Taichung - Tell me more!

I am still trying to figure out what city to start off in. I didn’t wanna go to Taipei because i think its a little too big and expensive. I was also thinking of Kaohsiung, its more comparable to Baltimore, around where I live now. But after talking to people online I am starting to think Taichung sounds good.

What kind of unique or cool things do you think I’d appreciate there? Does the new highspeed train run through there? Do they have good transportation, I think Kaohsiung is supposed to get a metro this year right? So I guess Taichung must not have one?

Anyways I am just looking for some interesting stuff about Taichung that I won’t find elsewhere, thanks!

[quote=“Ian_Alexander”]I am still trying to figure out what city to start off in. I didn’t wanna go to Taipei because I think its a little too big and expensive. I was also thinking of Kaohsiung, its more comparable to Baltimore, around where I live now. But after talking to people online I am starting to think Taichung sounds good.

What kind of unique or cool things do you think I’d appreciate there? Does the new highspeed train run through there? Do they have good transportation, I think Kaohsiung is supposed to get a metro this year right? So I guess Taichung must not have one?

Anyways I am just looking for some interesting stuff about Taichung that I won’t find elsewhere, thanks![/quote]I lived in Taichung for five years, and have been living in Taipei for six months.

Taichung’s cheaper, for sure. The big thing is rent. Renting a place is Taichung is about half the cost of rent in Taipei. Food’s also a bit cheaper on the whole.

Taichung’s not a bad place but it’s still definitely a big city. Not quite as crowded as Taipei but not quite as convenient either. There’s no MRT. There are plans for one but that will take a few years. The high-speed train line does run through Taichung though not through the centre and to make the most of it you need to take a taxi (local connecting train is slow and often standing-room only). If you’re not in a particular hurry you might as well get the regular express train to Taipei, which takes two hours, or the bus, which takes a little longer.

There are some good museums and other sights to see in and around Taichung, but more in Taipei I’d say. Plenty of lounge bars in Taichung too, as well as some decent Westerner hangouts (which on the whole tend to be cheaper than the equivalent in Taipei).

On the whole I prefer life in Taipei City, and I think most people would agree with me. However Taichung’s not bad and does give you a bit of a different perspective on things.

Other options would be Tainan or Kaohsiung. There are plenty of threads comparing all these cities. The search function’s working alright so give it a go.

Well depends where you live in Baltimore I guess. To me the Inner Harbor is the only place with anything close to a night life in Baltimore.

I guess Taichung is sort of like that, without the seedy crack ho on the corner nonsense.

Taichung is a much slower paced city compare to Taipei. Might be good if your don’t like a hectic pace to life.

If you hate cities like New York or LA, Taipei won’t be that appealing to live in.

That’s the only one I will complain about.

Hmm… I would rank Taipei and Taichung as pretty equal on that score. I’m not sure when you were last here but it sure as hell ain’t some quaint little country town. All in all Taichung is just a very mediocre city.

The main problem for most people in Taichung is transport. You could live in Taipei all your life and never need a car but city buses here are next to useless. I tried them a few times and a 5 minute car journey takes over an hour :loco:

The other main problem is work. If you have a Taiwanese wife or girlfriend then she needs to get ready for a big pay cut and possible difficulty finding any work whatsoever. I don’t teach so I could advise on that point but the work situation here generally looks shit. Oddly enough there are new restaurants springing up all the time along with very expensive housing projects and I honestly don’t understand where all the money is coming from for people to frequent these places.

Rent can be low but it’s all about keeping your eyes peeled for a bargain. When you get down to finding a nice, modern place the gap starts to close with Taipei prices. It’s quite easy to find somewhere a bit run-down and refurbish it for an eye-wateringly low price (which is what I’ve done).

If you enjoy living out of the city then Taichung is perfect. Lots of very cheap housing, beautiful countryside and you’ll need transport wherever you live so why not go a bit further out?

Nightlife is crap depending on what you like to do at weekends. We do have some pretty nice galleries, museums etc. and we can rival Taipei for food. Someone just here in Taiwan temporarily for a good time is best sticking to Taipei. Taichung needs quite a bit more investment of time and patience to get into the swing of things.

