Oh! He/she’s from Pakistan!
I don’t think we have one of those in our fifth-floor apartment, actually. I just went to check again and…nope. I remember seeing one on a friend’s balcony previously, when it occurred to me that it would indeed be a really nice thing to have in the event of a fire.
That said, I’m quite skeptical that the shonky metal box constructions over all the windows would be structurally robust enough to support the weight of a human, especially a Western human. So the lack-of-egress problem might actually resolve itself, catastrophically, in the event of someone trying to climb out of the window.
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Sorry…not used to this yet. $500 USD
That worried me as well. I’m light, but there are multiple people living here and I expect it would collapse under just a few of us.
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Your landlord demands you pay in US dollars? What does he do with those? 
Ok ok, I’ll stop. 
What’s the price you’re paying in Taiwanese dollars? I’ll go on the real estate site, 591 and look for a few examples for you.
Anyways, you don’t need to get fancypants new. But there is no shortage of high rises without the bars on windows and have sprinkler systems etc…
On a related note, all of the apartments in our building, including ours, have these pretty solid looking metal external doors in addition to the main door (which is in itself quite solid). This seems quite common here.
I have wondered what firemen would do in the event of an emergency - do they have some kind of master key, or do they have to bring out the hydraulic cutters and angle grinders for each and every apartment?
They probably carry grinders to cut off the latch mechanism.
I reckon.
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Anti-burglar door. Never lose your key, it might be a problem getting in.
Yes, they do.
That too.
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Oh yeah, that would make more sense. I feel like this would take a while on our monster door, but it’s probably the quickest route.
OK, that’s good to know that there are safer options out there that are reasonably affordable. Since I don’t know where exactly I want to stay yet or have a feel for the neighborhoods month-to-month was important to me and I couldn’t find many English resources.
I pay roughly $15,000ish NTD.
How’s your Chinese?
Do you have any other requirements?
Do you care about size? Etc…
Location? Do you mind living outside Taipei?
Do they have window bars that can release in an emergency? You know maybe some release that works from the inside or some emergency pull cord that activates explosive charge which blows it off the window?
Like that’s not a safety hazard…
And unnecessary expense.
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For the record, here in New Taipei, a one bedroom with bathroom goes for 8 or 9k. A whole apartment can be found for 15k.
Of course, in the college neighborhood -between Shida and Taida- they like pile people 4 rooms to an apartment. That’s when problems start.
I think you might be confusing our apartments with the Batcave…
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Ah, thanks for the help. My Chinese is non-existent but I’m starting Mandarin classes at NTNU in a couple weeks. I’d prefer a place where I can ideally get food or basic shopping in walking distance, MRT nearby. Size isn’t too important to me, I don’t even mind a roommate or shared situation as long as I have a private room.
Private bathroom is nice but optional, and I’m looking to keep costs low, and month-to-month. I don’t plan on moving often but I don’t know the city currently and don’t want to get myself stuck in a bad situation because I didn’t understand something (like this fire escape situation.)
I guess you could say I don’t know what I don’t know. I got out of quarantine five days ago, but I’m still under the ‘soft quarantine’ until tomorrow, after that I’m finally totally free to move about Taiwan and get a better feel for things.
You know what’s really retarded? Neighbors who lock the fire escape.
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That would require being considerate of others. Good luck with that.
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