Hsinchu Here I come

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

I finally received and accepted my company’s offer to relocate to Hsinchu. I will be going over for a few days in early Dec to look for an Apartment. They have assigned a relocation company to assist. My Housing allowance per month is $6000 USD, and (no I do not get to keep the difference from actual cost). So knowing budject is not a issue, where are the best places to look. The office I will be working at is at No 29 Puding Rd, Hsin-chu. I hope to meet many of you as I settle in. I will start full time first week of Jan.

Thanks

Leo

2

You mean $600? If $6000, you can live anywhere you want. Sheesh.

3

$6000 usd a month for housing!!!

what type of company do you work for?

4

[quote=“gg1965”]$6000 usd a month for housing!!!

what type of company do you work for?[/quote]

A good one obviously. You can rent one hell of a nice home anywhere in Hsinchu for less than a third of that. The problem won’t be finding a place within your budget, it will be finding a place that you like. Suburban living is rare here, and only a few areas can offer what your company is obviously willing to provide.

We have rental properties in my neighborhood in excess of 10,000US per month, but they are mansions…Literally. Indoor/Outdoor pools, servants quarters and ridiciously large homes (One is 11,000sqft). One of the big wigs at 3M lived in a house that rented for 100,000NT per month, and that included 200pings (over 6,000sqft), two car garage, huge yard, a view from hell and an indoor jacuzzi.

There are only a few neighborhoods that even have these sort of homes…Especially in our neck of the woods. I live in Taoyuan County, about a 25 minute drive from where you need to be. I’ve yet to see another community set up like ours in Hsinchu. Another possibility is Aspire park, but it’s a bit out in the boonies. However, for Hsinchu it’s an even slightly closer run than our place. There are some spectacular homes there as well, and any one of them can be hand for 2,500US per month on down.

I looked at homes there recently, and although my requirements are a bit more modest than yours, was able to find a 110 ping house (about 3,600 sqft) two car garage, built in Japanese garden, five bedroom home for 35,000NT per month (about 1,100US).

6,000US per month? Wow, you’ll have the pick of the litter house-wise down here. We’ll just remember to have the next forumosa barbeque in what is sure to be your very expansive home.

Welcome to Taiwan :slight_smile:

5

[quote=“gg1965”]$6000 usd a month for housing!!!

what type of company do you work for?[/quote]

They use a third party company that gives them the recommended allowances. I’m guessing they use the worst case scenario, like maybe downtown Taipei, full service type places that would cater to expats. As I will be by myself most of the time, (My wife’s from the Philippines), and she may stay in the PI most of the time, I’m not sure I would be comfortable in a large house. I’m thinking as I will be alone a lot of the time, I would want to be near places I could hangout, Pubs and the like, without long commutes.

6

For that much you could stay at the Royal Hsinchu Hotel. It’s close to the Science Park and everything would be included.
royal-hsinchu.com.tw/english/e_index.html
Check out the long term rates. It’s something to look into even for a month or two before you get a house of your own. And…the breakfast + tea time buffets are awesome!

After you settle into Hsinchu, there’s a couple good social groups you can check out.

  1. Hsinchu Hash House Harriers ( hsinchuhash.com/home.html )
  2. Windy City Club ( groups.msn.com/WindyCityClubofHsinchu )

they both meet once a month and both are great places to meet other foreigners and locals

Welcome to Taiwan!

Carlos

7

[quote=“cdnmagic”]For that much you could stay at the Royal Hsinchu (Xinzhu) Hotel. It’s close to the Science Park and everything would be included.
royal-Hsinchu (Xinzhu).com.tw/english/e_index.html
Check out the long term rates. It’s something to look into even for a month or two before you get a house of your own. And…the breakfast + tea time buffets are awesome!

After you settle into Hsinchu (Xinzhu), there’s a couple good social groups you can check out.

  1. Hsinchu (Xinzhu) Hash House Harriers ( hsinchuhash.com/home.html )
  2. Windy City Club ( groups.msn.com/WindyCityClubofHsinchu )

they both meet once a month and both are great places to meet other foreigners and locals

Welcome to Taiwan!

Carlos[/quote]

Good advice there from Carlos.