After living in Taichung for a while I started pining for Taipei. I had all these visions in my head about how much cleaner and more civilised it was up there, but the last time I went back I found out that generally Taipei is just as bad. At least Taichung feels a little bit more spacious and there aren’t quite as many cars on the road, but lord knows what it will be like if and when they start building an MRT here.

Taichung has a weird effect on me - I definitely don’t love the place, but I don’t hate it and life is so cheap and easy that I would find it very hard to tear myself away. I feel like I’ve got stuck in some bottomless pit but a comfortable pit with a/c and cheap rent and lots of big bike shops.

Tai Chung is too heavy.

Hmm… I would rank Taipei and Taichung as pretty equal on that score. I’m not sure when you were last here but it sure as hell ain’t some quaint little country town. All in all Taichung is just a very mediocre city.

The main problem for most people in Taichung is transport. You could live in Taipei all your life and never need a car but city buses here are next to useless. I tried them a few times and a 5 minute car journey takes over an hour :loco:

The other main problem is work. If you have a Taiwanese wife or girlfriend then she needs to get ready for a big pay cut and possible difficulty finding any work whatsoever. I don’t teach so I could advise on that point but the work situation here generally looks shit. Oddly enough there are new restaurants springing up all the time along with very expensive housing projects and I honestly don’t understand where all the money is coming from for people to frequent these places.

Rent can be low but it’s all about keeping your eyes peeled for a bargain. When you get down to finding a nice, modern place the gap starts to close with Taipei prices. It’s quite easy to find somewhere a bit run-down and refurbish it for an eye-wateringly low price (which is what I’ve done).

If you enjoy living out of the city then Taichung is perfect. Lots of very cheap housing, beautiful countryside and you’ll need transport wherever you live so why not go a bit further out?

Nightlife is crap depending on what you like to do at weekends. We do have some pretty nice galleries, museums etc. and we can rival Taipei for food. Someone just here in Taiwan temporarily for a good time is best sticking to Taipei. Taichung needs quite a bit more investment of time and patience to get into the swing of things.

After living in Taichung for a while I started pining for Taipei. I had all these visions in my head about how much cleaner and more civilised it was up there, but the last time I went back I found out that generally Taipei is just as bad. At least Taichung feels a little bit more spacious and there aren’t quite as many cars on the road, but lord knows what it will be like if and when they start building an MRT here.

Taichung has a weird effect on me - I definitely don’t love the place, but I don’t hate it and life is so cheap and easy that I would find it very hard to tear myself away. I feel like I’ve got stuck in some bottomless pit but a comfortable pit with a/c and cheap rent and lots of big bike shops.[/quote]

Haha, well even though your review of Taichung wasn’t exactly ‘good’ i think I get your point and it seems like a place I could enjoy. I am not really into the big city type nightlife, and I really enjoy museums and parks and things like that. Well If I don’t like it after a while I can always move. Its probably unlikely that the first place I try will be my paradise or anything, I barely know what I’m looking for, haha!

Okay, no one has mentioned the weather yet, so I guess I should mention that “it never rains in Taichung”! Of course that’s not entirely true, as it does rain a few times a year and we do have the occasional monsoon or typhoon, but Taichung really does have the best weather in Taiwan. It rains quite a bit in the north, south, and east, but the high mountains to the east of Taichung block most of the rain. I think that Taichung is Taiwan’s sunbelt.

A quick story: I came to Taichung first, and when I told my Taichung-er girlfriend I wanted to move to Taipei, she said she didn’t want to go because it rained all the time there. “Don’t be stupid, woman,” said I. “It’s barely north of us, the weather will be exactly the same”.

Turns out she was right, though – it does rain every frickin day there.

I lasted 18 months in Taipei before I bailed out of my office job and came back to Taichung. Things are cheaper, people are friendlier … but mostly I came back for the nightlife. About a month after I came back, it all died. The bar and club selection here is awful now. Still, it’s pretty bad in Taipei too.

I can’t figure out what my point is. Maybe something about it not really mattering?

The weather is a biggie, especially if you loathe permanent scooter foot - a disorder caused by perpetually riding in the rain wearing shoddy waterproofing.

Overall, Taichung has wider streets - generally - lower high rises and you get to see more of the clear blue sky, which leaves you with much less of the hemmed in feeling Taipei can leave you with. No idea what happened to the night life but it used to have its own funky and friendly little scene.
The relative ease of getting out and about in the countryside is an added plus.

