Banciao is the capital of Taipei County and there is only one county either side of the Dansuei River. Chinese Taipei will have to admit this one day. We have over 1000 beer bottles pointed at you and are negotiating with uni-president to stop your access to the same.
Have a look around Banciao New Station. It makes Taipei Main Station look like a shed in the outback and has break-dancers. Jason’s supermarket in Banciao is closer to the transport hub of the whole nation by bullet train, rail, MRT, buses and coaches. It’s closer to the real airport and Banciao has more new luxury apartments under construction than the whole of Taipei City at less than the cost of such over-hyped projects as the partially occupied, bamboo-shaped Tower of Babylon.
Mind you, I live on the outskirts down by the flood zone in a ratty shithole that screams 24 hours a day. Cheap, cheap.
And we don’t want foreigners here so F off. Fill up Taipei so we can burn the bridges.
Taipei’s main wide roads with trees are Dunhua, Ren’ai, and Zhongshan. In the old days the first two were used to carry visiting dignitaries from Songshan Airport to the Office of the President. And Zhongshan North Road would take them to the Grand Hotel, the Shilin Official Residence, etc.
Not exactly Potemkin streets, but not too far off either.
[quote=“cranky laowai”]Taipei’s main wide roads with trees are Dunhua, Ren’ai, and Zhongshan. [/quote]You forgot the widest of them all – Zhonghua Rd along Ximending.
Ha! HA! NEWBIE! Zhonghua until very recently was a ratty shithole of a street lined with squatter shacks and prefabs along the side of a filthy railway.
[quote=“Charlie Phillips”]Have a look around Banciao New Station. It makes Taipei Main Station look like a shed in the outback and has break-dancers. Jason’s supermarket in Banciao is closer to the transport hub of the whole nation by bullet train, rail, MRT, buses and coaches. It’s closer to the real airport and Banciao has more new luxury apartments under construction than the whole of Taipei City at less than the cost of such over-hyped projects as the partially occupied, bamboo-shaped Tower of Babylon.
.[/quote]
I lived there the first year I was in Taiwan, before all the gentrification. A drought with the water turned off then Nari with no water supply for other reasons. A top floor place with no aircon, 3000NT rent. Fun times!
If my first arrival in TTY and bus trip to Taipei had not been at night, I doubt that i would have ever come back. I’m glad i can overlook that much of the time now, (or perhaps it’s mroe a case of desensitisation) but it still pisses me off in comparison to most other plces I have lived, or thought about living.
[quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“Charlie Phillips”]Have a look around Banqiao New Station. It makes Taipei Main Station look like a shed in the outback and has break-dancers. Jason’s supermarket in Banqiao is closer to the transport hub of the whole nation by bullet train, rail, MRT, buses and coaches. It’s closer to the real airport and Banqiao has more new luxury apartments under construction than the whole of Taipei City at less than the cost of such over-hyped projects as the partially occupied, bamboo-shaped Tower of Babylon.
.[/quote]
I lived there the first year I was in Taiwan, before all the gentrification. A drought with the water turned off then Nari with no water supply for other reasons. A top floor place with no aircon, 3000NT rent. Fun times![/quote]
Wow! You said you liked shitholes, but EVERYONE should have water!
Oh, sorry, . . . NT$3000 . . . maybe asking for water is too much.
Actually, years ago, I shared a NT$3000 apartment in Hsintien with two others.
We had water, as did most buildings with decent water tanks on the roof. They usually last a few days full so by the time we were starting to run dry the city turned the pipes back on to fill it up.
Not pocking you in the eyeball here, btw, just stating a fact.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]We had water, as did most buildings with decent water tanks on the roof. They usually last a few days full so by the time we were starting to run dry the city turned the pipes back on to fill it up.
Not pocking you in the eyeball here, btw, just stating a fact.[/quote]
Well, none of my friends lived in buildings with decent water tanks. I just used to go to the gym.
We don’t go in for that kind of irregular behavior around here.[/quote]
Oh, I was regular.[/quote]
Thats probably a worse mental picture put out here then when I mentioned that sometimes, I take a dump and then jump in the shower? Ahem , without wiping first. And who was it? I forgot who wanted to burn his eyeballs of that image.
lets vote: Whats a worse mental picture?
Buttercup and her wok of terror (well in the old days if you were besieged in an Engrish castle and your enemy was upon you below, this could be an efficient deterent)
Or tommy and his unwiped self jumping in the shower with ya.
p.s. NEVER tell my GF that I EVER did that. OR she will NEVER shower with me again.
but err we are way off topic now. This “shitty” interlude should probably be tempted.
So, they are going to invest 400 million to have flights to Japan once a week -at most- and maybe on weekends -if they get enough people- to Shanghai -that is, if the Chinese authorities are so kind as to change the arriving airport allowance. Very good for Taiwanese in Shanghai, but how about Taiwanese in Taipei?
If I wanted to live in a place that was beautiful and well-ordered, I’d still live in Melbourne, or I’d live in some parts of Europe. I like Taiwan precisely because it’s so raw, and thus, you mainly get left alone by the thought and behaviour police.
Why would Taipei be a really impressive looking city though? A backwater it has always been, and a backwater it will always be.
I’ll tell you a far shabbier capital city than Taipei: Madrid (actually, much of Spain). Driving into Madrid from the south, my first thoughts turned to some third-rate slum city in some third-rate slum nation in Latin America, not the capital of a country that once looted or bled dry much of two whole continents. Taipei at least has the excuse of never having been important.
I obviously stayed in the best parts of Madrid or something, I thought it was quite a beautiful city…fairly good airport (although they lost my bags for a day) great road (put the ring road underground, good idea) and subway network, nice museums and plazas, skiing and snowboarding within hour of city. Some rough apartment blocks but nothing on the par of a typical gongyu street in Taipei.
:snore: