Living in Danshui & Beitou

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Indulge me in a fantasy.

I first visited Danshui in the late 80s and admit I was rather disappointed, so when I revisited again in 1999, I was pleasantly surprised by the changes – the MRT, local transportation, and general appearance of the surrounding environment were downright appealing, I thought. On Friday I visited for the third time, this time taking in a side trip to Beitou. Although I didn’t have much time – only a couple of hours – for sightseeing, I left fantasizing about what it would be like to live up that way.

Who all lives in along the Danshui River and these environs? Are housing prices as outrageous as Taipei? I am not wealthy, but we have savings. I wonder if we could retire up in or around Danshui.

I’d love to hear from those of you who love the place. Tell us what you like about living in this part of Taipei County, and why. Is my fantasy of retiring in that part of the island just whimsy? I want to hear what longtime residents think of their choice.

Tazzie in Taichung

2

Umm, just so you know I am not as retarded as my header would suggest, I submitted this title: “Living in Tamsui (Danshui) and Peitou (Beitou)” but the forum’s nifty settings seem have have gone to a complete Pinyin default.

Not to nitpick, but can’t we use historical place-names? Sorry, I am new here and I guess y’all be over this one before…

3

I live in Danshui, and I love it here. I have a very nice 24 ping apartment a half-hour walk from Danshui station or a short bus ride. I have 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bathroom, and two balconies in a nice community with security guards and swimming pool, easy access to lots of buses that go to Tamkang U and the MRT station, only a 20-minute walk to campus so I can get exercise and save money, lots of places to shop (Wellcome, 7-11 and every other mini-mart, local shops), loads of places to eat. And I’m only a few minutes away from Eddy’s Cantina, which totally makes it worth it, haha. I pay NT12,000 for rent, but there are even cheaper places. My place was completely refurbished before I moved in, looked like brand-spanking new, so I was willing to pay a bit more. It’s also QUIET most of the time, which I love.

4

Sounds great. Is the riverside as pleasant to walk along as it looked from the MRT? I need to get back there to take a stroll.

What is Eddy’d Cantina? A local hangout?

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[quote=“Tazzie”]Sounds great. Is the riverside as pleasant to walk along as it looked from the MRT? I need to get back there to take a stroll.

What is Eddy’d Cantina? A local hangout?[/quote]

It’s a Mexican place run by an expat, with relatively decent food and beer.

6

I’ve lived here for about five years now and quite enjoy it.

Cheaper than Taipei, but still a fair bit more expensive than Tainan, where I used to live. When my wife and I moved to Taipei, we started looking at places in Shilin, and just kept going out the MRT line: at the time, taofangs in Shilin were about the same as two-bedroom places in Danshui; if I remember right, we paid 12,000/month for our first place (SMALL two-bedroom furnished), then 13,000/month for a decent-sized unfurnished three-bedroom place that we moved to a year later. And now we’ve bought a place.

The most significant negative for me: variety of restaurants. Taipei City is just a bit too far for me to enjoyably visit all that often. Then again, I work in Danshui too, so my commute is a ten-minute walk: poor me.

If you’re into western cooking, it’s also a bit of a pain, because you’ve basically got to get to Tianmu to pick up some ingredients.

In Danshui, however, the Mexican restaurant Eddy’s is brilliant, and Kook’s (a variety of western food, especially good for burgers and sandwiches) is quite good.

When I moved to Taipei I thought I’d be going out to concerts a lot more, but that doesn’t happen, I think mainly because of the distances. If I go to a concert downtown, I basically get home 90 minutes after it ends, which isn’t a big deal but it does stop me from casually going to shows.

The cycling is great, during the week: Danshui is one end of the riverside cycling paths, and up here it’s all river and mangrove and ibis and egrets, rather than giant flood barriers. You can also easily head up the coast or over the hills (or up Yangmingshan if you’re inclined, pun very much intended).

The waterfront is lovely during the week or before 11am on the weekend. Avoid at all costs from about noon on during the weekend.

I don’t know Beitou that well, but there are some absolutely gorgeous complexes nestled in those hills, with ambience and prices both more Japanese than Taiwanese.

7

No, as using one version of a place name makes things much easier to search for in the future. Some historical place names will remain valid in Forumosa, like Taipei and Kaoshiung, but not very many.

Danshui is nice if you like crowds of tourists and really bad traffic on weekends.

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The thing about living in a place which attracts tourists on the weekends is that you can leave on the weekends (or stay indoors), no? Ok, the traffic is ugly, I get that, but if I lived near an MRT stop, I probably wouldn’t have a car (or perhaps not use it much) anyway.

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[quote=“lostinasia”]I’ve lived here for about five years now and quite enjoy it.
When I moved to Taipei I thought I’d be going out to concerts a lot more, but that doesn’t happen, I think mainly because of the distances. If I go to a concert downtown, I basically get home 90 minutes after it ends, which isn’t a big deal but it does stop me from casually going to shows.
[/quote]

Interesting point. That’s the fantasy part of my fantasy, I guess, and the bit I have to be wary of. Being on the MRT is nice, but it is still a ride in and out of the city, and if you have to commute to Taipei for work, I can imagine that going in on a day off would get old quickly.

