Country Girl Seeking Trees

I live in the countryside in England and will soon teach near Taipei 101. :herb: :deciduous_tree:
I commute 35 minutes drive in England. :deciduous_tree:

Looked all over rent591.
The greenest place in Taipei is Shilin, but wow those rent prices…30,000NTD a month. :open_mouth:
Da’an is the tiniest most random park ever.

My question for anyone who has a long commute from a green area, is it worth it?
Tamsui is 1 hour 15 minutes, sounds like way too long.
1 hour commute driving you insane? Or are the trees keeping you sane?

Or if not the commute, let me know about somewhere green that’s closer to Taipei 101 :smile:

Hope these questions aren’t already answered. Couldn’t find them around the site. :slightly_smiling_face:

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This ain’t code for weed, is it?

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welcome to the club!
you’ve come to a concrete country in the north.
get some plants in your apartment.
you could try a commute from Xizhi east of 101, or Shenkeng District south of it.
Commute could be ugly, because 101 is hellish morning and evening for commuters.

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Taipei 101 is beside the Four Beasts and Nangang hills, a series of mountains and hiking trails that lead on to even more hiking trails. Look at a map…! Xiangshan is the trail entrance nearest Taipei 101, and is one MRT stop away. Take a look at apartments in the surrounding area, Nangang, Kunyang, Liuzhangli, just to name a few hillside areas nearer to 101 than Shulin or Tamsui.

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Hahaha yeah, countryside to capital city.
Definitely getting the house plants but hoping for some outdoor green space. :smile:

Figured the commuting wouldn’t be pretty, but good to have it confirmed. :joy:

Thank you for the suggestions! I haven’t stopped looking at maps.
I looked at a few apartments in Xiangshan. I’ve been up Elephant Mountain before, but wasn’t sure how easy it was to go onwards from there. Good to know there’s lots of hiking trails. :slightly_smiling_face: Thank you!

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No :laughing:

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Muzha has trees and mountains, also not too far from 101 by MRT. Rent is cheap there as well compared to most other parts, but it’s a bit boring and doesn’t have much there.

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Good cuz it’s illegal as hell.

I’m gonna go against the grain here and recommend living close to work and making your commute as easy as you can. That way you can conserve energy throughout the work week so that you can get out of town and into greener areas on weekends.

Don’t underestimate the power of a shitty commute in Taipei to drain your will to live.

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Welcome to Taiwan

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Nearly everybody that I know has a 45-minute commute.

Location, cost, quality. Pick 2. Basically.

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The Yilan to City Hall bus takes less than 1 hour. From Jiaoxi it would be an even shorter ride.
If 45 to 60 minutes x2 are acceptable for you, you could consider renting in Yilan/Jiaoxi, and you’ll get all the green you want.

panoupload

This is Yilan, seen from the mountains between Yilan and Taipei. It’s farms and rice fields with a few large(ish) towns, surrounded by mountains covered with forests on one side, and the sea to the other side.

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what andrew said. muzha is green cheap and quiet. theres plenty of quiet green areas if thats a must for you, just might not be so close to an MRT exit but thats the sacrifice, convenient and nice areas are expensive. daan is not small nor random but its not great either imo.

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We have a home in Devon UK so love the green open space. Here we live in Neihu and have Bihu and Dahu Parks at hand, also a short trek to Bishanyan Temple and all the hills surrounding. Wife works downtown, off at Nanjing Fuxing MRT, takes 30-40 mins. So yep you have to have a bit of a commute if you want to enjoy the green stuff.

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Super tempting, love the look of Yilan. Guessing the bus would potentially get stuck in morning traffic and the time to get there could be a little changeable.
Thanks for the info :grin:

If you do choose to live out in the mountains, be ready to do battle with many critters. I don’t know how wild the English countryside is, but in the subtropics there are a great many bugs and such that you’ll encounter and that will readily infiltrate your home, especially if you live close to nature.

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Had a look a bit around there. Boring is okay. :slight_smile:
Thanks for the tip :slight_smile: I’ll have more of a look!
Would you say that’s an area where cooking at home is more the thing?
I know a lot of more central areas people eat out more.

Not a bad idea. I’m getting a clearer picture of commuting in Taipei.

I was originally going with the andrew0409 Muzha option, when IbisWft chucked in the Yilan hand grenade - then ran away.

I’ve got several mates who live in Yilan and commute daily to Xinyi. I would certainly consider that option, OP. However, if you are new to Taiwan then a year in Taipei as a starter might be better.

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Yes. When I first met my fiancée, she lived there. I hated staying over there because there’s no restaurants. Taipei is full of food everywhere, so it was not great not having anything walking distance.

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