Does anyone have the name/address of that gorgeous B&B in Kenting that hangs from a cliff and has scumptious food? I think this girl would appreciate that.
I think a BnB in Tainan would also do the trick. Donāt have to go all the way down to Kenting to just chillax in a BnB.
This one has a great rep in service and food. But yes, I guess the historical side of Tainan would be gorgeous too.
I think if there are thousands of Hong Kongnese, Koreans and Japanese tourists coming over Taiwan. There must be something else to see beyond the mass trails.
They usually go to the mass trails though. Usually.
Oh, and Iāve been to Jiufen. Never again.
I liked the cat village though. If someone likes cats that place is very nice and not overhyped. What i mean is that they have a lot of cats there. Which is not always the case with various crocodile/ lemur / insert an animal villages. Those cats are friendly, well maintained and real.
I would just follow them.
Iāve stayed at the č¬å® (Xie Zhai) BnB in Tainan and despite its high price tag, itās pretty freakinā amazing in terms of decor and the people you live with. You have access to a communal kitchen and some people go out and buy stuff to cook for the guests.
Jiufen on a weekend is nuts. During teh week, late when teh buses are gone, awesome. I do prefer Jinguahsi, though.
Like Shifen. Most crowds end in Pingxi, but if yyou go to the Princeās dorms, for instance, even on a weekend there is not that elbow to elbow fight.
Just a quick note re: driving during holidays. Drive at night. When the annual CNY Green Island dive trip set about returning home, they all decided to drive up the west coast. From the moment we left the ferry terminal (6PMish), it was a parking lot into TaiDong. Traffic heading north up the east coast was steady but moving. I stopped in at my buddyās hostel in Doulan (great idea for your NY adventure OP: https://www.facebook.com/Taiwan-Taitung-Sea-Art-Guest-House-Rainbow-Forest-691071450919468/?fref=ts) for a few hours, came back down the mountain around 9:30 PM and it was a straight shot up the east coast to Taipei. I mean, I took my dear sweet time, pulling over on the nasty Suao (sp?) section to let anyone and everyone pass and still beat everyone back to Taipei by a few hours. Leave at midnight and the highways are yours for the taking.
You want to do the Hualien-Suao stretch well rested though and not when itās raining. 
Absolutely. In the 90s, I made my living driving one of Canadaās most dangerous highways. Suao makes that one look like the prairies.
Thereās honestly not that many now, the influx of Chinese tourists has decreased this year by like 42% . And thanksbetojeeezas for that. Probably you wonāt see the difference if you havenāt been here, but I sure have and Iāve also lived in China so I know the struggle is real. But the reality is that they everywhere haha. Come on over.
No, mainlanders, donāt come on over, stay in your bloody country.
Which reminds me of one thing: if you dont want to meet mainlanders in your travels go to China and travel to some far flung or maybe not even far but not advertized places. No-one ever goes there and you will have some of the most beautiful places just for yourself.
I met one mainland girl from Gansu , she said she didnt like Taiwan because it was nothing special. I hope the word will spread.
i have no idea. i went to all the tourists spots in the summer. taipei 101, dictator memorial hall, jiu fen, hualien, danshui, shilin, gu gong, and i didnāt notice hoardes of mainlanders anywhere. there was some about for sure but never enough to bother me.
when we were in hualien we got a kind of tour taxi, maybe thats a better option than a tour bus? thats all i got though.
i had a holiday to tropical island type place earlier in the year and the chinese there did indeed get on my tits. i just canāt understand their holidaying style to be honest. its not relaxing or enjoyable at all imo.
that comment about the gansu person is pretty funnyā¦ although taiwanese are not much better with their opinions on china. i tend to avoid the subjects of either country if i am with chinese or taiwanese.
Huh?
Now that China has reduced the number of its tourists that can come to Taiwan, are there really that many Chinese tour groups here?
Iāve taken a number of local Mandarin-speaking tours, and they all too often tend to lapse into Taiwanese. Especially outside of the Greater Taipei area.
For a well traveled educated Chinese person Taiwan might indeed be nothing special. In terms of landscape and culture China is much more diverse and interesting. There are some truly mindblowing places in China and I recommend traveling there. Outside of major state holidays when everyone travels, the experience can be not so annoying.
Itās just an annoying place to live and as I said , I am in full on hate mode these days. I really donāt care if there are less mainlanders now than beforeā¦I donāt want to see them at all. Certainly not groups. individual travelers that blend in and know how to behave donāt bother me at all.
The Gansu student girl said that she likes people in Taiwan because they were much nicer than the Chinese, especially the service. You donāt have to fight for everything here. Which is true. Thatās why I love here not there and so do more and more mainlanders who have the opportunity.
Yeah, itās risky visiting the islands at this time of year. Winds were gusting up to 113kph on Orchid Island yesterday. Itās a fantastic place, and if youāve got the luxury of waiting for a gap in the weather then you can still do it in winter, but if your scheduleās tightā¦
You could try Dulan area. Should be pretty lively on NYE, though itās a popular foreigner destination these days and you may wonder if youāve stumbled into a whiteyās gay bar given most bars will be full of foreigner males
They killed stray cats by locking them in cages, like trapped lobsters, and then dropping such cages to the sea.
My coworker is from a small town in Southern Japan, which she says is now overrun with Mainlanders. When I was in Tokyo, you couldnāt buy anything if the buses of Mainlanders had been there before: they were like the plague, consuming everything. Kyoto wasnāt so badā¦ except youād notice if they used the toiletsā¦ and I am not expanding on that.
if a chinese person was well educated and travelled i think there would be plenty to appreciate in taiwan. most chinese donāt fit into that category though. pretty sure its just bias speaking when they say taiwan is soso. which is understandable as i said Taiwanese do it too.
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Foreigner whitey males? LOL
You seem to be quite knowledgeable of the area. Is the whole area designated a white gay bar?