I live south of Zhongli, in a small town called Yangmei. Zhongli looks ok to me. A normal Taiwanese town without too many foreigners. Somehave described it as a polluted hell hole, but what the heck? That description fits the most of the island. There are bars and I know for a fact that you’ll find some other English teachers. Taoyuan is bigger, more foreigners, acouple of decent malls, a Tesco (Yes, I know Zhongli will have one soon too) and some nice areras if you leave town and go explore in your spare time. Taoyuan has that advantage that it’s closer to Taipei, but the transport difference is only a few minutes by train. You can live in Taoyuan and work in Zhongli. You can also buy a scooter (or a car - a wreck is cheap) and find something better than the usual dumps younger English teacher usually end up in in the outskirts of either town.