Taipei (Taiwan News)--A parking ticket payment kiosk at a tourist attraction in Yilan County that had gone viral on the Internet was found to have undergone redecoration and now is encased within a plank framework waiting for a remake.
The kiosk is located at the National Center for Traditional Arts in Yilan County. The kiosk’s original design with blue and white colors, the cloud decoration on the two pillars, with a file of paper lanterns hanging above and traditional Chinese music flowing from the theme park bore a striking resemblance to a memorial service hall. The ominously looking kiosk had prompted some visitors to take photos of it and posted them on a social media website (爆料公社) famous for exposing hanky-panky and cracking jokes.
The original look of the kiosk. Photo from 爆料公社.
Some park visitors said they had a weird feeling when going into the memorial hall like kiosk to pay parking tickets.
In response to the gossip, a foundation under the PX Mart, a supermarket chain in Taiwan, which runs the theme park, said that the kiosk was designed by a contracted parking lot operator, adding that the blue and white porcelain looking exterior of the kiosk is very traditional and matched very well with the park.
The foundation thanked Internet users for paying attention to the kiosk and said it would discuss with the parking operator to see if there was anything about the kiosk that needed rectification.
A week after the foundation’s response, some Internet users posted photos of the kiosk on another social media site that showed it had undergone redecoration. The photos showed wallpaper with a white-flower pattern on red background had been pasted on the pillars to replace the original blue and white design. However, the change didn’t pacify visitors, some of whom said it’s an awkward patchwork that “turned the memorial service hall for regular people to one for people who died at a very old age,” asking the park operator to identify the team behind the design.
Some other net users said maybe the tradition of funerals fits the park’s traditional arts theme very well, adding that they didn’t care that much as long as it is convenient to pay for parking. Still others proposed a conspiracy theory, saying the kiosk was the park’s plot to incite public attention and promote the park in an very alternative way.
However, the look of the kiosk refreshed another round of comments on Thursday as some net users notice that the kiosk has changed its look again. Now it is encased inside a plank framework. The foundation was very low key about it, only saying “a remake is on the way.”
