I guess he missed the whole donuts-on-every-corner fad (2011?). And Pokémon Go.
Oh, claw machines are newish.
Our lack of ideas is kind of depressing!
How old is the gay area around Ximending? Is that older than 10 years?
4g phone networks replaced 3g.
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Claw machines were old in 1990.
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I would recommend some old traditional foods that are handmade before they disappear, in ten years time since last time you came it’s become harder to find hand made noodles and other traditional foods (they is beef noodle shop near my home that the owner makes all items by hand including the noodles but owner is old… and newer shops use premade industrial noodles). I can still find these old shops in Kaoshiung, but in Taibei you get more modern shops and lots of chains now and I guess it become like this nationwide. Biggest change is 10 years time, is smart phones and the app’s, people here for most part use LINE or Wechat a lot not only for talking but lots of things in everyday life, depending where your from it may quite different. This to me is biggest change in from ten years ago. As mentioned public transport is much better, more so in Taipei than Kaoshiung . In Kaoshiung is better than before still most people use car or scooters here. Today here I went to National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, Weiwuying ( 衛武營國家藝術文化中心 ) which is nice and new, but more to serve locals, the waterfront/harbourfront has changes a lot as well some riverside/seashore areas near Taipei mostly for the better (but more crowds).
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I left Taiwan and came back six years later. Not quite ten years. But what was it like?
- I took a taxi from the airport because I remembered the 1968 bus and hated it. Now I feel silly after I found out about the airport MRT.
- I was sad to see that my favorite bubble tea place was closed. In fact, only two of my favorite vendors were still in business.
- A good friend of mine has gained a lot of weight
- Another friend is now dating
- I discovered the government play centers and the toy bank… not sure if these are new or I just didn’t know about them
- The zoo gondola now has a very long line on holidays
- The MRT stations are now numbered
- Nutella is cheaper than peanut butter
- The MRT station plays music when the train is approaching
That’s all I can think of…
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Ah, but claw machines everywhere, replacing plenty of restaurants? That’s new!
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Bringing some nice prosciutto into Taiwan will now set you back NT$1m. Thus it’s now slightly cheaper to buy it at Jason’s.
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Oh! One more new thing I forgot to mention! Visa exempt. That’s new.
The government’s rules are that pork products are only banned from places affected with ASF, AFAIK.
That is kind of what I was looking for. Is Huashan Creative Park worth checking out?
I have also heard about lots of development with the beer (microbrewery) and whiskey scene. Where do you buy these beers, and I heard something about a tour??? Is it worth it?
And the big, yellow, inflatable duck.
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck; it’s unusually inflatable. Quack, quack.
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Are you talking about Kavalan brewery tour? I actually wanted to ask about it. The website says it’s free, is it really? or is there a catch? also is there ever a line?
Kavalan Whiskey production site in Ilan has free tours and free samples at the end. Worth it to go there. Even took kids as an education tour for chemistry reactions, etc.
Down the road maybe kess than 1km is Jim and Dad’s Brewery.
Kill two alcohols with one trip.
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That kavalan toue might be fun, thanks.
Things that are new/changing in a more positive and/or predominant way i have seen
Sidewalks
Public transport
City parks
Far less stares towards foreign skin types
English is way more common
Lots of small new natural type projects in the countryside. Many too new so trees havent grown up yet, meabing its HOT. But i see tona of gardens, wetlands, nature spaces popping up all over. In taiwanese fashion of course so depends on your taste.
A fun one for people not fond of physical activity is the green tunnel in the water in tainan. Forgot the name of the area. But its pretty cool albeit totally man made and touristy. The massive ficus house in tainan would round out the day as well, than place is pretty cool. I think its in Anping.
The biggest tree at alishan has a very easy ttail cleared out now. But one pf their big guys has fallen as well.
Things that have gotten worse:
Pollution (south of the north)
Kenting…
…
“Province” road 20 is now closed, cant go through anymore. Used to be a must have on family visit itineraries.
That is not true and what does “south of the north” even mean?
South of northern taiwan… Pollution is much worse than 10 years ago in southern taiwan. It made a short improvement then went for shit soon after. Although the south is much nicer now for sure, air quality isnt on the 10 year time scale.
What is “south of northern Taiwan”?
I haven’t been in a couple of years, so perhaps others can provide more up-to-date information, but I considered Huashan like many Taiwanese attractions: pleasant enough if you can get there on a weekday, not worth the crowds you’d encounter on a weekend. Plenty of stalls selling mildly interesting stuff from local artists and producers, but I always feel a bit weird about those sorts of places because I basically don’t. buy. stuff. “Hey, cool idea! Nope, not going to give you money for it.” As much as anything I liked it because it’s a nice area that isn’t department-store-sterile or scooter-everywhere-noisy, and those are sometimes hard to come by here.
Treasure Hill is a similar set-up, on a nice location overlooking the river - perhaps 15 minutes walk from Gongguan MRT station. I think that’s new in the past five years or so. If I recall correctly, Huashan has better food options than Treasure Hill. (Have you been to Vancouver? Both Huashan and Treasure Hill are a little like Granville Island without the food market part. Same basic idea of renovating an old area, preserving the style, and turning it into a pleasant place to visit.)
I’ve heard good things about the Kavalan tour in Yilan, but haven’t gone on it myself: I remember once looking into it when I was in Yilan for something else, but it was an inconvenient distance from the train stations so I couldn’t fit it in that day.
For beer, have a look in this thread. Others here have recommended Redpoint Taproom, but it suffers a common problem for many of the interesting-to-drink-at places in Taipei: it doesn’t open until late afternoon (5pm). Of course this won’t matter for most people, but usually if I’m in town it’s mid-day, and I’m back in Danshui for the evening.
Youbike was just started in 2009. OP was still in taiwan?