Yeah, for that money you could permamently stay in the presidential suite of any one of the 5-star hotels in town. Why bother with a house? Landlords? Deposits? ADSL? Cable? Food?

You could also check out: hicatw.org.tw/home.php

Stanley

Welcome to Hsinchu. :slight_smile:

8

I hope you are correct the housing allowance is 6KUS$ a month. I do quite well but about a third of that. I would suggest you look in Jubei on the High Speed Rail Station side of the highway. Many highrises are completed or nearly complete. You should be able to get a fully furnished 3 bedroom penthouse for about 2-2.5KUS/month.

Enjoy

9

[quote=“mikehs”]I hope you are correct the housing allowance is 6KUS$ a month. I do quite well but about a third of that. I would suggest you look in Zhubei on the High Speed Rail Station side of the highway. Many highrises are completed or nearly complete. You should be able to get a fully furnished 3 bedroom penthouse for about 2-2.5KUS/month.

Enjoy[/quote]

That’s sounds like what I looking for fully furnished Penthouse, Yes the 6KUS$ is correct, (includes utilities cost), and 2.5KUS$ for Car and driver expense. Is Zhubei near Hsinchu, (remember I’m a rookie).

Thanks

10

[quote=“sdman36”]Is Zhubei near Hsinchu (Xinzhu), (remember I’m a rookie).

Thanks[/quote]

Zhubei is a hop, skip and a jump north of Xinzhu, over the Touqian River. In the satellite pic below the station on the right of the picture is the High-Speed Rail, while the blue station on the left is on the regular rail network (and located in downtown Xinzhu).

EDIT: Move your mouse cursor over the image to see it full-size.

11

WOW! For $2500 USD/month, I would drive you around…that would be a better job than teaching English. lol

Carlos

12

If they said “Dollars” it probably means Taiwan Dollars. Does it really say USD in your contract? :slight_smile:

I mean, 6000 USD is my annual rent here and my place is big (not too far from Puding Road).
Puding Road is just between Zhubei and Hsinchu, north of the Science Park. Try to find something to rent
on those high rises on Guangfu Road (cheaper) or in Zhubei (more expensive due to silly high speed rail but just across the “river”).

[quote=“sdman36”][quote=“gg1965”]$6000 usd a month for housing!!!

what type of company do you work for?[/quote]

They use a third party company that gives them the recommended allowances. I’m guessing they use the worst case scenario, like maybe downtown Taipei, full service type places that would cater to expats. As I will be by myself most of the time, (My wife’s from the Philippines), and she may stay in the PI most of the time, I’m not sure I would be comfortable in a large house. I’m thinking as I will be alone a lot of the time, I would want to be near places I could hangout, Pubs and the like, without long commutes.[/quote]

13

[quote=“engerim”]If they said “Dollars” it probably means Taiwan Dollars. Does it really say USD in your contract? :slight_smile:

I mean, 6000 USD is my annual rent here and my place is big (not too far from Puding Road).
Puding Road is just between Zhubei and Hsinchu (Xinzhu), north of the Science Park. Try to find something to rent
on those high rises on Guangfu Road (cheaper) or in Zhubei (more expensive due to silly high speed rail but just across the “river”).

Thanks for the information, the company in Xinzhu assigned to assist me in the relocation process, seemed confused on what my expectation was, as the 6K USD budget, had her concerned as to my expectation. I mentioned the two areas that were mentioned in this thread, and told her places or complex’s that are newer, with amenities would be good, she now seems more comfortable.

14

[quote=“sdman36”][quote=“engerim”]If they said “Dollars” it probably means Taiwan Dollars. Does it really say USD in your contract? :slight_smile:

I mean, 6000 USD is my annual rent here and my place is big (not too far from Puding Road).
Puding Road is just between Zhubei and Hsinchu (Xinzhu) (Xinzhu), north of the Science Park. Try to find something to rent
on those high rises on Guangfu Road (cheaper) or in Zhubei (more expensive due to silly high speed rail but just across the “river”).
[/quote]
Thanks for the information, the company in Xinzhu assigned to assist me in the relocation process, seemed confused on what my expectation was, as the 6K USD budget, had her concerned as to my expectation. I mentioned the two areas that were mentioned in this thread, and told her places or complex’s that are newer, with amenities would be good, she now seems more comfortable.[/quote]