HG

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]The weather is a biggie, especially if you loathe permanent scooter foot - a disorder caused by perpetually riding in the rain wearing shoddy waterproofing.

Overall, Taichung has wider streets - generally - lower high rises and you get to see more of the clear blue sky, which leaves you with much less of the hemmed in feeling Taipei can leave you with. No idea what happened to the night life but it used to have its own funky and friendly little scene.
The relative ease of getting out and about in the countryside is an added plus.

HG[/quote]I really don’t feel more “hemmed in” in Taipei. There are plenty of wide streets where you can actually walk on the pavements (sidewalks), for example around the whole City Hall area, and Ren’ai Rd. In fact many of the major roads are like that, except that some areas such as around Sogo get very crowded with pedestrians. In Taichung the pavements are crowded with stalls, parked cars and all sorts of stuff.

And about the easy access to the countryside thing – it’s just as easy to get to some decent countryside in Taipei. Sometimes more so, because of the MRT and the reasonable bus service.

I’ve lived in both and I prefer living in Taibei.

Even though I have a scooter, I still prefer walking/taking the MRT whenever I can. Compare that with the average Taizhong resident, who will take a scooter to go 200m down the road. Also, I prefer the spots outside of Taibei (Pinglin, Yangmingshan, Yilan county, NE coast) over Taizhong (Miaoli, Dongshi).

Yeah, it rains more in the winter in Taibei, but Taizhong seems a bit more dusty and polluted.

And the rent is definitely more in Taibei, but for me at least, that’s more than offset by my higher salary.

Yes, and that in part is why the air pollution is much worse.

[quote=“Brendon”]I lasted 18 months in Taipei before I bailed out of my office job and came back to Taichung. Things are cheaper, people are friendlier … but mostly I came back for the nightlife. About a month after I came back, it all died. The bar and club selection here is awful now. Still, it’s pretty bad in Taipei too.

I can’t figure out what my point is. Maybe something about it not really mattering?[/quote]

Another thing Jason Hu fucked up by letting his gangster buddies run amok. Now our fine selection of nightspots in Taichung runs to: Lion King - pointless tame hip hop venue in a weird ampitheatre; Pig & Whistle - vaguely notorious for violence, at least 10 creepy men per girl and the DJs keep getting hijacked by various gangsters to play Taiwanese love songs (this one gets llary’s WTF?! award); Lobby - highly dubious hip hop club with angry car park attendants; Soundgarden - actually vaguely pleasant, I give them another 3 months. Oh, and we won’t even talk about Xaga (that’s Zahga… with an X, YO, according to the cheesy ICRT adverts).

Tai chung is too polluted much of the time, and there’s not much access to good beaches . Well, nor in taipei, but at least there are some OK beaches nearby.

I’ve lived in Taichung for 8 years and while I get up to Taipei less frequently than I’d like I think I’ve spent enough time there to get a fair feel for Taipei life, so to briefly touch on points already brought up in this thread and add my 2c:

Weather:
Taichung gets less drizzle and rain, no doubt about it…

[Taichung : 1 Taipei : 0] A surprise early goal for Taichung…

Pollution/Air Quality:
Taichung is much worse than Taipei… Taichung’s proximity to the industrial furnaces and filth spewing free-for-alls of Da Jia, Zhang Hua, Tai Ping, Tan Zi, etc. not to mention the high prevalence of “home workshops” and uncontrolled ghost money burning in the city itself mean the grey/brown haze that hangs over the city more often than not is not “condensation” as the locals would have you believe… I ride my mountain bike in the hills overlooking Taichung most days and you can see the filth blanket that the mountains lock in over the city clear as mud, even though from downtown it kind of looks like just a cloudy day… the fact that every single commuter is using their own internal combustion to get to work instead of being neatly is tucked away underground on an MRT train doesn’t help…

[Taichung : 1 Taipei : 1] Taipei gets in the equalizer in fairly emphatic style…

Transport:
I’d like an MRT, but I prefer being self sufficient mobility wise so it’s not that big an issue for me other than in terms of the traffic congestion and pollution, which having an MRT would reduce ten fold…

