World's most expensive vegetable garden can be found in Taipei

Possibly the most expensive garden in the world

The world's most expensive vegetable garden is one step away from Taipei 101.

Few days ago my girlfriend and I went to Xinyi, Taipei's modern district full of high rise buildings and home to the former world's tallest building, the 509m tall Taipei 101. The area is full of office buildings and department stores as well as home to some of the most expensive apartment buildings in Taiwan. Quite a few of Taiwan's rich and famous own a condo in this area. But while walking around this fancy neighborhood, I noticed something unusual. Amid all these modern fancy buildings there's a vegetable garden.

Mmmh, green salad, looks like it loves to grow here.

My girlfriend told me that the small piece of land, which used to be farmland in the past, has multiple owners. They couldn't agree on a price to sell, even though they could probably get millions of dollars for that. Instead, they turned the land into a vegetable garden. Isn't that amazing?

Looks like the cabbage enjoys the fertile soil of Xinyi, too.

Do you think something like that is possible in China? I would dare to say no, but I'm not very sure. Taiwan is different. The government doesn't just grab a piece of land to build something on it. Ok, well, sometimes it does, but that's another story. Nevertheless, the most expensive vegetable garden can be found in Taiwan, right next to Taipei 101 and the World Trade Center exhibition hall. Please don't steal the cabbage!

UPDATE: According to various sources (1, 2 and 3), this small piece of land is called D1 and will be soon put up for auction and sold to a big investor, actually this March. So it won't be long, when this cute vegetable garden will disappear and probably be replaced by a new exquisite condo or office building. I'm glad I had the chance to see it and take some photos.

[My TAIPEI page][My XINYI page][All photos by MKL, 2011]