What a difference 10 years makes!

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

What a difference 10 years makes!

Not all of us can or want to live in Taipei, so for us Southerners, it is, or was, a real slog to get into Taipei to renew a passport. When I was living in Tainan 10 years ago, I had to take the train overnight just so I could be at the Canadian Trade Office in the morning with enough time to wait in line, go through the ignorant interview process, get approval and go on my way.

Then of course, there was another six-hour train ride back to Tainan beside crying babies and loud phone talkers.

Today, I hopped on the HSR from Kaohsiung and was at Taipei Main Station in two hours. Hooked up with a fantastic taxi driver who loved speaking English and knew exactly where we had to go. (10 years ago the cab driver got lost and I barely made it to the office in time to fill out my app).

This time it was a breeze because the office is only five km. from Taipei Station. The cabbie even told me where to catch the MRT after I was done!

And what happened to those grouchy Taiwanese workers inside the Trade Office? Today they were all bright and smiling and very helpful. Never heard a negative word the whole time I was there. In addition, the “interview” process took maybe five minutes and she never once questioned my identity or hassled me about the pp photo.

The last time I did this 10 years ago, they grilled me like I was a criminal, phoned both the reference contacts on my app form and questioned the quality of my pp photos even though they had approved them the week before. (Yeah, 10 years ago I had to make two trips to the Trade Office because of the cumbersome app form).

This time I filled out my app in advance, did my pics in K-Town and there was not a blink from the gal behind the desk. Never questioned a thing on my app form. Much better reception there. Much more cordial and polite. Nice to be treated like a real person rather than a number and be barked at.

After I was done there, I walked a few minutes over to the Taipei City Hall MRT, caught the direct train to Taipei Main Station, poked around and had lunch, caught the HSR back to K-Town and was home be 4 p.m.

Yeah, 10 years of progress makes all the difference. :notworthy: :discodance:

2 Likes
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Nice to hear a positive story, especially when a lot of the conversations on here are about how crap Taiwan is. Interesting perspective coming from the South as well. The last time I went to Tainan I felt the same way. It was great to hop on the HSR and get down there to enjoy the fresh air and open space.

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I’m most impressed that you kept in touch with the cab driver over 10 years. Bravo!

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How did you get away with waiting ten years to renew your passport? AFAIK, the ten year passport is a pretty new thing for Canadians. Before it was five years, which really means 4.5 years between visits to the CTOT…

All the awesome things you mentioned are indeed welcome (THSR vs terrible TRA, etc etc). But perhaps the most awesome thing for Canadians is the banishing of the horrible “guarantor” process to get a new passport. Thank god that’s gone–and hopefully not coming back!

Guy

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I was more impressed by how much that guy’s English has apparently improved. :slight_smile:

Guy

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Firstly Canadian passports were 5 yrs only up until recently. Secondly, it’s all done online now anyway with a few clicks of the mouse.
And lastly, you make it sound like a journey, a trek from south to north. No, it’s 5 hours by car if you gun it. Nothing! And there has always been the cheapo, big chair bus options. Nothing could be easier and more relaxing.

Still plenty of grouchy govt, office people around for application, red tape procedures, but you still react to this type of thing ten years in? I moved on from that ages ago, and handle interactions with govt/official admin people the way i want the situation to go. I rule the rooster. White man is king, don’t you know this?

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:astonished:

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No difference at all, still have to travel a 1000 miles to see my local trade office and apply for a passport. :doh:

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The reason the workers are not so rude, my GF says, is when Chen ShuiBian was president, he told workers who are supposed to be greeters to stop being rude, “why not be nice?” And this attitude was adopted mostly. The books at Shida say like years ago salespeople did not smile at customers in Taiwan and just barked " what do you want!" And then McDonalds came and they had an idea that was radical: smile at customer… this is in the 2nd year books, Iunless it was revised out in a new edition. Left to itself Taiwan gets better slowly and gradually. And yet Taiwan is not left to itself, because of Mainland

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That just sounds totally unbelievable.

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Well, the Taipei City civil service was certainly given a jolt when Chen became mayor in the 1990s. For you newbies out there, that’s the starting point of service counters being a seat level–not way up high, where you stood and meekly submitted whatever documents you needed to submit. This was a radical change in Taiwan, and it more or less stuck.

But this has very little to do with changes in the past ten years, which have also been substantial!

