I’m a landscape architecture major looking to study abroad in Taiwan next spring. One of the professors who taught at my uni is Taiwanese and she returned to Taiwan last year. She’s my connection to getting this study abroad thing set up. The two schools she has connections with is NTU and Chung Yuan Christian University. NTU doesn’t have a landscape architecture dept so I suspect she’s going to try and get me set up in CYCU.
I’m not sure why, but I thought CYCU was in Tainan and as I went perusing through the forums for info, I got more and more excited about going. Turns out, CYCU is actually in Chung Li, Taoyuan. I recall, as I was looking through posts on Tainan, that Taoyuan was likened to the “armpit/shithole of Taiwan.” Great.
Landscape architecture is still a new field of study and not many schools offer it. Other than CYCU and Chung Chou Institute of Technology (which I know nothing about and have no connections to) I don’t know of any other universities in Taiwan with a landscape architecture department. This will probably be my only study abroad experience, so I would have preferred it to be in a nice, scenic area, which is why I got excited about Tainan. I’d also like to have bicycling as my main form of transportation. So I have 3 questions:
Does anyone know of any universities that have a landscape architecture department other than the ones mentioned? Or, what’s a good way to finding universities with a LA dept (other than just googling it)?
Are there scholarships available to study abroad for a spring semester in Taiwan offered by the Taiwanese govt?
If CYCU is my only choice…is Chung Li, Taoyuan really that bad?
No.
It’s worse.
No, it’s not the shithole of Taiwan. Armpit, maybe. Incredibly, there are worse places.
I’m not joking.
Maybe your field is radical different than what I imagine it is, but at first blush the very notion of a landscape architecture program anywhere in Taiwan is both laughable, and cause for hope: it’s desperately needed, and an utterly foreign concept. I could count on one hand the number of places that have been designed to fit in with their surroundings, or that have taken the surrounding environment into consideration.
If you’re going to have one, and only one chance to study abroad, come to Taiwan if you want to investigate the cost of getting it wrong. A semester or two will provide you with a career’s worth of examples of what not to do.
(The funny thing is, I’m not bitter, and don’t have a hate on for Taiwan. Once there was a beautiful island called Formosa. It was haphazardly paved, choked in pollution, carved into blocks of factories, cinderblock apartments, and allowed to deteriorate into a post-industrial dustbin. There are a fair number of luxury retailers, lots of parks and a brilliant public transit system in the capital. Such is progress.)
No.
It’s worse.
No, it’s not the shithole of Taiwan. Armpit, maybe. Incredibly, there are worse places.
I’m not joking.
Maybe your field is radical different than what I imagine it is, but at first blush the very notion of a landscape architecture program anywhere in Taiwan is both laughable, and cause for hope: it’s desperately needed, and an utterly foreign concept. I could count on one hand the number of places that have been designed to fit in with their surroundings, or that have taken the surrounding environment into consideration.
If you’re going to have one, and only one chance to study abroad, come to Taiwan if you want to investigate the cost of getting it wrong. A semester or two will provide you with a career’s worth of examples of what not to do.[/quote]
… Yeahh… Landscape design study in Taiwan while living in Taoyuan.
Sounds like a trainwreck waiting to happen… Good thing its just a study abroad… You may want to just pick another country.
Wow. Hm. One of the reasons why I wanted to study in Taiwan was because I’m Taiwanese-American and hoped that studying abroad in a Chinese-speaking country would help improve my Mandarin.
I also considered studying abroad in China as it is the development hotspot right now. But I don’t have any contacts in China nor have I been there before (I’ve been to Taiwan twice before).
Is Taipei the only place you’d consider to have good examples of landscape design? I looked at NCKU in Tainan, which has an urban design program, and thought about pitching the idea of that as an alternative to my professor. Do you think I’d be better off looking at China?
[quote=“smokingcrayon”]Wow. Hm. One of the reasons why I wanted to study in Taiwan was because I’m Taiwanese-American and hoped that studying abroad in a Chinese-speaking country would help improve my Mandarin.
I also considered studying abroad in China as it is the development hotspot right now. But I don’t have any contacts in China nor have I been there before (I’ve been to Taiwan twice before).
Is Taipei the only place you’d consider to have good examples of landscape design? I looked at NCKU in Tainan, which has an urban design program, and thought about pitching the idea of that as an alternative to my professor. Do you think I’d be better off looking at China?[/quote]
Landscape architecture is really hot right now, with preparations for the Floral Expo going full force. It’ll be a good time for you to be here.
That said, maybe you can write to someone related to the expo -if you have family here, they may know someone who is working there- and ask wher ewould be a nice place to study. Or, to see if an internship within the expo is possible. See if your professor has any connections.
