That’s why you should always make sure your family or friends who have little travel experience, do a 1-2 day stopover in a really bad country like China.
Taiwan: 3rd world country with first world toys.
Olus starvation aint a thing.
But taiwan is doing pretty well and is normally go in in the right direction. No denying it is dirty thiugh.
I will guess most people who a short stop in China will do it in city like Shanghai or Peking, and they will think Taiwan is 3rd world after seeing the city. In Tier1 Chinese cities the outlook of the buildings, cafes ect, will look modern and first world, its after staying longer you will (for me) find out how much better it place Taiwan is to live.
Tier 1 cities look 3rd world just down a few alleyways from the Main Streets. But most people probably won’t see that. It’s basically how China is, all about image.
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What a load of crap.
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EUropean cities are places that gross me out more than 3rd countries. I’m sure they turn a blind eye to it the way locals in Taiwan turn a blind eye to certain things.
Just think about how gross kissing everyone on the cheek is now 
It’s probably as gross as Americans walking around with dirty butt holes all day.
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[quote] It’s probably as gross as Americans walking around with dirty butt holes all day.
[/quote]
Is that a thing? I have noticed a large percentage of american, and canadian, guests we have had over the years dont like to shower before bed. Never could understand why.
After many years of study I can conclude that Europeans and Americans of European origin prefer to shower in the morning. In East Asia everybody showers (or slips into the ofuro) in the evening.
Also: In East Asia everybody sleeps on their back. Some Europeans etc do, but many also sleep on their stomach. That is, I believe, unheard of in East Asia.
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They just need to.spend a couple of days in Taipei or Taichung they can figure it out …Taking the HSR and MRT.
The weather is not as sticky there as it is here. And if you put the AC on max whole day, you not really sweat that much.
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I actually find it kind of annoying the way people use “first world” and “third world” country. Or when they really hate a dirty place like China, “fourth world”.
Today, the First World is slightly outdated and has no official definition, however, it is generally thought of as the capitalist, industrial, wealthy, and developed countries. This definition includes Australia & New Zealand, the developed countries of Asia (South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore), and the wealthy countries of North America and Europe, particularly Western Europe.[4]
So Taiwan is a first world country because of it’s industry and wealth. Cleanliness got nut’n to do wit it.
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Yet many toilets are very clean and well maintained in Taiwan and buses trains subway etc are kept very clean. I’m the first to complain about major issues like dirty beaches and polluted rivers.
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I always think about that too, but American rivers and beaches only started getting cleaned up in the 80’s maybe? And now they’re on track to go back to being polluted messes because the EPA serves only the interests of the corporations now.
No way the coast was ever as bad as Taiwan. Rivers, I know the US started cleaning them up back in the 70s.
Indeed, and afaik, the notion of third world (tiers monde) is a deliberate analogy with the third estate (tiers état) of old regime France. And just as the third estate rose in rebellion, so would the third world rise against colonial oppression. Or that was the understanding at the time. In any case, the current understanding of the terms as some kind of “ranking” is very unfortunate. This might have been in the article you linked, in which case, please forgive me.
Interesting points about the first, third world stuff. Since the terms developed/developing are more “appropriate i guess” their actual meaning vs what peoples vision of those words are different.
Realistically, developed country means that all components of that nation are up to the highest possible (or at least close enough) standard for the current year, such as clean water, proper sewers, fibre optic internet (or at least reliable internet), quality infrastructure, safe food manufacturing standards and rule of law (just to name a few).
If you were to google street view around taiwan and show random people what they thought, they would say developing country and with scenes like this you cant blame them for thinking that;
Meanwhile the scenes in a developed country like japan look like this, modern and clean;
hell, technically malaysia should be considered developed if taiwan is because alot of malaysja looks similar like this;
also malaysia is more modern with more care in their image i surpose;
To sum it down, most people will say third world when they see a place that visibly looks like taiwan and youll have little luck changing their mind. If taiwanese cared even slightly about their image and country then they should get off their asses and start maintaining the goddamn place. The japanese do it so there is no reason why they cant.
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Malaysia doesn’t look similar to Taiwan at all. Not at all.
Why would you pick that spot in Taoyuan? It’s like me going to a village in Italy and saying this looks 3rd world. Which it kind of does to me. I suppose it can be charming to some if they’re just visiting. But everything falling apart and no basic AC in the entire town isn’t what I consider first world.
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Newark is the best of all the NYC airports! This is like saying they’re the best NFL team in the city but still. It smells great!
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Balance would be good but it’s not entirely unrepresentative either. I can go out and take sewer pics in my general neighbourhood. Taipei city area.