Guy

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That just sounds totally unbelievable.[/quote]

Sounds somewhat believable. In Taiwan, workers do what their boss says right? So if the boss wants it, then the workers will usually do it.

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What’s a “Mainland”? :ponder:

So in the rest of the world, workers disobey their bosses? :ponder:

Guy

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In ten years time you could go again and have another crud experience. Progress can’t be measured by two experiences.

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The point here (which I am sure you understand) is that the OP is amazed at how much smoother many parts of this process have become. This is certainly true with many parts of the bureaucratic machine in Taiwan over the past while. Do any old timers remember dealing with the cops to renew ARCs? I shudder just thinking about this. Do any of you remember the tight-wire act needed to get necessary documents to apply for an APRC? Lots of this nonsense (but certainly not all) has been chucked out the window. Who knows what things will look like in the future? But for now, and for this stuff viewed narrowly, I think we can be pretty pleased.

Guy

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[quote=“afterspivak”]The point here (which I am sure you understand) is that the OP is amazed at how much smoother many parts of this process have become. This is certainly true with many parts of the bureaucratic machine in Taiwan over the past while. Do any old timers remember dealing with the cops to renew ARCs? I shudder just thinking about this. Do any of you remember the tight-wire act needed to get necessary documents to apply for an APRC? Lots of this nonsense (but certainly not all) has been chucked out the window. Who knows what things will look like in the future? But for now, and for this stuff viewed narrowly, I think we can be pretty pleased.

Guy[/quote]

However, if you follow any sports team for long enough you will know success is temporary. What is one year a team of crap will one day be a champs league team only to then again be a group heading for the doldrums. Enjoy your small win. Don’t view it as permanent progress though.

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Yup. As they say, “past returns do not guarantee future results”!

This might be especially the case in a politically volatile place like Taiwan. Anyone venture to say what things will be like in a Taiwan SAR? Or simply Taiwan, Province of China?

On the more positive side of the ledger, there in fact has been some policy continuity in the DPP to KMT transition regarding residency/immigration issues. Yes a lot more can be improved (in some cases A LOT MORE!). But the OP is still in my view correct to note some of the positive things that have happened.

As for the future: buyer beware!

Guy

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Your experience almost exactly parallels mine of last Wednesday. Five years ago, coming from Taitung, I had to get the overnight train to get to Taipei in time for the (still) inconvenient opening hours of 9:00- 11:00 (planes arrived too late).

This time, instead of six hours overnight, getting into Taipei at 6 am; I got the the Puyuma Express (5:05 to 8:40), jumped on the MRT, and was at the Canada Office by 9.

Last time the handler at the CTO was totally surly; she acted as if it were an imposition on her time to even bother looking at the form. At first she wanted to reject my photos because the background wasn’t white; when I pointed out the section where it said “or light-coloured” she said the standard Taiwanese ID background was ‘too blue’.

She finally accepted that, but rejected my guarantor’s signature on the grounds that he used a stylised signature, just like most Westerners do, but that as a Taiwanese he would have used the standard copybook written form of his name. I pointed out that, as a police detective dealing with crimes involving smuggling, he often dealt with foreign agencies, but she refused to either accept it or call him. I had to go and get it re-signed (luckily his station was quite close by) and then she wanted to refuse to deal with it because it was already 10:55.
All of which matched my previous experiences with CTO staff in Taipei.

This time, the staff member handling my passport renewal was friendly- we chatted about her recent visit to Taitung- and everything went smoothly- done in five minutes. Wonderful.

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[quote=“afterspivak”]The point here (which I am sure you understand) is that the OP is amazed at how much smoother many parts of this process have become. This is certainly true with many parts of the bureaucratic machine in Taiwan over the past while. Do any old timers remember dealing with the cops to renew ARCs? I shudder just thinking about this. Do any of you remember the tight-wire act needed to get necessary documents to apply for an APRC? Lots of this nonsense (but certainly not all) has been chucked out the window. Who knows what things will look like in the future? But for now, and for this stuff viewed narrowly, I think we can be pretty pleased.

Guy[/quote]

Except his experience (and mine) was dealing with staff at the Canadian Trade Office, employees of the government of Canada. I always found them to be assholes too, even the one ahem ‘noticeably’ Canadian I dealt with. (OTOH, people not stuck with processing documents were always quite pleasant).

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Yes the OP was. But there is more to this shift in experience, unless you believe that THSR or the Puyama Express is also operated by CTOT staff. :slight_smile:

Guy