Indeed brighter days are ahead!
Cheers to you @yinggeaussie and wishing you a happy new year!
Guy
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What we need to do now is go grave digging to find that brilliant CNY post from some years back. The one with the account of how things should be done, and the reality.
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It was duke back in 2010.
Please - donāt ālikeā this post, do it on the original.
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Sorry too lateāliked for the effort to go find that classic post! 
Guy
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Seems that Duke decided that CNY wasnāt for him, for he hasnāt been here for 11 years.
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Huh, more competition is less lucky
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I think this is the classic Forumosa post. It always brings a good laugh. It really helps to have experienced it, which I have down to each detail and glad I got to. The only thing that dates it a wee bit I expect is that now more people, especially kids, probably have their noses buried in their smart phones than watching TV endlessly, but likely with TVBS and all the sensationalized news on in the background.
Thanks @yinggeaussie, reposting this should be a yearly tradition.
Happy New Year! ę°å¹“åæ«ęØ!
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Lots of people object to having to spend Christmas back home with relatives, too.
I have always had a great time with my wifeās family and friends at CNY- in later years, my kidsā friends too. Everybody gathers together from far and wide to talk, eat, and drink (mostly drink), kids running around, people laughing, singing, dancing, and (yes) setting off firecrackers- no TV.
Sad to see so many miserable people saying, to paraphrase Ebenezer Scrooge, āChinese New Year- Bah, humbug!ā
I remember Taipei being a ghost town during Chinese new year, but not anymore. What changed? Mrt is packed like sardines, where could everyone be heading to?
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Taipei used to be inhabited by locals who stayed home during CNY. Now itās inhabited by working professionals from other cities who are traveling home for the holiday.
You sure you didnāt get it backwards? The reason Taipei was a ghost town was because a lot of people from the south came here to work. Then they all go south during the new year, but I see thatās not happening anymore.
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A generation ago the Taipei population was made up largely of people who had migrated from parts south to find better jobs. Then during CNY it was a great exodus out of the city to go home and visit relatives. Taipei used to be blissfully empty and quiet then some twenty years ago. Fast forward to today and a new generation has grown up here and a lot of the older relatives back home went to the great Weiya in the sky, so a far smaller number of people are leaving Taipei during New Year to visit family. This is my theory anyway.
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Not exactly a generation ago for any difference there might be - we went to Taiwan during lunar New Year in 2017, and Taipei was dead, dead, dead.
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Ah the good old days!
For worse or better, things in Taipei have changed.
Guy
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I guess this checks out. I read somewhere that Taipei is having a population crisis from all the young people moving down south for the lower rent and newer/bigger apartments. Not to mention better weather.
Generally speaking, population flow is still moving from south to north. Taipei City is depopulating in terms of its residents who sleep there because the costs are high; Xinbei and Taoyuan and environs are still growing.
Guy
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Interesting. Is the daytime population not going down?
I donāt have statistics to share, but yes that is my understanding: Taipei Cityās daytime population, with commuters at work and on weekends people seeking fun, is larger than the number of people who officially live here.
Guy
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