I’m surprised this hasn’t come up yet…but what about the two big frequently occurring natural disaster on the East Coast? Earthquakes and typhoons. I’ve never experienced an earthquake on the East Coast but imagine they must be a lot stronger there than they are felt in Taipei. Also typhoons are another obvious one. How do these things play into everyday life and well being on the East Coast?
Earthquakes in Yilan are not particularly scary. Most of them come from Hualien, and those that generate on Turtle Island are usually not very strong (there are some geological reasons for that, but my English is not good enough to explain them).
As for typhoons, they’re absolutely brutal.
This happened during typhoon Dujuan, the second one that hit Taiwan directly and passed right above Su Ao.
Living in Hualien I do get the brunt of some earthquakes and typhoons. From my brief research my house sits on a major fault line…nice. However, almost everyone in Hualien will tell you the houses are built tough here so not to worry about house having trouble unless the big one comes. However, everyone also says the 2005 typhoon was scary and did various damage.
[quote=“marasan”][quote=“Flakman”]I retired and moved to Hualian. Note I live in a small town outside Hualian but I still provide the following assessment. If you come to Hualian you need to like a small town pace and forget about the various activities available in a big city. I have a piece of land to keep me busy…I am not sure if I would enjoy living in an apartment in Hualian. 
GOOD:
-natural scenery and great air (usually)
-easy access to coast and mountains
-generally friendly people, easy to make friends
-cheaper than Taipei but prices skyrocketed in last few years for housing, seems to have tapered off but not expecting prices to drop much until a few years after new highway finished
BAD
-must use car
-most restaurants on average are so-so with bad service
-one shopping mall (if you like shopping)
-terrible driving habits
-very hot in summer. winter not bad. Very wet for long stretches.
-way too many small, black mosquitoes (in some parts of town and countryside they make short pants and short sleeves almost impossible)[/quote]
I’ve always liked Ji-an. A plot of land there would be perfect. And you’d be close enough to Hualian City for shopping, restaurants, etc. My wife’s relatives have a bed and breakfast in Guangfu (or is it Tabalong?). I think that would be too far from the city for me.[/quote]
Jian is nice…and was the first place we were looking for land. However, the land price doubled during the two years we were considering where to buy…and so many people were building there I worried about some monster house springing up next to me. Result was I bought land farther from Hualien city.
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I think this is a great topic, as the old-timers here start to look around for places to hang out after saving some money (instead of maybe where they have been for so long) and then save a lot more money (presuming that most live in Taipei or New Taipei and will move away from the north).
I personally don’t think earthquakes or typhoons should be any factor in the equation for any decision to live in Taiwan.
My opinion would be to:
Move to Kaohsiung. By far, it’s probably seen the most dramatic change (for the better) of any large city in the last 20+ years I’ve been in Taiwan, and it’s still very cheap to live. Cheap in all aspects (real estate, food, etc.) Since this is retirement, you won’t have to worry about size of apartment (kids are out of house, if you have any, right?), as you can easily find 20+ Ping for under NT$5mn or even less. There’s MRT there, more lines will be built out, and you’re only 2 hours by HSR to Taipei if you have to absolutely hang out with friends still there (less time if from Taichung, but then again, Taichung is cheap, too, as a retirement place, but I prefer KHH). The streets are extremely wide to scooter on. No need to worry too much about finding a parking space if you drive a car.
Winters in Taipei suck donkey biscuits big time. Days on end of cold and wet, chilling one to the bone, as the temperature of the concrete walls drop to the temperature outside. Feels like living in a refrigerator for months on end. Summers are then extremely hot with the afternoon monsoon rains. 20+ years of this and I’m sick of the winters.
Kaohsiung is a short ride by bus/car to Kenting, or a beautiful bike ride inland (along Pingtung’s western farm plains, lots of pineapple fields I remember on my bike rides), or even a nice bike ride along the whole coast south of Kaohsiung’s industrial center. And MuchaMan has correctly pointed out that Chinese (Taiwan) Petroleum closed down their big plant in KHH in January of last year. Plus, about 50+ minute plane ride to HK with the int’l airport downtown and not likely to ever change (unlike Taipei, where officials are actually considering, stupidly in my opinion, of shutting down Sungshan perhaps in the future).
From KHH, you can easily then take the train (or bike ride which is what I’ll probably do) over the mountain range to the east coast of Taitung, which is a good sequeway to…
Taitung:
This would be my ultimate retirement place. Live north of the city on the coast, with a nice view of Green Island on clear days. I would Not go to Dulan. That’s getting way to foreignerish/artsy (which is fine if you’re into that), but a better place is Dunghe a few clicks north of Dulan. Got the famous Dunghe bao-zi for breakfast and for bike rides up and down the coast. Plus, Route 23 ends right at Dunghe, in which case you can travel that beautiful route back to Fuli on Route 9 in the Rift Valley. Route 23 is one of the most beautiful bike rides I’ve ever taken in Taiwan and one of the most remotest, as I never saw another bicyclist when I went over it.
