Living in Tainan

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
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21

[quote=“hardball”][quote=“merge”]If you don’t need to rely on Taiwan for income, and you enjoy outdoor hobbies, then you might consider the East Coast, say Hualian or maybe Yilan.

If you’ve got time, you should take a trip around the island, especially if you’ve been stuck in Taoyuan all this time.[/quote]
Huh? I thought you didn’t post in controversial topics? :no-no:

:laughing:[/quote]

:slight_smile: Nothing against Tainan - great food, great expats, great God it’s hot if you want to do anything outside.

TC, Bismarck, Bigal, M0NSTER, Okami - I’m guessing they would all be great guys IRL.

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[quote=“Belgian Pie”]If TC would move away from Tainan it would be bloody nice …

Silly chef - Shalu is worse. :wink:

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[quote=“merge”] :slight_smile: Nothing against Tainan - great food, great expats, great God it’s hot if you want to do anything outside.

TC, Bismarck, Bigal, M0NSTER, Okami - I’m guessing they would all be great guys IRL.[/quote]Silly rabbit, I live in Changhua.

Tainan is nice, especially for what you are looking for. I would say that Taipei is too expensive in comparison, Taichung is nice in the mountains, but everywhere else sucks. Nantou probably doesn’t have a large enough foreign community for you. Taidong lacks civilization. Hualian and Ilan would be nice, not sure on the expat populations though.

Does anyone have any info on Pingdong or Chiayi for the OP?

The only problem with Tainan is the heat. I’m not sure how windy the coast is though.

24

I’m a novice surfer, so both of those areas have popped up as possibilities. The one thing that’s keeping me on the west coast though is the ease of travel between Taichung (where I have lots of friends), Taoyuan (friends again), and Taipei (for my monthly Page One raids). The HSR is indeed a wonderful thing. I may head out that way over the long weekend though, just to check it out.

The area you describe does sound bloody nice, but isn’t it a wee bit expensive compared to a place like Tainan or Yilan?

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I lived in Tainan for about five years and now I’ve lived in Taipei for about the same.

Air: Taipei’s is far cleaner. That sand storm a few days ago is one of the first times pollution’s stopped me from going for a bike ride in Taipei - but that used to happen all the time in Tainan. (Mind you, rain often stops me in Taipei, and the Tainan winters are bone dry.)

Running: in Tainan I only ever ran on the various athletic tracks; in the city itself, the only place where it was pleasant to walk was Cheng Da University. But then knee problems intervened and I can’t speak to running in Taipei.

Foreigner community: no problem in Tainan. It may actually be better than Taipei, since foreigners in Tainan are a bit more likely to say hi to other foreigners that they don’t know.

Close to the mountains: Tainan’s no good for that at all - you’ve got to get on the scooter for at least an hour, and the main places I used to go were Maolin and the South Cross Island - both of which are now kaput. I’m hiking in Taipei far more often than I ever did in Tainan.

Night markets: same same. Taiwanese rave about Tainan night markets, but for most foreigners there’s not much of a difference. I did spend much less on food in Tainan than I do now in Taipei. I miss the ridiculously cheap fruit drinks.

Other points: after a bunch of years in Tainan, the lack of international food was driving me crazy. There ARE internationalish restaurants, but there’s just not much that variety.

Cycling in Taipei is infinitely better. In Tainan I had 30-40 minutes on busy city streets to get out of town, and that was pollution traffic hell (and at least two near death experiences). Taipei has the riverside cycling paths, and when you get to the end of those paths there are often reasonably non-busy country roads to ride.

Money: yes, Taipei is quite a bit more expensive. I have to be careful here with money, whereas in Tainan I was travelling internationally twice a year and never seemed to worry about how much cash I had. Food is a bit more expensive in Taipei, if you’re buying exactly the same product, but of course Taipei has many things that the rest of the island simply doesn’t have. Housing is much more expensive.

26

I just arrived in Hualian City. It seems pretty nice at first glance. I’ve been to Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, and Tainan. Taichung was certainly the low point but I can’t say which I like best of the others after just 2-5 days in each. I actually though Hsinchu was quite nice but apparently the locals complain that the food is not so good.