[Taichung : 1 Taipei : 2] deflection off the post, but the goal stands… an MRT is better no matter which way you slice it…

Traffic:
The net experience of driving/riding in Taichung is worse than Taipei, vehicle density certainly is less especially scooter wise, but Taichung’s drivers are more psychotic… it’s the quality of driving that wins it for Taipei… the stricter (although still useless) Taipei police mean Taipei driving standards and marginally better, the total and absolute lack of enforcement in Taichung means anything goes and nobody cares… Also the road network is less organized than Taipei, the Japanese era grid system in the old downtown area quickly dissolves into random chaos and haphazardly meandering roads in the rest of the city… everyone blows off red lights and triple parks whenever they please… almost zero overpasses for getting around town and from the outlying suburbs/areas into downtown leads to massive bottlenecks at the train line underpasses… also 90% of roads are strangled by arsehole roadside business owners who place their electric signs all the way out in the car lane… the scooter lanes are already packed full of illegally parked cars due to zero parking enforcement… roadside parking does not exist in Taichung, but the comparatively few parking garages are mercifully cheap compared to Taipei…

[Taichung : 1 Taipei : 3] Mouth breathing cretin road users concede another for Taichung… Taipei now looking dominant with a 2 goal advantage…

Population Density:
Doesn’t matter if you mean how many people per sq/m or how thick the population is, both figures are way high… In Taichung the former is lower than it is in Taipei, although the latter is way higher… see “caliber of compatriots” point below for more details…

[Taichung : 2 Taipei : 3] Taichung claws one back with slightly less claustrophobic streets…

Parks/Museums/Facilities:
The Art Museum and Science Museum do a good job of keeping up the side for Taichung, the Science Museum park is quite nice and in the heart of the city, but both fall way short of a reason to live here… “Beyond the very low expectations” would be more apt, but credit where credit is due I guess… Other parks like Sculpture Park and Metro park on the hill are there or thereabouts, but feel like they are newly and poorly put together since A.) the flora just hasn’t had the time to establish itself as Taipei’s older major parks have and B.) they are… Public sports and recreation facilities are few and far between and can’t compare in quantity or quality to Taipei’s although since I don’t really use them perhaps I’m not qualified to comment… Taichung does have a fairly nifty skate/BMX park which is something…

[Taichung : 2 Taipei : 3] Taichung goal disallowed… residents furiously foaming at their binlang stained mouths…

Crime:
In the past I’ve lived in Zimbabwe, England and South Africa, compared to these places, Taiwan has “no crime”… YMMV… Gangsters, both real and perceived certainly exist in Taichung in overwhelming numbers, however traffic altercations notwithstanding you’d have to go out of your way to put yourself in a position for them to effect you… that means chatting up the wrong girls in the wrong bars… no point in complaining that the train hit you when you were standing on the tracks now is there…

[Taichung : 2 Taipei : 3] Obvious dive from Taipei, referee unmoved… play continues…

Caliber of Compatriots (population density revisited):
An odd topic but the most important one IMO… Taipei is the capital city, it is the hub of commerce and enterprise, it is the “flagship” city of the island and it’s residents while varied include the highest concentration of folks who’ve seen a bit of the world, who are more forward thinking and open minded, people who have the means and desire to aim higher in life… this IMO is normal and natural since in any country the caliber of citizenry in the capital is generally higher than that in rural backwaters… Taichung isn’t rural, and on paper it isn’t a backwater either, but nobody appears to have told the locals that… The proximity to the above mentioned neighboring “satellite cities” which most certainly are backwaters means Taichungers are a rough and ready mix of folks who are shuffling slowly towards the future in an oblivious kind of way and out and out binlang trash hicks and pool hall punters who drive like Napoleon, spit, shout in Taiwanese at 6am, stare and point, kick stray dogs, let their children’s teeth rot, let their own teeth rot, shout some more, deep fry their food in motor oil, consider binlang stained vests and pajama shorts “evening wear” and have a level of savvy and general sophistication that rivals stone age tools… the mix is not an even one however so if you stay within certain select areas of downtown Taichung most folks you’ll come across will be the former, but stray even slightly out of the choicer downtown haunts and great unwashed take over rapidly… the principal at work in Taichung is the same as the one in Taipei just in reverse… some slam drunk on rice wine yob who takes to the streets of Taipei in NT$10 blue flip flops, crusty shorts and a stained wife beater, illegally parks his clapped out car half on the pavement and half in the oncoming lane and staggers off leaving a trail of cigarette butts, snot and stained saliva will undoubted attract a few disapproving “looks” from more sophisticated citizens and not inconceivably the attention of the law, serving as a mild face grazing and motive to think twice in the future, whereas in Taichung nobody bats an eyelid, mostly because they’re all doing it too… similarly some young Taichung lad snappily dressed for his Friday night date or a returning ABC will undoubtedly attract “who the f**k do you think you are, trying to make us look bad?” leers and jeers which in turn makes them more likely to break out the wife beater in future so as to fit in… also after living here almost a decade, learning fluent Chinese and rubbish Taiwanese and generally bending over backwards to learn and accept the “culture” and do my bit for social cohesion and suchlike, I still can’t walk anywhere in public with my wife without passive agressive, sneers, taunts, slurs and general low brow teeth sucking xenophobia being directed at us…

