I like Chayi. When I first came to Taiwan I lived in Taichung for a year or so. I’ve been living in Taipei for the past 5 years. I don’t like it here anymore. Too big. Too stinky.
I was down in Chayi this past weekend for the second time and I fell in love with the place. There is a beautiful lake on the the perimiter of the city. The air is clean. The foreign community is small and more diverse than other smaller towns. (Lot’s of High Speed Rail People).
I saw an awesome Taoist parade that went on for about 30 minutes or so. Living in Taipei I almost forgot about those aspects of Taiwanese culture.
Toying with the idea of moving down there. Any Chayi people around here?
I agree. I used to live in Taichung and Tainan. Now I’ve been in Taipei for like, 4 years or something. I miss Taichung a lot, especially since it improves so much all the time. Taipei is convenient and big and bla bla bla. Taipei’s just a convenient place to get fat, and it’s hard as hell to find a decent apartment. Whereas in Taichung, there were these “singles” high rises with awesome apartments and minimals kids and dogs. In Taipei it’s hard to find a place to live that’s not full of families and pets. Waaaa… Ruff ruff. When I lived in Taichung, I saw them shooting a lesbo porno downstairs one time: These two scantily-clad girls were slow-dancing while some guy was filming them. I think there were lots of mainland hos in my building. The mafia’s all over, but they won’t bug you if you don’t bug them. And all the Taichung tea shops. Ah… Taipei’s got too many Starbucks.
I’ve been in Chiayi for the last 3.5 years. I’m a small city guy and Taipei is just too “busy” for me.
I believe the lake you were talking about is called Lantan. It is quite nice at night. However, ther are some downsides to living here. There is no school, public or private, that teaches Chinese to foreigners. I only know of one place that sells Guinness draft. The locals definately stare more here (last Saturday I drove around the city and didn’t see another foreigner for two hours). “Nightlife” here is basically nonexistant. If you are like me, these things won’t bother you.* If you really like small cities, Chiayi might be the place for you.
There is nothing wrong with living in Taipei. You just have to choose whether you want to live in the smog, the hills or a combination of both. They are tradeoffs with every area but you have to put your priorities straight. If you don’t like your surroundings then I suggest you find a new area to live.
I really dislike Taipei, I’ve always been a “country boy”. Unfortunately, because of my job and school, I have to be here.
I really like Taidong, a nice, relaxed, slow-paced lifestyle, plus some really beautiful scenery, close to Green Island, etc. (I also have a thing for cute aboriginal boys, hehe )
I’m not sure it would qualify as a “city”, but I really like Makung on Penghu, not least because it’s the only place I know in Taiwan where pedestrians are accorded precedence over the abominable motor car.
I must say I really like Puli. The air is great, the water is fine, the women are pretty. There’s also a small cairn I built in the memory of my murdered dog.
I’m a bit of a hill-folk, and there are some great mountains and valleys that spread out from Puli like spokes on a wheel. Lots of cool historical bridges and tunnels built bt the Japanese. It’s an interesting place overall.
Not a city, not even really a town…but Tienshiang gets my vote. Love the beauty of the area up there. What a treat.
However, so that I actually add something useful to this topic…I’ll go with Taipei simply for its proximity to some awesome natural sights as well as being THE hub.
I’m surprised someone picked Chiayi. Too damn noisy with all the funeral parades, garbage trucks, politician trucks, etc. I’ve stayed there many weekends at the inlaws’ house and it seems much noisier than Taipei. Also there are no sidewalks on some busy streets and people drive even worse than in Taipei.
If I could find the kind of work I do there, I’d probably move to Hualien. At least to give it a try. I’ve always had a good time there and found it to be relatively attractive by Taiwan standards, though there was more staring and pointing at our cute foreigner baby than in Taipei. Didn’t bother me so much, but it drove my wife nuts.
Nono, I left culture shock phase 2, I will not rant about it again…
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