Can buy a bit of land around Dunghe either north or south of it. Many local retirees from north Taiwan, central Taiwan, south Taiwan have bought some land there and doing the same thing. With some easy work, you could easily build a small B&B or at least promote yourself on various bike blogs in Taiwan (both foreign and local). In a good way, you’ll be likely surrounded by a retiree or 2, who also want to have a mellow life, just like yourself.
The quickest train from Taipei into Taitung station now takes only 3hrs 30mins, after they finally electrified the line from Hualien to Taitung (previously all traversed by diesel engines, much slower as acceleration and deceleration took a lot of time). A decade or more ago, I remember going from Taipei to Taitung the “quickest” in 6hrs!
The Internet has made the world a much smaller place, thus opening up the possibilities to retire to a bit more remote places (relative to where one is currently living, which is most likely extremely metropolitan if Taipei or New Taipei). Hence, retiring on the east coast in the future is not that bad of an idea and you’ll probably be doing things you’ve never done before, even if you’ve lived in Taiwan for decade(s) or more, like river tracing in extremely beautiful unspoilt back-country, river-rafting, bike-riding, seeing/participating in aboriginal seasonal festivals, etc., etc. etc.
Would love to hear more from those who’ve made the change to live on the east coast (from Hualien on down to Pingtung peninsula near Kenting), and even those who may have chosen to live down in KHH after being in the north for so long. From the local friends I’ve talked to who grew up in KHH and who’ve worked long years in Taipei, they’re planning to buy a place back in KHH and just forego Taipei as a retirement place.
It’s really a no-brainer. Your money will go 3-5x as far in the south (and much more in the east).
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If retired, who you going to spend your time with and what you going to be doing?
In Taipei, everybody is working so nobody to spend time with.
West Coast, still mostly cities and everybody is working and going about their business.
East Coast, beautiful, but not many people to spend time with in the daytime.
Taiwan is not really a retirement location.
Try Thailand or Philippines or maybe even Malaysia or Cambodia where are there lots of tourists and visitors and beaches and people that are not going about their daily business to spend time with.
For foreigners who’ve lived here the longest of any time outside their own country and for locals, Taiwan is likely THE retirement location (cost-wise) versus back in the home country. Why go to those countries where you have no family ties (I am talking about foreigners who’ve married Taiwanese locals)? It’s great to visit Thailand, Phils, and Malaysia, but adjusting to a new culture has been done already by us lifers on Wan. No need to go through that adjustment in the sunset of one’s life.
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It’s horses for courses. Some people still prefer more ‘western’ style therefore Philippines or Malaysia or Thailand might be easier in that regard…they have far bigger western expat communities.
I’m just saying if you have a life in Taiwan with family and things, then yes maybe retired here.
But if you’re just looking for a place to retire and you don’t already have some type of connection, Taiwan is not the place. Boring.
People don’t spend their entire life working to move to Taiwan. They move to the Caribbean or an exotic island in Thailand or the Philippines or… some other dreamy location with a retirement lovely lifestyle, that is definitely not Taiwan.
Thailand is getting a lot more expensive now and difficult to deal with the laws there I believe.
Taiwan would have been a better retirement choice if prices hadn’t rocketed out of control for land and property.
getting back to the topic of “Where in taiwan”…
…anyone wanting to retire (or thought of) to the outlying islands of Penghu, Matsu, or Kinmen (or even Green Island or Lanyu Island)?
I’m guessing the count is less than the fingers on one’s 2 hands.
(Editor’s note: I’ve been to Penghu and Green Island once each. If had to choose, it’d be Green Island.)
Yes, I’d also like to talk about where in Taiwan to retire. Taipei has everything, more than everything, but everyone is so busy and rushed. Most of West side the same but better lifestyle n whatever in Kaohsiung. Tainan ok, maybe too small.
Love Hualien, Taitung, East coast, but it can become slow. Are there other like retirees to hang out with?
It really depends on what lifestyle you want. Cost is one factor, but there are other factors like social life with others.
For my life, can’t beat BiTan/WuLai area. Fresh air, amazing hiking, our own secret speakeasy where late night patrons can do/be themselves, Highway 3 right there for hitting north coast, all mod cons in XinDian, and with the sports/arts scenes in Taipei being the only games on the island, too important for me to sacrifice living on East Coast, but that said, DuLan is certainly gorgeous if I really wanted to just chill for the balance.
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[quote=“Toe_Save, post:45, topic:60297, full:true”]
our own secret speakeasy where late night patrons can do/be themselves[/quote]
Fresh air…nah just not true.
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Mostly true. By comparison to other close-in communities I’ve lived in (NeiHu, ZhongHe, Mucha) I’m quite happy with the air I breathe.
Mostly false if you look at the numbers or look out the window.
Source: long term xindian resident (me).
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Today not a great example of course.
There is such a thing as too much xiguan. 
This is why I don’t get invited to the best parties.
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