I don’t think studying in Taoyuan would be that bad. Might be boring at times but it is close to Taipei, and then there is biking and other amenities. It won’t kill you.
Tainan would be a lot nicer, but in excitement level, well, …Anyways, we are here to study.
Best of luck in your endevours. It ishighly commendable that you want to imrove your Chinese and get to know Taiwan a bit better while pursuing your field of interest.
Jaboney didn’t enjoy his one year in Chung Li. I lived in Chung Li/Taoyuan for 11 years and was quite content. Really depends on your wants/needs. You’ve got pubs/Starbucks/fast food, but lack art galleries/huge techno pubs etc. Decent hiking and “out-of-the-city” pursuits are about 20 minutes away by motorbike. And things are much cheaper on average. Your Mandarin is also more likely to improve in Chung Li, as there is more opportunity to use it on a daily basis.
CY does have an architecture school, which is supposed to be quite good. That said, the architecture in Taiwan is 98% shyte unless you like “rectangular jails”.
Though Taipei is not too far, once you’re out here, my guess is you’ll not go into Taipei very often, it’s still an hour whether you take a bus (airport bus Taoyuan Apt to Songshan Apt is NT$ 125) or the high-speed rail (NT$ 150 to Taipei Main Station plus NT$200-400 for a taxi to the Taoyuan station, or cheap if you get the right bus) or whatever.
I’ve only been out here 2 months (actually 5 weeks removing a vacation in the middle), but I’ve been in and out of Taoyuan City several times a week, and it’s not bad for day-to-day stuff, so long as you have a scooter or know the buses, it’s a little spread out. There’s a mall, a few Starbucks, the usual mass of Chinese stuff, there’s a Carrefour. Not aware of the nightlife that xtrain’s talking about, but from what I see here, it ain’t much. There is an area (Nankan) that houses a lot of the itinerant foreign pilots and airport-related people, and there are a few bars there. If you live outside Taoyuan City/Nan Kan, and you ride around the little lanes and alleys and back streets, it’s not bad, looks like that back garden pic that Jaboney posted. But most of the main parts around here look more like industrial and post-industrial mess. I should note that I’ve been working in Taoyuan (Da Yuan) for the past year, every day, commuting from Taipei, so I’m not a total newbie.
But I’ve been to Tainan many times in the past few years for work and to visit some local friends, it’s less “high” (built up) and it’s wide, and it’s frickin’ hot in the summer, but there’re more bars and nightlife there than in Taoyuan from what I’ve seen, and more western restaurants (not of great quality, and they’re spread out and in nooks and crannies), and it’s more of a college town, at least in the area around NCKU. Seems cleaner than Taoyuan, though Taoyuan includes a lot of the aforementioned wasteland of industry that Tainan either doesn’t have as much of or is outside the areas I’ve been to.
Tainan’s just nicer. But hotter. Taoyuan’s huger when you include the surrounding county.
smokingcrayon, what exactly is it you want to study and to get out of your time abroad? 15 years back, a friend of mine did a landscape architecture program (diploma, not degree) and set himself up in business. Designed a few hospital flower gardens and lighting displays, did some work on golf courses and amusement parks, that kind of thing. Is that what you’re getting into? If so, you’ll find a few pockets of interest: a campus corner here, highway rest area there, some city parks and temple grounds. And that’s about it.
Most places, the private property – domestic or industrial – is behind ugly concrete walls that extends to the edge of the roadway. Across the way, it’s the same. Result: wall to wall asphalt. Commercial space comes in four varieties: vertical malls, maybe with a fancy facade and tiled entrance; first and second floor retail/restaurant space, open to the outdoors once the rolling security ‘garage door’ is lift, and spilling out across the sidewalk as far as they’re able; combination commercial/residential buildings, where the family lives in back or upstairs and runs a hole-in-the-wall restaurant/scooter repair/confectionary/whatever; and street market stalls and fold’em-up-and-run-from-the-cops types. Of these, only a few of the first make much of an attempt to carve out a comfortable public space.
That said, there are a few gentrified markets and artistic communities that would be of interest to you.
I would never recommend that anyone come to Taiwan to study landscape architecture, landscaping, architecture of any kind. To study Mandarin, yes.
If it’s a hot topic in a few schools now, particularly with the flower expo coming up, great. Were I you, I look into how long those programs have been established, who’s involved in them, and how much access you’ll have to the ones you want to study with given that they may be committed elsewhere.
