today

Voting for Taipei’s 10 most representative gift products has finished, with pineapple cake taking the cake. After two months of voting by netizens and local and international tourists, the promotional campaign by the Taipei City Office of Commerce has selected pineapple cake, followed by Wenshan Pouchong tea, night markets, meat products, the National Palace Museum, beef noodles, mung bean cake, Taipei 101 souvenirs, products stewed with soy sauce (lu wei) and xiaolongbao dumplings. The public is welcome to participate in the follow-up selection of famous shops representing Taipei. The Office of Commerce this year used “finding good gifts (reasons) to fall in love with Taipei” as the main theme, and promoted the “Taipei Li Hao” (Taipei good gift) campaign to select representative products. In the first stage 20 gift products from well-known outlets chosen last year by consumers were listed. Although foot massages did not make it into the top 10, they are very popular with foreign tourists, and thus are listed as “especially recommended.” Chia Te Bakery Co., which took part in the competition, said pineapple cake has been very popular in recent years with local and foreign tourists, and is the most frequent gift mainland Chinese tourists take back for their friends and relatives. Master Hong’s Noodle Shop and Old Don Beef Noodles said since the beef noodle festival has been held five years consecutively, beef noodles have also become a special Taipei product, requested by many tourists. This year the festival will expand beyond Taipei to international marketing. Liu Chug-chun, chief manager of the Office of Commerce, said in the next stage of the promotion of representative products, Taipei shops that sell or provide these 10 products are welcome to go to the “Taipei Li Hao” Web site to register to compete for a place as a representative shop. The Office of Commerce will arrange a marketing campaign for winning shops. (THN)