Yeah they did a great job there. Taiwan would be a very beautiful place if they replicate that everywhere.
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You mean if it was still Japanese ?
Very apt to this discussion is the fact that the Tainan train station is undergoing major renovations, entrance looks great now.
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Very concerned about the future of Hsinchu’s lovely Taisho-era Taiwan Rail Station, which may be removed or rebuilt. Who knows what’s going on now that Hsinchu City is basically mayorless with the Terry Guo / TPP acolyte Ann Kao stripped of her duties following her corruption case(s).
Does anyone have details on this process?
Guy
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This part of Tainan station will be gone as it will be underground. I hope take more photos before it goes undeground.
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Looks nice, until I heard its Starbucks. Prefer independent shops, you will have show some independent ones up in Hsinchu. I will add Tainan ones once I time download the photos.
Yes good independents shops are nice, I agree.
At the same time, Starbucks Taiwan has actually improved (not fully but improved) as they have started regularly bringing in different roasts from Starbucks Japan roasted in Kanagawa. Currently they seem to be brewing various Christmas blends (roasted in Japan)—delicious black coffee, angling sweet.
The lattes (or anything with milk) I agree remain horrible and are completely different from what is served in Japan.
Guy
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No I mean if they renovated shit properly. Not my fault most nice old buildings here are Japanese.
Peeking behind the curtain is never advised, especially in places like Taipei 
Back side of the Station in Hsinchu has nice old Japanese cafe in heritage house
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Tainan does not want the problems up north like this bad coach
Bad things up north
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I haven’t been back to my Taiwan hometown away from home, but dear lord I hope not! Tainan’s charm was that it was a hybrid of a small town where everybody knew each other (hello, ex-Forumosans Bismarck, Tainan Cowboy (RIP buddy), Monster, Mod Lang, pardon if I forget a few). We drank together, chased after girls together (OK, excepting Cowboy, he was ancient even at the time), got into all kinds of crazy shit together. Bismarck was the ladies’ man. Mod Lang was the drinking man. Cowboy was Santa Claus. And Monster lived up to his name - an ex-body builder, a real giant of a gent (sometimes gentle, sometimes not so). Los tres mosqueteros! Oh, and Weilong, though he didn’t post here very often, that sheep-shagging bastard. Loved his Star Trek quotes. The Kinks and Dirty Roger’s were the HQ.
Airport runner, who fucked a local girl I was dating, the prick, is running a bar there, last I heard. I guess Taiwan will deport you but you can come back anytime.
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Hey! New Taipei is not New Bamboo! 
Guy
Tainan kind of is becoming like that. And they even have a Southern Sky Dragon Country a similar distance away as Hsinchu has Taipei.
Tainan is old and poorly planned. It’s always going to have the dumpy old style mixed with eealthy and factory style I think. Kaohsiung on the other hand is way more spread out and is developing more and more modern. Ktown is probably the place to be now. Taipei already looks shitty compared to kaohsiung, to be honest. These words I would of bet my life against 20 years ago. But, credit given where credit is due. Comes down to simple numbers really. Taipei is ultra hard to improve now.
Just on the roads and buildings alone, tainan has some hard times ahead. It’s ultra rich but ultra dense and tiny. And old and corrupt shitty construction. Its still pretty old school shit and corrupt, just with new money injections and a slow “genrrification” of sorts…despite how proud tainan folks are, it is what it is. Not so unlike older Taipei, albeit not such tall buildings yet. The money to reclaim those lands and rebuild will not be an easy task. Taichung tried it.
So I guess it is kind of like hsinchu. Old, ugly, ultra wealthy, factory ville and not much pleasant. Though I find tainan way more interesting as far as old stuff, history etc.
Kaohsiung is the place that is going to become the hub. Well, it already clearly is.
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I was thinking the summer like weather made crimes go up (That taking the eyes out is bad!), but I guess its not summer there yet. (Its been Sunny and hot weekend). Trying not use the air con for the first time in 2025, till I am back from Euro land late next month, seems will get by today if house cools down later.
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Both cities have sink holes the roads
How dare you… Ok, my maternal side is from Tainan, but still, I’ll have you know Hsinchu is the oldest cultural and economic center of Northern Taiwan. The only reason it seems less interesting is because the Japanese and the KMT flattened the entire old city.
The Japanese hated the wealthiest Lin family in the city, so they leveled Taiwan’s most impressive garden, Tsiâm-hn̂g (潛園), and estate for a road in 1939, despite the fact that Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa stayed there in 1895, and it was designated as a historic landmark.
The other famous garden and estate, Pak-kok-hn̂g (北郭園), just outside of the city walls suffered similar fate, but most of the destruction happened after the KMT occupation of Taiwan.
Hsinchu was the original location of Qing dynasty’s Tamsui County, which governed the entirety of Northern Taiwan. It is also why the highest level of City God Temple in Taiwan is located in Hsinchu.
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So, like, you agree then…? 
I think Hsinchu became less interesting as migrants from other parts of Taiwan became the majority, and many of the locals that aren’t in the tech industry could no longer afford to live in Hsinchu and are forced to move away. Perhaps Tainan will eventually suffer the same fate if their science park also took off and dominated local job market for decades.
I feel like back in the early 90s, migrants from other parts of Taiwan were at least interested in learning about local history, culture, food culture and supported existing local businesses. I feel like new comers just disregard and overlook anything they aren’t familiar with.
Imagine if more than half of Tainan’s population in 2 decades aren’t from Southern Taiwan, and live in suburbs away from downtown, refuse to engage in anything downtown, write-off local eateries as garbage and too sweet, and locals increasingly can’t afford to stay in Tainan. That’s where Hsinchu is at right now.
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Hahaha. So it’s almost like you completely agree with my original point then 
I know, typos. I type for shit. But the reality is the reality, no matter how hard we want tonsugar coat it
I get it. I defend Pingtung to the death to people that never lived there, despite it being the trailer park of Taiwan 
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I will think Tainan will keep it’s old culture alive better than Hsinchu did. The youth even if not from the South in Tainan are quite more different. The Tainan youth are into the arts, foodie, culture ect.
You get younger people opening places like this, still with family/baby at the back moving from the big city in the north.
I hope Hsinchu can keep the rice noodle shops going with local noodles (if they are still there)
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