Before staring living in a van, read this
I don’t know why but those two plus another one have popped up recently in my news in my Android phone. Someone has decided that’s a trending topic and they had to exploit it.
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Better than wet wipes and sex toys. Google has your best interests at heart 
I didn’t say it should be illegal. I said it was, in the UK. Not the same thing.
It being illegal didn’t bother me much. The main threat, as always, was other people, but it meant you were inhibited from calling the cops if your van was attacked. Much less likely to be an issue in Taiwan.
When we did this in New Zealand, the police were real nazis about people sleeping in their cars. They have a huge European backpacker “problem”, sure. But the cops were unnecessarily douchy there.
Revenge because of the hippy trail “problem”?
Honestly I find law enforcement in Western countries tend to be REALLY bossy. Cops in Taiwan is almost polar opposite.
Agreed. But that’s a west vs Taiwan issue. In other Asian countries like china it may be a different story. Would love to see someone walk through Tiananmen square with a tibet shirt on and see how friendly the police are haha.
Taiwan is a good place if comparing to other countries 
Yeah some of them treat the police as some kind of legalised gang and enjoy intimidating people.
Most are just regular folks trying to do their job.
Many locals and police are now pretty testy about freedom campers in NZ. The large number of people living in cars has made it a national issue for various reasons.
One interesting issue is people parking up under the pretext of freedom camping, but actually scoping out neighbourhoods for burglaries.
The most common issues are noise, drug abuse and garbage.
A classic case of few rogues ruining it for the many.
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I could see that. I assumed it was more about their rules on toilets. and the issues related to vehicles without a toilet. Perhaps that’s a face save excuse to get 90% of them?
The police really were c*nts when we were there. Especially to the germans and french. it was wild to watch.
This guy lives in a truck camper in New Taipei. He is in his 40s, single, works in direct marketing, and has a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from NTU (i.e. considered the cream of the crop by Taiwanese standards). He is a homeowner but prefers to live this way…
Living in a van (and traveling) is also my dream, but I would not want to do it in Taiwan…
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Looking at the pictures it doesn’t look as bad as some places where people live in Taipei paying 15k and up.
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That’s how one buckles down and gets ahead in life. Short term pain, long term gain. respect.
though campers and Van’s are vastly different, to be fair. it is way easier with flat bed trucks than with vans. I sleep in flatbed trucks while doing remote work as well, it is COMFY! Van’s are cramped.
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Certainly doable in Taiwan, I guess get little or problem with police if your courteous.
But SUMMER my god how could you? engine running all night for air con 2 months or more.
Environmental bad bad bad and expensive.
Camper in taiwan 8/9 months spend other months camper vanning Europe 
I guess if you have an electric van you can just use the AC while charging the vehicle…
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Police here dont care. Would be surprised ifthere were even laws against it unless signs are posted.
The advantage with trucks vs vans/campers is you can open the side for air flow. In high pollution areas it is still bad. but it is usually easy to drive up a small hill under a tree and enjoy the breeze. The advantage to taiwans horrible heat is it is often easy to find wind. At night it is better.
Living in a camper in a parking lot, ya. but as for environment bad it’s more efficient to AC a few cubic meter room than a 50 cubic meter room 
Pro tip: old refrigerator boxes for trucks are CHEAP and way better insulated than campers I prefer the fold out canopies on a flat bed personally, but I like moving air.
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I find cops in Taiwan really only care about truly antisocial behavior… otherwise they really don’t care.
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I didn,t have any trouble with cops In London, but I tried to be very stealthy so I don’t THINK they were aware. This probably wouldn’t be possible with current levels of video surveillance.
Main issue was break-ins. All 3 of my vans were broken in to, two of them twice, and I was inside them on 3 occaisions requiring defensive action. I lost a petrol generator (which I couldn’t actually use but it was still brand new) and all my tools.
One of them was vandalized and then apparently stolen, rendering me rather suddenly homeless. Got to be a bit of a nuisance.
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I guess that’s the difference between cops here and cops in the West.
Here if vehicles are broken into, vandalized, etc. it would likely be on the news, and the guy would be caught probably within hours (they can trace through CCTV and all that).
In the West almost nothing is done, guy can’t be caught, etc. yet the cops would harass you for stuff like camping in your car or something.
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