Jilong north of Taipei?

Which direction is Jilong if you’re in Taipei?

Every adult Taiwaneser I have ever asked tells me it’s north. I even have a T-shirt showing it to be on the very north tip of the island. But, well, I always travel east to get there.

Where is it?

The opposite direction from the airport.

ENE

or +70° if you prefer.

somore east than north, but definitely allowable as north.

geez, ever used google earth? it fun.

About north-east …

[quote=“urodacus”]ENE

or +70° if you prefer.

somore east than north, but definitely allowable as north.

geez, ever used google earth? it fun.[/quote]
If it’s ENE (which is correct) then it’s more East than North, so why would you allow it as North?

The direction depends on where in Taipei you are.

…and CKS Airport (or whatever it is called these days) is more north than south if you are in southern areas of Taipei (south of Jenai Rd).

[quote=“X3M”]The direction depends on where in Taipei you are.

…and CKS Airport (or whatever it is called these days) is more north than south if you are in southern areas of Taipei (south of Ren’ai Rd).[/quote]
Normally you reference from the center of a city, not the outskirts. Using Taipei Main Station as center of Taipei puts Jilong at ENE and TTY airport at WbN (see compass above).

OK, you are right, we have to agree about what is the center before discussing directions - and the Main Station is a good reference point.
The funny thing is that I always have heard that the TTY airport is South and Keelung is North, when they actually are closer to West and East. Your compass is cool.

HOMER! :homer:

at a stretch. i am trying to be nice to my taiwanese hosts here. even though they may look at life differently to me…

anyway, the logic (such as it is) is this: if you draw an east-west line through taipei, then keelung lies to the north of that line.

like london is north of sydney, but a lot west as well, unless you go round thew world the other way, when it’s a lot east too.

so by that reasoning keelung is at once to the north, AND the south, and to the east AND the west, of taipei. great, innit?

It is great.

Does any of that analysis change if before setting off for any destination you first spin yourself around in tight circles until you become extremely dizzy, and then place a blindfold over your eyes?

Because, that’s what I do before I start any journey that requires following directions.

my wife gets the same result and doesn’t need to spin herself around first.

Honey, which way is our house? that’s it just over the street, sweetie…

i did not marry her for her astounding sense of direction. obviously

Taoyuan is also south, as far as I know, as far as I’m told. Wulai is apparently east. Danshui is west.

Where exactly is ‘Taipei’ then? Is it the station, CKS memorial hall, 101, Buttercup’s house, or where? I mean, when you see a sign saying “Taipei 32km”, where exactly is the bit of Taipei they are referring to?

(Hang on, do they even have signs like that here? I never take any notice of roadsigns, because they don’t seem to tell you anything useful.)

[quote=“urodacus”]
at a stretch. i am trying to be nice to my Taiwanese hosts here. even though they may look at life differently to me…

anyway, the logic (such as it is) is this: if you draw an east-west line through Taipei, then Keelung (Jilong) lies to the north of that line.

like london is north of sydney, but a lot west as well, unless you go round thew world the other way, when it’s a lot east too.

so by that reasoning Keelung (Jilong) is at once to the north, AND the south, and to the east AND the west, of Taipei. great, innit?[/quote]

When you start going south from Australia and keep going than Moskou is south of Sydney …

[quote=“tmwc”]Taoyuan is also south, as far as I know, as far as I’m told. Wulai is apparently east. Danshui is west.

Where exactly is ‘Taipei’ then? Is it the station, CKS memorial hall, 101, Buttercup’s house, or where? I mean, when you see a sign saying “Taipei 32km”, where exactly is the bit of Taipei they are referring to?

(Hang on, do they even have signs like that here? I never take any notice of roadsigns, because they don’t seem to tell you anything useful.)[/quote]

The best way to find out is follow all the signs of national roads back to Taipei and look for the 0 km sign … every 0.5 km there must be an indication …

No more arguments:

(Compass centered on Taipei Main Station)

I can’t see my house. Or the freeway.

I’ll tell you the reason, as revealed to me by the angel Agrajag:

The freeway goes from the south of the island to the north. When you get on it there’s a sign telling you that you’re going ‘north’ or ‘south’, regardless of whether the freeway is actually going N-S at that point. People who don’t ever look at maps get onto the freeway, read the sign, and believe they are going north or south despite having the morning or evening sun in their eyes. And then they argue with teacher.

Well, to get to Jilong from Taibei by train, you have to take a northbound train.

Then again, to get to Taidong from Taibei, you take a northbound train as well.

i believe as iv said before that all those on taiwan are cast with a certain spell that makes them clueless bout compass directions (and hence compasses are rarely used in taiwan) and directions in general (especially the natives). This is so that 23 million people dont wake up one morning and realize that they are all living on a small island and only on one third of it as well.

everyone on taiwan thinks taiwan is pretty huge !! i bet you do too :slight_smile:

i got a nice compass for my car in taiwan but then chucked it cuz i always thought it was OFF, cuz i always went East to get to Keelung and West do go to south taiwan. :smiley: :smiley: Seems nothing works quite the way its supposed to in taiwan so just go with the flow.

I guess people think Jilong is North because they tilt the entire island in their minds so that the leave-shape is “vertical”, which puts Jilong at the top of Taiwan:

This north-bound thing for highways and trains may not be correct when in Taipei, but I think if someone comes from the South, say Taizhong or Jiayi for example, then it’s ok to say Taipei or Jilong are North if you want to limit it to one of the four directions. At least it wouldn’t make sense to rename the directions when reaching Taipei, that would be too confusing.