[Taichung : 2 Taipei : 4] Taipei extends it’s lead with a perfectly executed free kick from it’s well manicured midfielder… surely Taichung can’t come back from this…

Nightlife:
As I said, I’m married, and been here long enough not to care anymore, so I’m very poorly qualified to comment on this area of Taichung life, but there are indeed lounge bars, clubs, bars, restaurants etc. that are just fine… for a given definition of “fine”… regrettably no real pubs that aren’t just half arsed cash strapped foreigner start ups that slapped up a bar and a projector screen in a low rent shop front and called it a “Tavern” or something suchlike… decent live music venues are lacking as are bands to preform in them… Soundgarden isn’t bad in it’s new guise either… so for it’s size the nightlife venues Taichung has seem fine to me…

[Taichung : 3 Taipei : 4] Taichung catches the Taipei keeper asleep in the dying moments of the game to avoid utter embarrassment…

General convenience:
MRT, modern clean efficient busses, English signage, English speakers (if these are an issue for you), Ikea, Costco, Jason’s, Foreign Trade & Culture Offices, agents of international companies, Western eateries, ATB Music, English bookshops, the list of good things about Taipei goes on and on and at the end in huge bold underlined capital script, for me at least would be “distance to the airport”… I cannot tell you how much I hate having to sit on a crappy bus for the 4+ hours per round trip it takes to go to CKS Airport and since I have to travel a lot, this alone would be reason enough to move to Taipei… In fairness Taichung is central and easy to get to the mountains and the North and the South parts of the island, but that’s not making any inroads into Taipei’s impressive list above…

[Taichung : 3 Taipei : 5] A final nail in Taichung’s coffin deep in injury time seals the game for Taipei…

So why don’t I live in Taipei?.. good question, I’ve been on the brink of moving there for the last few years, what’s always held me back is I always end up at the same question, “if you’re going to go to all the hassle of up and moving and transplanting the house and job and wife and cats and stuff, why stop at Taipei?”… Stay tuned for the next exciting match: Taipei vs. London…

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good post, plasma. a real plasma cutter, that one was.

Can anyone say… groan…

I was expecting you to put on your London-tinted glasses and rip the place to shreds but bugger me if this isn’t the most accurate mini-review of Taichung I’ve ever seen :notworthy:

A quick story: I came to Taichung first, and when I told my Taichung-er girlfriend I wanted to move to Taipei, she said she didn’t want to go because it rained all the time there. “Don’t be stupid, woman,” said I. “It’s barely north of us, the weather will be exactly the same”.

Turns out she was right, though – it does rain every frickin day there.

I lasted 18 months in Taipei before I bailed out of my office job and came back to Taichung. Things are cheaper, people are friendlier … but mostly I came back for the nightlife. About a month after I came back, it all died. The bar and club selection here is awful now. Still, it’s pretty bad in Taipei too. [/quote]

What happened to the scene down there? I always thought the clubs down there were happening, the girls were a bit “wilder” in a good way. Isn’t Taichung also considered the “sin city” of Taiwan.

Bad part is probably public transportation. No MRT (even KH now getting/has one), though easier to drive a car down there and find a parking place most areas.