For some reason, Wendy wanted to go to the Jing Hua Cheng, or Core Pacific Mall, AKA the Death Star.

this is where the planet-destroying beams come from

We found Jing Hua Cheng to be completely deserted. Its weird crashed-alien-sphere thing looks cool from the outside, but the designers seriously screwed up, and the mall feels cluttered and uncomfortable inside.

Luckily, the mall has all sorts of weird stuff inside.

wendy rides a panda

I’ve spent the last few Christmases in Asia, and am starting to get used to places like Taiwan covered in Christmas lights and red Santa hats.

dad sits in santa’s lap

I have to admit, from some angles the architecture of this mall looks pretty cool. It’s too bad cool architecture doesn’t a good mall make.

jing hua cheng mall

At least they had shaved ice with which to appease us. It’s too bad we had just stuffed ourselves full of lunch before we ordered these…

shaved ice, red beans, and condensed milk

[see all photos @ flickr]