Living in Taiwan vs. Singapore - an interesting video

So others who have lived both, what do your prefer? Me Taiwan but like in the video S’pore does somethings better

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In today’s restricted environment, which island has the bigger land mass to putt around for trips/vacation? It’s a no-brainer.

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True, He compares Taipei mostly, I would say Kaoshuing better as far as trips (easier to own and drive a car than Taipei and of course Singapore).

I think the foreigners in HK who’ve stayed there (not left for trips) since the beginning of COVID-19 are either brave or have slightly gone bonkers. Talk about claustrophobia for half a year.

Pretty general generic review.

I’ve lived in both and owned a car in both.

One key point that many don’t pickup is that many/most foreigners that live in Singapore were sent by their company and are getting some type of/substantial living supplements from their company to offset living costs. Expat packages so to speak. So unlike Taiwan, in Singapore you don’t find many foreigners that showed up, found a job and living on a similar salary as locals.

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I’ve never lived in Singapore–only visited–but his descriptions of Taiwan (at least Taipei) are spot on so I have to assume he’s giving an accurate picture of Singapore as well. I quite enjoyed the video.

But it must certainly be easy for this video blogger in both places I think, as he is so good looking. For the rest of us, not so much.

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At least in Taiwan when it’s way too hot outside, you could head up the mountain and instantly feel 5 degrees cooler.

His description of Taipei, he totally ignored Taiwan’s mountains, coasts , forests,rivers and waterfalls. Actual he didn’t even mention the hiking and biking in Taipei. In reality Taiwan wins on most stuff except the horrific traffic and crumbling buildings and low income .
Good video though I enjoyed it.

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He briefly mentions that Taiwan wins hands down for the variety of natural beauty. I’m glad he brought up traffic safety and the lack of sidewalks, still gets on my nerves after 12 years here. I’m surprised he didn’t mention building aesthetics but his video is already quite long for today’s standards.

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Compared to Singapore, I find both living and the food quite dull and boring in Taiwan. And get around Taiwan a lot from city to beach to mountain.

Location is another advantage to Singapore, as you can quickly and easily go somewhere different, interesting, exotic or beachy for the weekend.

You can leave Friday night and come back in time for work on Monday morning to places like Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok or Phuket or Vietnam or Jakarta or even Bali.

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Yes totally agree …Used to :sunglasses:
The most obvious difference the guy never touched upon.
Singapore has a shitload of foreigners and many businesses depend on foreigners. It’s very international and already multicultural.
Taiwan is the complete opposite.

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Exactly right. We have been researching a move to Asia for the past several years, just on our own as we are essentially a location independent family. And even though Singapore was our top choice at one time, and has been top 3 throughout the entire process, I’ve got to say the biggest hurdle is immigration. It’s not set up for people of moderate means to be able to just go and live there. You either are wealthy, or you have a local employer. (It wasn’t so bad in the past, but rules have gotten tighter and tighter over the years) We’ve more or less settled on Taipei as our destination next year, and we decided the only way we’d consider SIN is if my wife unexpectedly gets a really great job offer there.

And speaking of expat packages…they surely are living in an HDB (public housing) so his wife’s company must not offer a generous housing stipend. I imagine if you were given a car, you were probably living in expat housing that was about 3 times more expensive. I have a Singapore expat friend whose 4 bedroom apartment is paid for by his employer and costs over 4 times as much. I don’t believe there’s any rental housing in Taipei that is that expensive!

I’d prefer to set up in Vietnam, Thailand or Taiwan than Singapore personally. Unfortunately the regional top jobs tend to be in Singapore . Another thing , you get a lot of western women working in Singapore whereas that’s very uncommon in the rest of Asia. Often both foreign spouses can work and bring in a lot of dough . But the increasing costs and difficulties of moving there, even with an established employer, are a bit off putting compared to easy street in Taiwan. Also it’s possible to pay pretty low tax in Taiwan mainly if you have Taiwanese relatives or in-laws.

I think Taiwan will get better though in the next five years, with more companies investing here and more spotlight on Taiwan. Even since he has left Taiwan things have improved. International restaurants are way better than a decade ago.

But I get it that for your average expat expat, Taiwan could be dull compared to Singapore or Shanghai, where there is a whole ecosystem of networking, restaurants and entertainment sent up for their needs.

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Not to be a pain in the ass but you can get to Vietnam faster from Taiwan than Singapore. Was surprised about that myself. The rest of your points are well made.

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And you can get to Japan much faster than to any of those carbon copy SEA beaches.

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there’s just no way i can believe him about the weather one.

His point is something like “Taipei has some miserable winter weather, with hardly any sunlight—so I give it the edge for diversity!” :rofl:

Guy

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Taipeis winter is hell lets be honest.

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