Which Taiwanese city (or town or island or patch of land) is the best/most comfortable place to live, in your opinion? And why? I’m just curious in people’s opinions.
Personally I’m tempted to say Hualien with it’s cleaner air and proximity to some beautiful nature, but haven’t spent much time there so that may just be my impression.
Do you mean a city to retire in, or one where there are jobs?
Ok more specifically, ignoring the work/financial factors. Like if you could have the same job wherever you lived where would you go?
I don’t think there’d be much discussion to be had if we just talked about finding work
Probably Tainan. It’s a very nice city. Interesting architecture, nice climate, good food - albeit a little too sweet.
Chiayi is getting more and more hip these days. A bit of a secret among longer-term expats.
Taipei. Because you don’t have to drive.
Taipei. But I’m a big city person, and everyone I know disagrees with me. Some people I know hate Taipei. So depends what you’re looking for.
By the way, I love your username.
taipei, in the actual nice areas. which are not exactly realistic to live in as they are too expensive but that would be my easy answer.
Taipei is as much Taiwan as I can handle
Hualien is awesome, like you said there is clean air and awesome nature. Lost of places to both bicycle and ride your motorcycle. Downsides are of course limited food choices if you want to eat western, e.g. a decent steak or if you need to go to Tayouan airport that will take you like 4h.
Me and my wife are looking in to getting a second house in Hualien, so I would be spending half my time there and half in Taipei, that way the downsides with Hualien can be easily overcome.
Just curious, what would you consider the nicer, but too expensive, parts of Taipei?
Hualien looks awesome but the lack of a public transport system is a major negative in my mind.
Best city to live in …Yilan and work in Taipei?
Maintaining a decent income anywhere outside of Taipei can be a real challenge. Even in Taipei it can be a challenge!
I have mulled over moving to Yilan/Luodong and doing a few days commuting during the week . A little bit far from Taoyuan airport too.
the actual taipei districts(other than wanhua). not the new taipei ones such as zhonghe, xinzhuang, sanchong ect.
In my opinion Hualien is way overrated.
A lot of heavy industry. close-by military base. uninviting or off limits coastline.
But there are good parts for sure.
You need a car in Hualien. It’s a big county and you’ll inevitably want to venture farther and farther. In the city, it’s a population of 100,000. Bad driving but the small numbers make it much, much less stressful than driving in Taipei (far less jerks, too, imo- just bad drivers). For example, I still don’t know my way around so I make U-turns basically wherever I please! There are enough lulls in the traffic to allow this.
You may be contacted soon by Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior–not for a violation, but to be awarded citizenship!
Guy
This is something my wife and I discussed recently (just yesterday, I think). The area around our apartment in New Taipei City is getting better and better (more restaurant choice, the eyesore construction site behind our apartment is gone and is being changed into a paid parking lot, etc.), and so we are wondering now whether we should just hold onto it. We were thinking of selling the place before retirement. Together with our tiny apartment in Hualien City, splitting our time between the two locations might be ideal, as each place has certain advantages.
I prefer driving in a small city than the packed MRT and busses.