In 2015, Typhoon Soudelor battered Taiwan, leaving a devastating trail of destruction in its place. It was a terrible tragedy that left hundreds injured and at least four people killed.
Years later, a reminder of the damage remains in the form of twin bent mailboxes that are in front of a 7-Eleven in Nanjing Fuxing. They became bent out of shape due to the impact of a sign that had crashed on top of them due to the strong winds of the typhoon.
Despite these mailboxes becoming the remnants of a tragedy, they quickly became quite a cheerful landmark. Apart from being adorable, the best thing about these mailboxes is that the Taiwanese public immediately fell in love with them.
Visitors from all around the city excitedly came in droves for photos and selfies with these mailboxes – turning them into an instant tourist landmark.
Due to their growing popularity of how cute they were both similarly bent in the same direction, the post office consequently decided to cancel their plans they have them removed.
Instead, they decided to preserve them as a monumental style tourist attraction where you can still mail your letters from. The stamps will even show that they came from the now-famous leaning mailboxes.
It wasn’t long after the event that they placed a little plaque in between the mailboxes with a cute and encouraging message which reads:
“On August 8th, 2015, Typhoon Soudlor struck Taiwan. We were hot in the heads by a signboard as a result and couldn’t stand up straight anymore. But we persevered: we didn’t fall over after all.
We have to take life as it comes and in a way, I think we look more artsy and sophisticated this way! Did we inspire you? Take a picture with us to remind yourselves that we are all survivors and can persevere no matter what.”
There isn’t anything else to see other than this, but that’s OK — They do make a cute photo or even a selfie as a humbling reminder of the destructive power of nature.
If anything, it really makes us think twice before hoping for a typhoon day, let alone taking a chance to nip out in one for a cheeky snack!
Worth visiting?
This completely depends on you — if you’re in the area and want to take a photo, then why not? They are free and open 24/7, however, it can be a little tricky to get a good shot since cars do frequently park up in front of them by the side of the road.
If you’re not interested in coming for the photo, you may not want to bother. They are quite literally two similarly bent mailboxes sitting side by side of each other outside of a 7-Eleven.
If you hang around there long enough, you’ll notice others coming over to pose for photos with them, but thankfully they aren’t as mobbed by tourists as they used to be.
Will we go back?
The only situation we can think of would be to take a friend there if they would like to take photos and selfies with them.
Bent PostboxesChinese name: 歪腰郵筒 Hours: Open 24/7, but visibly better in the daylight English address: No. 104, Long Jiang Rd, Zhongshan District, Taipei City, 10491 |
🗓️ Updated: June 2022 – Taipei.Expats
