NanShan Plaza and a company strike

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Things are progressing rapidly at the Nanshan plaza construction site in Taipei's Xinyi district. Last year the site was nothing but a massive hole in the ground, but around the clock construction this year has central section of the tower looking to reach 20 floors by January 1, 2016.

NanShan Plaza construction as seen from Taipei 101 in late November.


The building is across the street from Taipei 101, and is slated to top out somewhere around the fifty floor mark. Formerly a farm, and then a parking lot, the construction will at the very least help to balance out the Taipei skyline, and dramatically change the view from elephant mountain. It will be nearly doubly the height of the neighboring Hwa Nan building, and artists renderings show the final product resembling the London shard.


Construction seen Jan 26th, 2016.


Update Jan 2016: The below seems to have resolved itself, and a contact who works at Nanshan revealed that the strike was only for specific job public-facing functions and was not company wide.

Less publicly, at least part of the NanShan employees have gone on strike. They've spent the last week protesting outside the company's offices across from the Taipei World Trade Center. 

Considering the wages for workers in Taiwan, as well as the work hours, it's hard to blame them for wanting better conditions. It seems likely the 28.9 billion NTD payout for the land which the new plaza is being built on had something to do with souring the mood for under paid workers. For reference, most employees in Life Insurance and finance companies will work 10 to 14 hour days. Pay varies greatly, but for these types of firms average pay ranges from 600,000 and tops out around 1.2 million NTD a year. Exceptional talents and top management receive over 3 million NTD a year, but that is approaching the 1% area of all employees. Even if salaries were doubled, then adjusted for cost of living labor in Taiwan is getting underpaid and over worked.




Hopefully the progress, and expected profits, at the Nanshan plaza can help things improve for the people giving it their all for the company behind the welcome addition to the skyline.

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