This paper opens with a verification.
“Yongkang Xintiandi KTV” has been searched often lately. This paper went through the registry: four singing venues on file in Yongkang, and not one registered as “Xintiandi.” The closest name, also in Yongkang, is 星天地ktv at Zhongzheng North Rd 215. One character apart. This paper draws no conclusion for readers; it lays what it found on the page. If that is the shop you want, read on; if it is another, this paper has no record, check on site.
Front page: Zhongzheng North Rd 215
星天地ktv, 4.9 stars, 840-plus reviews, phone 0987 002 505.
The highest-rated of Yongkang’s four singing venues on file, and the thickest in reviews. A taxi from TRA Yongkang or Daqiao Station is under ten minutes, check a map for the exact distance. Eight hundred-plus reviews holding 4.9 means Friday and Saturday after eight without a booking is a wait; the listed number is a mobile, so call before seven.
The last edition, Yongkang and Guiren KTV, field-checked this venue, so no repeat description here, only one addition: four or fewer on a weeknight, just go, a room is likely.
Page two: the other three
Rear left of Zhongzheng South Rd 378, 聚星國際KTV, 4.7 stars, 330-plus reviews, phone 06 243 3222. In the Yanhang area, handier for Yanhang residents and anyone coming from Rende; the address says “rear left,” so navigate to the number and look for the entrance.
Sec. 2 of Yongda Rd 1598, 嗄嗄叫KTV, 4 stars, 42 reviews. Small venue, thin record; call 0909 588 840 before going.
Lane 110 of Zhonghua 2nd Rd 2, 零零柒餐酒館, filed under karaoke, 4.4 stars, 140-plus reviews. Eat and drink while passing the mic, not a private room; two or three people wanting a drink and a couple of songs go here.
Page three: eat first, sing after
Yongkang’s night is held up by stir-fry. Along Zhonghua Rd and Zhongzheng South Rd the beer crates stack under the arcades after dark, a dish mostly NT$120 to 200, and a table of three to five with drinks often stays under NT$400 a head. Yongkang at night wrote that rhythm: stir-fry, singing, massage.
Do not reverse the order. After nine the grill stalls take over, and there is still food when you come out of the room.
On the bill, this paper gives only the going rate: non-chain singing NT$200 to 300 a head on weekdays, NT$400 to 600 on Friday and Saturday nights, karaoke shops by drink minimum. Actual rates and surcharges per the posted notice; ask for the total with service charge when booking, one question saved is one charge added.
Page four: reporter’s warn-off column
Three kinds of people need not come to Yongkang to sing.
Anyone wanting chain rooms, staff-delivered food and new machines. All four Yongkang venues are non-chain; that package lives back in the West Central District, Cashbox at Heyi Rd 99 and Benz at Zhongcheng Rd 18, mapped in the Tainan City KTV guide.
Company parties of fifteen or more. All four are small to mid-size; big parties go downtown.
Tourists staying in Anping or the city center. Yongkang does not perform for visitors, and a fifteen-minute taxi from downtown to sing at one non-chain venue does not pay. People living in Yongkang or Rende, or working the Yongkang factories, are who these four venues are for.
Editorial: the steering wheel
Tainan has no MRT. Buses stop early. Yongkang and Daqiao stations reach downtown in six to ten minutes each, trains until late evening, taxi after that.
Stir-fry beer and room bottles both count. Drink and it is a taxi or a designated driver, number saved before leaving. This paper prints that line every edition because every edition someone forgets.
The verification stands: Xintiandi, this paper cannot find; Xingtiandi, at Zhongzheng North Rd 215.