27

I’m a novice surfer, so both of those areas have popped up as possibilities. The one thing that’s keeping me on the west coast though is the ease of travel between Taichung (where I have lots of friends), Taoyuan (friends again), and Taipei (for my monthly Page One raids). The HSR is indeed a wonderful thing. I may head out that way over the long weekend though, just to check it out.

The area you describe does sound bloody nice, but isn’t it a wee bit expensive compared to a place like Tainan or Yilan?[/quote]

What would you consider expensive? Rent is more expensive than Tainan for sure, but cheaper than downtown Taipei because we still are in the suburbs. Depends on your needs. I don’t think I would save more than NT5000 a month living in Tainan and maybe less as I would probably do more city things. Here, hiking and cycling are my leisure activitities.

Rent is relative. Yes, living in Tainan I might be able to get a 2 story attached small house for what I pay for an apartment here in Muzha, but then I wouldn’t be so close to the things I love to do. And I really don’t need that extra space.

Anyway, come check out the area. Take the MRT to the ZOO station and rent a bike and go for a ride.

And now I really am heading out for my own ride.

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Hualien is the most livable small city in Taiwan.

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[quote=“merge”][quote=“Belgian Pie”]If TC would move away from Tainan it would be bloody nice …

Silly chef - Shalu is worse. :wink:[/quote]

Shalu is the infected scab on the anus of Taiwan.

30

Really? But there’s lots of dog shit around, one has to be careful all the time when walking down the street. The other day, I was talking to my neighbour.
Me: "So are you going out for a walk with Lucky(the dog)? "
Neighbour: “Not really, just taking it to the park for its daily toilet routine.”(!!!) :astonished:

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Really?[/quote]

I didn’t say the world, I said Taiwan. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Depends. You kind of have to look for them (i.e. go to bars, study Chinese at NCKU or do something which attracts a lot of foreigners like soccer/football). I’ve met people (at work) who I thought were new to Taiwan, but who had been living in Tainan for years. The last time I even saw another foreigner was last Friday (or Saturday) when I went to BigAl’s pub to watch the Welsh six nations rugby match…

[quote=“merge”][quote=“hardball”][quote=“merge”]If you don’t need to rely on Taiwan for income, and you enjoy outdoor hobbies, then you might consider the East Coast, say Hualian or maybe Yilan.

If you’ve got time, you should take a trip around the island, especially if you’ve been stuck in Taoyuan all this time.[/quote]
Huh? I thought you didn’t post in controversial topics? :no-no:

:laughing:[/quote]

:slight_smile: Nothing against Tainan - great food, great expats, great God it’s hot if you want to do anything outside.

TC, Bismarck, Bigal, M0NSTER, Okami - I’m guessing they would all be great guys IRL.[/quote]
Yeah, we’re not too bad.

33

[quote=“sinister_rogue”]Anyway, I’ve recently started working remotely for a company in the US, which means that I can live anywhere on this lovely island. Thus, it’s time to get the hell out of dodge and move somewhere a bit more tolerable. I’m looking for a place with clean(ish) air, a nice place to run, some sort of foreigner community, and somewhat close to the mountains (I’m into hiking and rock climbing). A local rock climbing wall and good night markets would be a huge plus.

I’ve heard that Tainan may fulfill these requirements, but I was hoping that the kind (if sarcastic) posters of Forumosa could provide with a bit more insight into what sort of lifestyle the city offers. Should it be at the top of my relocation list? Are there other places I should consider?

Thanks![/quote]SR -
I’m from the US and have lived in Tainan for 6 yrs. I came to the island 4 -5 times a year on bidness for 10 yrs or so before I moved here. I usually came to Taipei, Tienmu, KaoShiung, Taoyuan and maybe some other place. I would not live in any of them. I much prefer Tainan. It has all I need in a mid-sized, easy to use city. Free bus service to the HSR is very convenient. Good local transport. And hell, it ain’t that big anyway.