Thank you for the detailed reply.

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Like I said above, I used to live in Tainan, so the [lack of] public transport that I dealt with there is probably similar to what you’re dealing with now in Taichung. And when I moved to Taipei, it was SUCH A RELIEF to not have to drive anymore. The scooter still comes out for occasional grocery shopping or drives along the coast - but sometimes a month goes by without me driving. I live 15 minutes walk from the MRT and it’s brilliant.

In my situation I wouldn’t dream of buying a car, although that might change if I have kids. I do however keep meaning to get a Taiwan license so I can rent a car for the occasional (like twice a year) trip.

I don’t care about the crowds of tourists on the weekend; it’s easy to avoid them. Most weekends I’ll just notice the crowds if I’m taking the MRT into town. I’ve heard the weekend traffic is awful, but I’ve never had to deal with it. The only hassle is when friends want to visit and be tourists in Danshui, and then you’re obliged to show them around and deal with the crowds that you’d otherwise avoid.

(Added in response to the post you just made about going to concerts: actually, I think the reason I don’t go into town much is because I DON’T commute anymore. If I was already downtown, then going out for dinner or a show was fine; but now I have to go into town, and then back out. The three hours going back and forth doesn’t balance out with the ninety minute dinner.)

11

We just moved out here a few months ago and love it. We’re 5 min walk from Hongshulin MRT, in a 36 ping place, with high ceilings, large picture windows overlooking the river and down to the sea, a loft, 2 balconies, 2 bathrooms, plus gym, sauna and swimming pool. All for NT$21500.

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Danshui is great. Good schools nearby, great food, a nice university (TKU), wonderful transportation, not to mention about the cheapest area in Taipei and Taipei County. This goes for food and housing as well. You can surely afford a house there, maybe even paying cash straight up. The per-ping price in Danshui is much lower than other areas… It can be 150,000 per ping in older buildings that aren’t too close to TKU or the MRT station (but everything is still pretty close). that means a 25 ping home is about $115,000 US. Very affordable.

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Its also the coldest place in TAipei in winter :slight_smile:

14

Sounds exactly like the sort of place I am thinking about. Do you have any notion of what you would pay for such a place if you were to buy it? We do not want to rent a flat, although we might do that to start out.

Still dreaming…

15

Honestly, that sounds like Taichung prices. And Taichung, though much improved over the past 5-10 years, still ain’t no Danshui. Also I am not hell-bent on living in Tamsui proper. I think access to the MRT and the riverside is what has stirred my imagination.

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Sounds exactly like the sort of place I am thinking about. Do you have any notion of what you would pay for such a place if you were to buy it? We do not want to rent a flat, although we might do that to start out.

Still dreaming…[/quote]

Not sure, but I’ll take a look in the estate agent window next time I walk by.

17

Tamshui is nice alright. I’ve thought about moving there too. Gets very busy on weekends though if you want to drive up and down there.

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My father was very interested in Tamsui before he finally moved over here in Feb. He was very impressed witht he new build apartments there, the large size and design as well as the cheap as chips rent. There’s a reason they’re cheap though and you’ll have to consider the pros and cons of a place before making serious plans. For my dad the cons outweighed the pros as he is into his music and prefers to be closer to the pubs and clubs without worrying about the last bus or MRT back to Tamsui in the dead of night. In the end he managed to find a splended refurbished apartment in Shilin which is ultimately more convenient in terms of eateries, supermarket, public transportation and is still cheap to rent by Tiapei City standards at 20,000 per month for a 21 ping, two bedroom apartment with all the fixtures and fittings. He’s very sure he prefers it here to the long commute and inconvenience of Tamsui as well as having the better weather here.
Personally I like Tamsui for a couple of trips a year, I do like the cheap new apartments, but it isn’t enough to draw me there.

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Hey this is great. Thanks for all the posts – I am reading them avidly. I like hearing about places like Shilin and those who, like sulavaca’s father, chose it over Danshui for convenience’s sake. I am sure I like Danshui, and I love the river, but having access to the Tamsui MRT line and the river path or other green space is ultimately the big draw for me. Having historical Danshui within easy reach is always possible if an MRT station out that way is handy.

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Sounds exactly like the sort of place I am thinking about. Do you have any notion of what you would pay for such a place if you were to buy it? We do not want to rent a flat, although we might do that to start out.

Still dreaming…[/quote]

Four, five million tops, I’d say. I checked out both new and old apartment complexes, from Hongshulin to Tamkang University area, on a budget maximun 8, and smaller 2 bedroom were about that, in that ballpark. A bit further from the MRT stations, actually, did not see anything that grabbed my interest close to them.

It was very popular with my coworkers last year. This year, they are a bit worn out of the commute, but then it is a long way downtown -more than 45 minutes. A single friend is quite happy there since she works in Tianmu, which makes a more reasonable commute, no scooter required.

Nevertheless, as CF has pointed out, there are some really cool places. One coworker used to live a bit past Hongshulin, in a complex with houses, more like cottages. Lovely. And big swimming pool, too.