Core Pacific City

Lonely Planet review

Some people call it Core Pacific City. We like to think of it as The Great Golf Ball of Taipei. Designed by Jon Jerde, the Pablo Picasso of the architecture world, Core Pacific City is quite probably the weirdest shopping mall in Asia. An inspired (by MC Escher or perhaps LSD) building to say the least, from the outside CPC looks like a gigantic golf ball being embraced by a stone sarcophagus.

Though you can get in through the basement, for maximum weirdness take the escalator from the street into the main lobby. Just keep reminding yourself that you are going shopping and not being taken via conveyor belt deep into the heart of an alien hive. Do not panic, the colour lights along the ceiling are there to soothe. Soon, you will be inside the structure, calm and refreshed, ready to experience all the shopping, eating, karaoke and cinema-going magic that the 'Living Mall' has to offer.