I don’t do the ‘bar scene’…well, Boston Pub did just move to my road and is a 7 minute walk so that might change a little. But I’m not part of that group. Married with kid and all that.

I rarely encounter other ‘foreigners.’ Maybe there is a ‘foreigner group’ here…I don’t know.

I don’t think there is a local rock climbing wall. Might be one indoors somewhere - thats a possibility.

Tainan does have cleaner air and there are lots of places to ‘run.’ Some quite nice paths around the city. Along the central river-way and in the An Ping park area - Mazu statutes and all that.

There also is a new bike route laid out around the city. About 11 klicks or so. Took me and my son about 3 hours just slow cruising and sightseeing it one afternoon. Well laid out with markers and signs.

We got night markets and traditional markets out the wazoo here - You don’t have to worry about that one.

I can’t comment on that “lifestyle” thing. Pandoras box and all that.

I do about 75% of my work on the internet and fax - Chungwah Telecom & Hinet 10/2 plan are all I could hope for. Great service and consistently good speed for what I need. Local wifi’s are pretty easy to find.

Any specific Q’s about the place just ask - I, or some other resident of Tainan, should be able to give you a pretty straight-up answer.

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Tainan is not bad, I don’t live in the city but I’m about 20 mins away. There’s a university there and generally more of a young vibe. What I like about it is you can walk around downtown to do all of your shopping, it’s not really spread out. Not sure how many foreigners are there but I usually see a few walking about when I visit.

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7.622234 ± 0.00005 times as nice as Incheon, Korea.

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If anyone is complaining about the heat in the south then they shouldn’t complain about the cold, cloudy, rainy months in Taipei (and it’s not like Taipei is cool in the summer). It’s all a trade off. And I’m really digging kaohsiung because the winter was perfect. Low to mid 20’s and sunny everyday.

I’ll have to get to Tainan one of these days though. I have heard some good things about it and it’s not that far.

37

Just got back from a weekend in Tainan. My impressions…pretty good. We visited the Anping coastal area, although it was my second time there it was still very enjoyable, there was a beach with people windsurfing and sailing (A LOT of people), new bike path, harbor area, along with some historical areas which it is famous for. There were some new villas/townhouses there which were really first class.
The other impressive thing about Tainan is that the water is fairly clean, doesn’t smell compared to other cities in Taiwan.
The river area is nice too.
Then you’ve got ZhengDa university and surrounding area which has plenty of greenspace and pavements. The air seemed much cleaner than Taichung, Taipei or Kaoshiung.
It’s a relatively small city but got plenty of restaurants and coffeeshops and department stores, train, high speed train etc. It’s not too built-up and doesn’t have many tall buildings so has quite an open feeling still about it.
There’s lots of night-life compared to dead Taichung and Kaoshiung, very different, probably due to the number of students in the university there. Plenty of art-work area and beautiful old buildings well preserved…it has its own style.

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How exactly is Tainan hotter than any other place in the summer? What area outside of the highest mountain tops are appreciably cooler than Tainan in the summer?

Never mind, I’ll answer my own questions with data from the CWB website (統計資料 > 氣候統計 > 月平均):

Average temps in July:

Tamshui: 28.8
Taipei: 29.2
Keelung: 29.0
Chiayi: 28.4
Tainan: 29.0
Kaohsiung: 28.9
Hengchun: 28.3
Taitung: 28.7
Hualien: 28.4

Let’s try a different month. Average temps in October:

Tamshui: 23.7
Taipei: 24.3
Keelung: 24.0
Chiayi: 24.3
Tainan: 25.9
Kaohsiung: 26.4
Hengchun: 26.3
Taitung: 26.6
Hualien: 24.6

There’s more disparity in October, but not what I would call an incredible amount by any stretch. Everybody knows that the south is three or four degrees warmer than Taipei in the winter (and doesn’t get the northern rain), but where does anybody get the idea that the summer in Tainan is hotter than anywhere else?

39

It’s probably the amount of sunshine, more sun-burnt days! How about humidity?

40

Surely you’re not suggesting that Tainan might be more humid than Taipei?