I once met a guy who’d been here since 1972. I didn’t ask him his age, but I’d guess he was in his 80s.
Oldest foreigner or foreigner that’s been here the longest? The two could be the same, but different too.
My first week in Taiwan, I went to a small hole in the wall joint called G’Day or Good Day…I forgot. Before the other Good Day Cafe chain was around. I was flying solo and enjoying my breakfast when an older foreign gentleman asked if he could join me.
I said sure and he asked me the standard “how long have you been here” questions, etc. He told me he knew of hidden Japanese air bases in the mountains and offered to show me. Said he’d been here since the 80s, I believe.
That was the only time I saw it spoke to him. Now, nearly 14 years later, I wish I had taken him up on his offer to go exploring for those hidden bases.
Oldest that is easy: Padre Rabago.
One of my coworkers did land here in 71, you should see his pictures of Takao. He came by boat.
The oldest foreigner I know here is a dude in his 60s, a co-teacher at my Uni. He’s cool as shit (leather motorcycle jacket over business casual is his usual look), and I thought he was in his 40s until he told me he was 60 something. I was shocked. Dude is fitter than I am.
I rode bikes around the island with a guy who was here for two years in 1966-68, but that’s it (then back to San Diego for the last fifty years). He was riding around the island because he wanted to see how much it had changed. He said Hualien was just a couple of buildings back then and Tianmu was rice fields.
Your username makes me hungry.
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