Went to Japan for the first time this summer.
Coming back to Taiwan, everything looked shitty in comparison. Took me a few weeks to get used to it again.
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Couple days for me. 
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You’re more resilient than I am 
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Not really but you start to see its charms. Has become a non issue since I moved to the fancy parts of town. The new areas are pretty af but soul less so I started to see the good in the ugly. I wouldn’t go back to the shabby but it doesn’t bother me to see them anymore.
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How I image that:
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We went to the Aquarium near Taoyuan HSR. I was very surprised that was an easy pleasant pedestrian friendly walk directly there. Though didn’t see much residential stuff - not sure if that’s out in the shambles, outside the little HSR oasis
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Maybe every country is third world and some countries are better at putting lipstick on a pig.
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First world and second, third world has no meaning anymore.
Back in the cold war, first world meant the US and its allies, second world meant Soviet union and its allies, and third world means everyone else.
As Taiwan is basically a us Ally, it’s always been first world.
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You’ll get this way no matter which country you visit. After that honeymoon phase you realize the place is as good and bad as any other country (just reconfigured and in this case the bad is similar to some third world countries.)
You’ll walk around grumpy because of that, but also grateful because of some things that Taiwan does better than your home country.
For me the weirdest thing is families on scooters…and seeing them drive like maniacs with their kids standing up front.
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Paint a picture with words assignment, a+
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Some of Taiwan’s buildings are what I can only describe as interestingly ugly. Many are just ugly. But there are some gems of creative ugliness out there.
For example this. Like an overpass for some reason, little temple roof nestled away and then there’s that tree growing up through it all and the buildings on the side… it’s ugly but like, also super interesting to me. A Frankenstein of construction.
Or this, which I’ve been told is actually pretty famous for being over the top. I came across it in geoguessr, personally. It’s awful, tasteless, excessive. But in that mess, it is at least interesting to look at. “Gothic” western decor meeting with baroque parapets and trims, neo-classical columns and adornments, and then whatever that pagoda-esque roof structure is. It’s mind bogglingly awful and incoherent and gray and drab, but I love it for how interestingly bad it is.
If you’re into that kinda stuff, ought to advertise one of the greatest blogs of all time, the venerable Kate Wagner’s McMansion Hell
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Who you gonna call?
…Mental
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Ha, that building is not far from my place. Every time I walk by it I stare at it in curious disbelief. The nail shop across the street is likewise bizarre.
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I strongly second this suggestion 
Do it right? Do it yourself…
Is this where Edward Scissorhand works?
I saw that too. Thanks, geoguessr.
Taoyuan looks awful 
Like some others in this thread have said, not only have I gotten over it, I’ve also come to appreciate the charm. When I’m away, I miss it a lot. What I can’t get over, and will probably never appreciate, are the dry characterless “new villages” springing up in the outskirts like Linkou and Danhai. Very convenient, relatively peaceful, and relatively good value for money to stay in, but also depressing and Orwellian. The shabby old buildings with bars are objectively ugly but, IMO, a damn sight better than the new builds.
Stockholm syndrome ?? But yes you do have a point
One is lived in and the other is like an ad for new buildings not yet with a soul
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Because we’re cheap!
But seriously: @Low-Speed-Rail since you mentioned you have a kid going through the school system and you reside in NZ . . . don’t be insane man do the best for the kid, and come and visit us in Taiwan sometimes, hopefully on a sunny day when things do brighten up especially in Taipei.
Guy
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Why insane? What do you think is so clearly superior about NZ? I’ve made a number of comparisons in this thread, I think I’ve been even handed.
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