Keelung Horrors Update

Wow. A rave from the grave.

Jilung sucks the big one. I used to (moons ago) have to either take the direct bus to wanli or the bus to keelung and then transfer to the kinshan bus. It was a long trek. But sometimes it was pretty fun when you are sandwhiched in so tight with the largely female students on the bus to kinshan that you didnt need to hold on. Was kinda funny lurching sideways and backwards and forwards but you are in there like ham between slices of bread. :slight_smile: It certainly was an experience that i sometimes missed when i got my car.

The car was so much more convenient. The two bus rides to get home felt like a journey to Mars and standing all the way there.

And it rains like a sonofabeeach in jilung.

Hehe! That post is fabulous. If anyone were writing a book on ‘culture shock’, that could be the back age blurb.

‘I’ve been here one week and everything’s BRILLIANT!’

:laughing:

I went once for a job interview. As soon as I got off the bus, I knew I would be “going through the motions”.

As if Keelung weren’t bad enough, the place was a pedophile’s playground (read: “catholic school” :ohreally:) and they were expecting me to work six days per week (like the buybull, I guess) for about NT$50000. Less pay with more work plus mandatory religious participation? Forget that nonsense. :loco: :saywhat: :bs: :tic: :noway: Even if I were a catholic and not an atheist, I would have told them to take a hike.

My first thought when I got to Keelung was HP Lovecraft’s “C’thulhu” story, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Over_Innsmouth

I was expecting to see people with fish scales on their faces and crab claws for hands. :exclamation: :grrr:

Ia! Ia! C’thulhu F’tagn! flop flop flop… C’thulhu K’eelung!

At least weekends in Taipei are possible for any poor slob stuck Keelung. Head in on Saturday morning (or Friday night) and stay at one of the youth hostels for about NT$600 per night. Just how much is your sanity worth to you?

Hey, be nice. It only rains there twice per year.

Once for 180 days, and once for 185.

Hey, be nice. It only rains there twice per year.

Once for 180 days, and once for 185.[/quote]
:roflmao: :roflmao:

I went once for a job interview. As soon as I got off the bus, I knew I would be “going through the motions”.

My first thought when I got to Keelung (Jilong) was HP Lovecraft’s “C’thulhu” story, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Over_Innsmouth

[color=#FF4000]I was expecting to see people with fish scales on their faces and crab claws for hands.[/color] :exclamation: :grrr:

Ia! Ia! C’thulhu F’tagn! flop flop flop… C’thulhu K’eelung![/quote]

:laughing: Ha! I had the EXACT same thought! I loved the lushness of the hills, but was creeped out by all the slippery algae/mold growing over everything. I could just imagine myself suffering with a runny nose and wet feet every day. That place gets way too much rain for me!

Don’t they have women in Jilong? :frowning:

I live near Keelung. Actually if go past Keelung to Ba Do Tz and up in the hills there I live. So I still am in Keelung city postal code

Keelung from the inside out:

Downtown near the night market - wet, dirty and chaotic, buildings are shabby, uncared for and look unoccupied
Of course you have got the famous :wink: nightmarket, which is worth a look once.
Around the famous night market you have a cobbling of clothes shops, uneven footpaths, mold, wet and Keelung smells

Ships do pull in there (so I guess its kind of an international city), and there are bars for sailor boys to clean the tubes after being at sea for a period of time

Outside the city, depending on where you go, the beaches/rocky beaches and coastline are nice. On Monday and Tuesday, like all of Keelung, these places are littered with the remains of the nightmarket plastic bags, BBQ food/equipment, utensils and plastic bags.
People from neighboring towns, cities etc, stroll up to sample the Keelung delights, and make a right ol’ mess, but who will complain when they are bringing money into the place

A lot of people live in Keelung and work in Taipei, so not much activity apart from shipping related (container vessels etc), and civic services (dole office, hospitals, schools). There seems little prospect for growth in Keelung, with Taipei being so close. Outside the city (lets call them the suburbs) there are a couple of nice natury areas and residential areas. Based on the traffic flow and car occupancy in the morning and at night, a lot of people work outside Keelung also ensure their kids go to school in Taipei (or greater Taipei). Keelung is cheaper to rent/buy in than Taipei. Its only 30 mins away, so lies in the commuter belt

The geography of Keelung means the layout is chaotic. Which could be kinda cool if the place didn’t look so rundown, slimey and grotty.

And how it rains there, and not the heavy type, but the more lingering mist type. Up where I live, I have a good view looking in a certain direction ( i.e away from Keelung). You can see the ocean and the mountains. On many mornings and evenings it’s actually quite beautiful (when its not raining and you look in the right direction).

The locals are quite friendly, but uneducated and live in a small bubble called Keelung (which you cannot fault them for). Education and schools etc are pretty crap there. My wife’s friend is a teacher in Keelung (she taught in Taipei and Taoyuan) and she will testify to that.

The last time I was in downtown Keelung was about a year ago. Apart from the wetness and mold that I do not like, there is in fact nothing there that draws my attention or interest. When people find out I live in Keelung, they always ask me do I like going to Meow Koo. I politely say all the time. Then the state how lucky I am to live in Keelung, yet offer no impulse or reason why they don’t move there to bask in the place themselves.

Reading up on the history of the place is interesting. There was the Keelung Campaign (August 1884–April 1885) between the French and Chinese/Taiwanese about 120 years ago. Actually it was more about Vietnam, but France used Keelung as a bargaining chip. France captured the place for six months, made it look very European looking, wide streets, white-washed buildings, French deco type windows. Following French withdrawal, it took the locals a very short time to get it back to the way it should be, and still is today

I have asked locals about this. There have been strong objections to the idea that the French did win and control the place (or even the French could win a battle… to control the place :whistle: ), while ignoring the graveyard for the French soldiers in Keelung visibility located along the edge of a busy thoroughfare through Keelung

[quote=“StLouTom”]As my first week in Taiwan is drawing to a close, I can’t help but think I’ve made a terrible mistake.

For one thing, Gram Schools are awful. The staff has done nothing but pander to my every whim since I’ve been here; helping me to find an apartment, helping me to get a cell phone, helping me to eat, drink, and live comfortably. The polite little children are driving me insane with their laughter and poor English.

Keelung (Jilong) is precisely as everyone has said: an armpit. The lush green hills surrounding the city are enough to make me quite unsettled. The city itself is wretched in any number of different ways. To begin with, the people are patently patronizing with their friendliness. If one more Chinese fellow comes up to me to try and steal a free English lesson with his “small talk,” I’ll scream. Furthermore, there is no end to the amount of shopping and eating to be done, all of which is quite cheap. The shoddy goods peddled from the street vendors seem far too fresh to be believed, and I can’t help but think that they are doused with loads of preservatives.

Furthermore, there is very little to do in the city. I have been forced to spend my time bowling, playing video games and pachinko, hanging out with my new workmates, drinking a fair amount of their terribly overpriced beer, making new friends, trying to learn Chinese, going to new restaurants, exploring the harbor, going to the movies; essentially just walking the streets in a haze of boredom and spite.

Today it is raining for the first time since I’ve been here. Not only is the wetness an inconvenience, but it is something which I simply cannot stomach; the entire city has that fresh stench of vegetation and mud. I long for the smell of pollution which seemed so readily available in Taipei.

I now realize that all of you were right. I bow to your overwhelming intelligence and openness, and I ask for your prayers for a quick end to this misery.

Idiots.[/quote]

your dry wit should soak up any rainfall

I met a girl and a woman in the bay area and I grimaced slightly when they told me they were from Keelung. Haha donno why.

I had an inner thought if I should check them out for scales and webfeet.