Cool, hope it works out for you. Note that Hsinchu’s night life is non existant. Even if there are a few pubs it doesn’t have a huge crowd. Unlike Taichung or Taipei it becomes very very quite here after 10 PM and traffic lights turn off. Its also hard to move here in winter cause I guess you can get easily depressed by the strong winds of this city during the north monsoon time and the rain that is going to fall down until the end of February. If you really like to go out you can always take a bus to Taipei or Taichung (one hour for each by bus) cost around 200 NT for a roundtrip. Enjoy your stay! :slight_smile:

15

Or if you really are making that kind of money. Pray the High speed rail comes on line and take that to Taipei.

16

mikehs! Not within the first year. Let me remove all the bugs from the system first :slight_smile:

17

The allowances for housing & and transportation, do not necessarily reflect that I am being paid a high salary. My salary is basically the same as I am paid in the US. They just want to make sure that I have a comfortable living arrangement, and I am able to get around without killing myself. I’m not a senior executive just a normal worker bee

18

The allowances for housing & and transportation, do not necessarily reflect that I am being paid a high salary. My salary is basically the same as I am paid in the US. They just want to make sure that I have a comfortable living arrangement, and I am able to get around without killing myself. I’m not a senior executive just a normal worker bee[/quote]

Even the cleaning lady in the US makes more than the average Taiwan worker here. I don’t know why many (including foreigners) think the Taiwanese are well payed. My collegues got 30K per months in averrage and they are supposed to be high level engineers in a big company. Its good you start full time in January, this way you won’t have to pay 20% tax if you stay longer than 183 days. But hey, if you really have a high US-like salary maybe you do have to pay 20% or more anyways. :wink:

Getting around here without killing yourself is OK. You can get yourself killed by others (assisted suicide by taxi drivers, scooter drivers, blue pickup drivers or city buses).

There are some other spots you should know if you want to do shopping and so on here. Buy yourself a scooter when you arrive here cause public transport sucks in Hsinchu. You’ll definetly need it (100 cc is enough and around 40000 NT including 2 years insurrance). You can also buy a bike if you are the sportive kind of person but its hard to get around on it in Hsinchu too (due to insane parking and traffic on the long streets that lead you downtown etc). Don’t forget to bring some wool socks cause winter can get cold at times without heating system here. OK?

PS. Most Taiwanese aren’t regarded as worker bee’s or ants cause ants and bee’s are somewhat organized.

19

engerim is right…it gets pretty cold in Hsinchu. I lived there for a couple of years and there’s a few nights I almost froze to death in my apartment. It’s a good idea to bring a couple warm pieces of clothing and if you can find a HEATING BLANKET, bring it. Most, if not all, apartments in Taiwan…don’t have heat and they are constructed of mostly concrete. Often, it’s warmer outside than inside.
As for buying a scooter…100cc is good, but for a little more $, you can get a 125cc. Also…$40,000nt is way too much for a scooter. You’ll definately be able to find a 2nd hand scooter for less than half that price. If driving a scooter scares you a little, you can always look at buying a 2nd hand car. The prices are actually pretty good and there are a lot of second had dealers in Hsinchu (surrounding areas). Be sure to bring a local person when shopping around…they’ll be able to ask questions and negotiate. Don’t forget to look into getting a local driver’s license if you do plan on buying a scooter or a car. Some people will say it’s not important, but it doesn’t hurt.
I mentioned a couple of Hsinchu Social Groups…if you are looking for other foreigners to meet and hang out with…check them out. Meeting people who have been in Hsinchu for awhile can always help with getting settled into a new environment.

Good Luck!

Carlos

20

[quote=“cdnmagic”]engerim is right…it gets pretty cold in Hsinchu (Xinzhu). I lived there for a couple of years and there’s a few nights I almost froze to death in my apartment.
[/quote]

Actually, don’t worry, with a 2500 USD monthly budget for driving, 6000 USD monthly for “renting” I’m sure he can buy a flat which has a heating system installed in the floor :slight_smile: