Chung Yo has the entire 'old' downtown area to itself, evidently to its advantage as it has consistently been ranked as the number two most-profitable store on the island. The store take a unique approach of using three separate, equally-huge buildings connected on various floors by catwalks, all with 14 above-ground floors, three levels of basement shopping and two underground parking levels. This makes for plenty of exploration and almost mall-like experience. Added more recently is a fourth separate 'P.S. Building', located behind the main complex with six more levels of parking and some boutiques, plus a Warner Bros. Studio Store. Excellent all-English and all-Chinese comprehensive store guides are available at first-floor information counters, where a variety of services are provided, like free child strollers and wheelchairs and foreign currency exchange.

HIGHLIGHTS:

-10th/11th-Floors Eslite Book Store--Easily one of the most attractive book stores on the island, not to mention the biggest in Taichung, this large outstanding store has a great selection of reading material in English and Chinese, spread out across three levels. There's also a nice, adjacent cafe.

-B1/B2-Level House Ware Sections--Plenty of interesting, high-quality Western and Asian household items, including nice towels, rugs, drapes, furniture and other items.

-B2 and B3-level Food Courts--The basement areas include plenty of local and foreign dining options, including Finga's Pizza and Pasta (with the city's only clay wood-burning pizza oven), Barista Seattle Gourmet Coffee, Haagen Dazs ice cream and KFC. -Outdoor Entrance Starbucks Cafe--A good place to meet, sit and watch traffic and people over a coffee, day or night.

-14th-Floor Prime Rib Buffet Restaurant--A very big place with attractive decor (including an outdoor fountain/garden area) and a good buffet of Western, Chinese and Japanese food, costing NT$438 for lunch and NT$498 for dinner and open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

< INTRO | CHUNGYO | SOGO | SHINKONG MITSUKOSHI >