[quote]smokingcrayon, what exactly is it you want to study and to get out of your time abroad? 15 years back, a friend of mine did a landscape architecture program (diploma, not degree) and set himself up in business. Designed a few hospital flower gardens and lighting displays, did some work on golf courses and amusement parks, that kind of thing. Is that what you’re getting into? If so, you’ll find a few pockets of interest: a campus corner here, highway rest area there, some city parks and temple grounds. And that’s about it.
Most places, the private property – domestic or industrial – is behind ugly concrete walls that extends to the edge of the roadway. Across the way, it’s the same. Result: wall to wall asphalt. Commercial space comes in four varieties: vertical malls, maybe with a fancy facade and tiled entrance; first and second floor retail/restaurant space, open to the outdoors once the rolling security ‘garage door’ is lift, and spilling out across the sidewalk as far as they’re able; combination commercial/residential buildings, where the family lives in back or upstairs and runs a hole-in-the-wall restaurant/scooter repair/confectionary/whatever; and street market stalls and fold’em-up-and-run-from-the-cops types. Of these, only a few of the first make much of an attempt to carve out a comfortable public space.[/quote]
Quoted for truth. The ONLY nice landscapes here are the ones the developers haven’t touched. Apart from a few tiny pockets, and even they are woeful by general standards. Don’t waste your time. Come here to improve your Chinese, come here to find your roots, but DON’T come here to find people with aesthetic values.
Thanks for your replies everyone. Ideally, I’d like to study abroad in an environment where I can:
Practice my Mandarin
Study under a good landscape architecture program
Be able to visit working examples of landscape design
Have high mobility in the region (AKA good public transportation or I can get around by bike)
Live cheaply (compared to American standards)
One of my primary interests is in urban parks. If Taoyuan is really such a bad fit for me, what are your opinions on Taipei or Tainan? I’m not sure if any of you are that familiar with China, but are there any cities there where you’d say have pretty good examples of landscape design (good public spaces, squares, boulevards, parks, greenery, etc.)? I’m a bit wary of Beijing because of the pollution, so northern China might be best.
I would prefer to go to Taiwan because I have connections there and because I miss being there. I will talk with my professor before I make any concrete decisions, however, if I do end up leaning towards China, are there any forums/internet resources you would recommend to help steer me towards the right city/university?
[quote=“smokingcrayon”]1. Practice my Mandarin [color=#0040FF]Taiwan-wide: Yep.[/color]
2. Study under a good landscape architecture program [color=#0040FF]Dunno. Check up on the programs and profs.[/color]
3. Be able to visit working examples of landscape design [color=#0040FF]cough[/color]
4. Have high mobility in the region (AKA good public transportation or I can get around by bike) [color=#0040FF]Chungli? No. You’ll be taking your life in your hands. Taipei and Tainan: ok.[/color]
5. Live cheaply (compared to American standards) [color=#0040FF]Taiwan-wide: Yep.[/color][/quote]
Guys, the landscape design here is associated with the green, ecological, LOHAS lifestyle that is nowadays very hot. Definetively, the OP should come and check out teh preparations for the Flower Expo, the designs and stuff. I wrote an article about how they are doing the urban gardens, wall covering and modifying structures like traditional markets joined with rooftop gardens. Quite cool, actually, and all MIT.
OP’s best choice is to do the study abroad/observation trip this and/or next year/s.
I do agree that Taoyuan scores high on the ugliness scale, however there is one bright spot (and one of great interest for you since you are in landscape design)…parks. When I first visited ten years ago, there wasn’t a single sizeable park in town. Taoyuan now dubs itself "The City of Parks’ (I am not making that up). True, most aren’t really inspiring design-master pieces, but they help fill the need of the local population as a place to keep the kids busy and entertained. There is even one striking example of tax-payers’ money well spent with the river park that was open along both sides of the Nankan Stream last year. Taking their cues from similar river parks in Taipei and Kaoshung, this park will eventually connect Gweishan and Nankan, and offers a lot of features… walking/running track, bicycle lanes (when it’s all done it will stretch over 10 kms each way), roller skating rinks, lawns, trees, bridges… I go there often and always enjoy it. I really think that they did a great job. So much so that it gets very crowded on weekends which is a major draw back for me, but it’s ok since I usually go running there late in the evening. The locals have really taken to it, and I applaud any initiative that keeps the kids away from their TVs or computer games.
So Taoyuan holds probably no value when it comes to architecture or urban design, but for landscaping I say that it wouldn’t be a waste of time.
[quote=“Taiwan Luthiers”]As a Taiwanese American, and having heard stories from people of similar background, my advise is this:
Come to Taiwan, take a short (not more than 6 months) vacation, and go back to the US. [color=#FF0000]Taiwan is NOT kind to Taiwanese Americans[/color]…[/quote]
How so? I thought Taiwanese/Chinese Americans were rather popular here.
