How are Keelung and Ilan?

Is Keelung a decent place to live? How about anywhere in Ilan county? Do these places have any expat communities to speak of? Thanks!

Yilan is beautiful, yet considered by some to be an ‘armpit’ due to its location. I have had some spectacular drives along the coast there…
Keelong is close to Taipei, and the ocean, and near to nice places like Jinshan. It has a very decent night market too. The streets however are a little crowded and dirty.

You would need a car in both cities, though Im sure some scooter commuters will disagree.

Before I moved to Taipei I was a secret “I hate Taipei-ite” which is plain dumb. Taipei is the only place to be, and by that I mean the outskirts. Neihu, Yanming (Im biased), Tienmu are just a stonbes throw from a very decent, small, and easy to use city.

Brought to you by the “I love Taipei” committee of the executive Yuan.

One word … wet :smiley:

Keelung is Mrs Lout’s home town, and yes, as belgian pie says, it rains all the bloody time. Nice people, and it’s handy to Taipei, but the roads are narrow and congested, the harbour’s horribly polluted, and…have I mentioned the sodding weather?

I have a soft spot for Ilan. Very clean and green in comparison to the west coast. Family-friendly amenities. Fantastic parks just down the road in Luodong. An hour or so to Hualien or into the mountains. Very nice people. Plus, the new Taipei-Ilan highway should be open in a year or two, although this being Taiwan it’ll probably take longer than that.
Damn, I wanna move!

Thanks for the replies and info!

As Belgian Pie said it rains a lot in I-lan. I-lan has a small ex-pat community. The rain is a huge drawback for me.

I-lan County’s a beautiful place and if you love being outdoors it’s a great place to live especially when it’s not raining. I lived in Ilan county for a year and am considering moving back. I-lan is only roughly a couple of hours away from Taipei by train. I only had a bicycle in I-lan for a number of months. A scooter or car as previously stated is not a necessity but does make life easier(much like anywhere else) and also makes the nearby mountains and other sites much more accessible. Friends of mine went an entire year without owning a scooter or car while living in I-lan city so bicycle commuting is also a possibility. I’d imagine it’s easier to drive a car in I-lan than in Taipei or Keelung due to the lesser traffic density though.

Living in Yilan: unless you have a very specific concern in mind (e.g. you’re seriously into nature photography or into mountain biking,) the trade-offs (e.g. rain, total inadequacy of the night life) probably aren’t worth it. Living in Taibei and occassionally visiting Yilan seems like the more logical choice for most people.

Motorized transport is absolutely necessary for me. Not so much for the daily commute, but to get out into all the hills and coastlines that make this county so beautiful. If I were stuck in Yilan city with only a bicycle, my experience here would not be nearly as good. A car would be super nice to get to destinations further than an hour away.