Down in Tainan they are Southern Westerners. From the deep South. They can be a little skittish, for they are not used to having contact with their own kind. I can think of a couple of nice ones on Forumosa, the indomitable Tainan Cowboy and the unsinkable Bismark.
Takes me 40 minutes by car to the airport. Tops. I’ve done it in 25, but it cost me an additional NT$1200 in speeding fines. I live 15 mins from Guting and I was gazing out this morning at the filthy brown miasma engulfing Taipei from my hilltop eire.
The OP want clean air, sunshine and (presumably) convenient transport to the airport. And he has not specified living in Taichung. Do try to stay on topic.[/quote]
But he said specifically “preferably further south”, and indicated that he has to travel out of the country frequently. Given these parameters, if not Taichung (and within 20 minutes of the HSR station), then where? Tainan (within 20 minutes of the HSR station) and fly out of Kaohsiung? Maybe, but I don’t have anything useful to offer on that option. But I can say that if he listens to you and moves to Fengyuan or Nantou or something, he’s going to be fucked for his travel needs. And he will be fucked precisely because he does not live near an HSR station.
If he asks for advice about moving to Muzha, I’m sure you’ll be all over it. But you just don’t have any idea what you are talking about here.
[quote=“Stretch”]I am a newbe to the country, and have been living n Taoyuan for the simple that this is where my partner works. But I want to look at living somewhere else, preferably further south for the climate and near the HSR because I need to travel frequently out of the country. And ideally somewhere with clean(ish) air.
Where do most westerners tend to end up, apart from Taiwan?[/quote]
you wont get clean air anywhere near HSR routes. i’d avoid taichung. I heard lots of factories for building materials are in that area.
if you drive i suggest look for a place on 陽明山 in taipei.
[quote=“TaipeiD”][quote=“Stretch”]I am a newbe to the country, and have been living n Taoyuan for the simple that this is where my partner works. But I want to look at living somewhere else, preferably further south for the climate and near the HSR because I need to travel frequently out of the country. And ideally somewhere with clean(ish) air.
Where do most westerners tend to end up, apart from Taiwan?[/quote]
you wont get clean air anywhere near HSR routes. I’d avoid Taichung. I heard lots of factories for building materials are in that area.
if you drive i suggest look for a place on 陽明山 in taipei.[/quote]
Taichung’s air is anything but clean. The place has the most polluting coal-fired power plant in the world, IIRC. The locals will tell you how great the weather there is, which in my opinion just means that the crap in the air NEVER gets washed out of it. For maybe two days a month you’ll actually be able to see the enormous mountains that loom over that city, but most of the time you won’t even realize you’re that close to them. I’m sure the place was beautiful before the smog came.
But of course.
In addition to the pollution, there are plenty of other reasons not to live in Taichung. But with the three parameters given: Climate, pollution, frequent international travel; is there a better suggestion? Maybe Chiayi?
[quote=“Chaon”][quote=“kjmillig”]Mainly wherever they want, usually in an apartment or house, sometimes in hotels, motels, or hostels. If they’re in Taiwan they should live somewhere. 
I personally live beside Tainan.[/quote]
Tainan is pretty sweet. If I fail my Probationary Period here and get kicked out of Taipei by the chief, I’m gonna move to Tainan and open a new age gem and mineral shop.[/quote]
Oh yeah hotshot, don’t forget, 5000 words on “Brass Monkey vs. My Other Place: More Than Just Mustachioed Waitresses and Piss Warm Dishwater Draft”, on my desk, Friday, before noon.
can’t wait to read the new user manual.
you need to be clear that you face bad air in almost all urban centers in Taiwan and sometimes basically all over the island.
Lotus Hill
Xindian or Muzha, up in the hills. Cab or private driver (800 to 1000 nst each trip) takes the highway to airport almost instantly and voila, 20 to 30 minutes later you are at the airport, earlier than you expected, with nothing to buy nor eat nor entertain you to pass the time you left open in case there was a delay.
Did I mention Xindian or Muzha’s lovely hills and greenery? Your own bubble of fresh air.
Touduke’s right, I’ve lived in Taipei and now Taichung, both are bad in different ways. Taichung has more air pollution from factories and coal fired electricity station, Taipei from vehicles and basin effect. I too often have to gaze down on the brown miasma that is Taichung city from my eyrie. There is a layer of dust on my window, it is actually sand/mud after I looked at it closely,seems to blow off the dry rivers or else coming in from China in those giant sandstorms. I also visit Kaoshiung every now and it can be fairly ghastly there too.
For access to air travel I’ve stated the options already, Taipei city is the best option obviously with Songshan airport and Taoyuan nearby. Living up in the hills or outside the city can be a good idea but doesn’t always remove you from the pollution or noise, parts of Muzha and Xindian are good, lots of nice places to live in Taoyuan County aswell.
I didn’t know Taipei was considered sunny.
People live outside Taibeiguo? Who’d want to live anywhere else but Taibeiguo?
Haha, just kidding. Taichung apparently is a lot more sunny than Taipei, although I heard local gang activities are up and crime rates are climbing pretty high as well.
Just had a moment of deja vu. Someone’s living in Taoyuan, wanting to move somewhere south, where there’d be nice weather, preferably near an HSR, and possibly near an airport…sounds exactly like me two years ago. And then I moved to Kaohsiung.
I would say that Kaohsiung would be a good option if weather is really important to you. The winters here are wonderful. But, the air quality seems to get progressively worse the further south you go, and the air in Kaohsiung is absolutely the worst in the entire country.
As far as travel goes, I realized that having an airport in Kaohsiung has been quite useless because far fewer planes fly out of here. The ones that do fly to Taoyuan anyway, and many don’t make direct flights to most places you would want to go. The tickets are also more expensive. You could basically take the HSR up to Taoyuan, find a more convenient flight, and pay the same amount.
If you need to travel out of Taiwan so frequently, I’m not really sure why you’d leave Taoyuan. From what I remembered, traveling anywhere in or out of Taiwan from there was a breeze.
I travel outside of Taiwan frequently and mostly I fly out of Songshan airport in downtown Taipei, with an MRT stop right and the bottom of my Taipei office apartment building I catch the MRT to Songshan airport. 20 minutes. Of course if he wanted really nice air and good weather he’d move to Alishan where I live.
It’s always cloudy up in Alishan. I didn’t even know the region had mountains until my last visit.
[quote=“Stretch”]I am a newbe to the country, and have been living n Taoyuan for the simple that this is where my partner works. But I want to look at living somewhere else, preferably further south for the climate and near the HSR because I need to travel frequently out of the country. And ideally somewhere with clean(ish) air.
Where do most westerners tend to end up, apart from Taiwan?[/quote]
I live in Tainan, because that’s where my family lives. It pays to live near granny for babysitting duties and free food.
Most of my friends have either left Taiwan or moved up north (or like Threadkiller, jimipresley et al, already lived there before I met them), so I’ve been considering that for the near future. But to make the move worthwhile I’d need to be able to get a job outside of teaching.
The weather’s nice in Tainan, but not much to do but hang out in pubs. That gets old after the first few years, and older once you settle down.
No mention of Hsinchu, home to the most piss elegant of species - Science Park employees. 
Not much to do here, but the windy city’s air quality is not too bad. :neutral:
It’s always cloudy up in Alishan. I didn’t even know the region had mountains until my last visit.[/quote]
Well if you are not seeing the mountains for the clouds, it’s because those clouds usually have a very low ceiling.
Also the clouds build up on the western plains where they meet the sharp incline of the mountains.
Once you drive up the mountains and clear around 500m then you will be above that cloud range, which isn’t actually over Alishan itself.