feeling the heat from whom? the locals don’t care. its not like taiwan, you can get by with very little chinese and its not a big deal at all. theres no future in china either so its not like it should be encouraged for long term living.
That was identical to our experience as well. We went for a visit to Singapore 2 years ago, and loved it. I looked into what would be required to move there … it is as bad as Canada or the US really, maybe worse. Even if you have a job offer from a local employer, it is still no guarantee of a work visa. As was said by @projectmaximus, really the only surefire way is a job offer from an overseas employer, and even that, the employer needs to ensure the visa side of things is taken care of properly, which is no small feat.
As for the “expat life” being done, maybe. Who cares though? There are still people from other countries who choose to have a life in different countries - now it will be on similar terms to the people who live there, for the most part. The whole “expat” concept is steeped in colonialism anyways, where the “foreign expert” gets paid so much more than the locals mostly due to his/her foreignness, and sometimes due to their expertise. The problem in Taiwan (as many have stated), is mostly that the local wages are so stagnant (for a variety of reasons), that it makes any sort of international competitiveness impossible really - aside from “expat packages”. Ironic really.
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Not so sure about this, especially with the whole WFH trend. If travel is more restricted and expensive for a while because of corona, you could see the opposite - larger numbers of expats who are location independent professionals.
This is a bit cynical if you ask me. There are a variety of reasons expats in some fields get paid more. Expertise, market knowledge and connections can be a big part of it. But don’t forget the issue of quality of life. The average executive with a family, nice house, and overall comfortable life in his home country isn’t going to jump at the opportunity to live in a foreign country where locals in his role make a lot less. The higher salaries often reflect that there’s a fairly small pool of talent willing to relocate internationally.
I largely agree with the video review, though I do have some quibbles. On cost of living, I lived the same distance outside of the CBD in Singapore as in Taipei, and it is almost impossible in Taipei to find a house or a 5 bedroom apartment. The cost of maintaining something close to my standard of living is much higher in Taipei than in Singapore.
On healthcare, he talks about cost, but not quality. Everything is ridiculously slow in Taipei, and they seem to ask for a lot of completely unnecessary appointments. I just ignored the calls to come back from the beginning, but it took my wife several times of being called back, having to wait for the doctor for an hour after the appointment time, being asked how she feels, and then being sent on her way after 2 minutes before she stopped going. The medical technology also seems much lower here from what I’ve experienced. And even getting the drugs I need here is a pain in the ass. Singapore was better in virtually every respect.
Others have mentioned the geographic advantage that Singapore has for travel, and I completely agree.
On food Singapore is also much superior in terms of variety and availability. I don’t care if the food is locally grown, I just want it fresh and available. I’m not just talking about non-Chinese food, either. There are lots of Chinese styles of food that were just far more available in Singapore than in Taipei.
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Interesting to hear your feedback on Taiwan healthcare vs Singapore. I am curious how long is the waiting time in Singapore and the cost. I have a colleague in Singapore and he said he was waiting all morning for a specialist recently. For foreigners medical care can be expensive there.
Medical tech in Taiwan is actually pretty good from my experience , and the technicians and clinicians are well trained (in the big hospitals ). Only big problem I have encountered is that doctors don’t to a proper investigation or follow up due to time constraints. They have rarely gotten to the root of any of my health problems because of this. That IS a problem.
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Can you guys elaborate on why the winter is so bad in Taipei? Since I have never actually spent a winter there.
I’ve actually been looking forward to it. I hate the Taipei summer, and our plan is to leave all summer and only be there for the school year.
I don’t think the winter I’ve spent here in Taipei was bad at all. It never got cold, and I enjoyed not being hot all the time or actually being able to wear pants and not sweat my ass off.
It gets dark too early because of the weird time system here, and rains a lot. But that didn’t bother me so much as at least I could wear a jacket and not sweat my ass off.
Over the last decade or so Taipei’s winters have been getting warmer.
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I can’t really talk about cost: in both places I have “expat” insurance and saw little to no costs for anything. In Singapore I could get a rheumatologist, pediatrician, or neurologist (the three specialties my family needs) very quickly and once I showed up, the appointment started within 5 minutes of the actual appointment time. That has never happened in Taipei. With the specialists the doctors had a lot more time for us as well. With my rheumatologist, I actually had to make excuses (“I have a meeting”) to stop her from talking. Also getting my medicine in Singapore (and getting it paid for) was much easier in Singapore. I take Enbrel for psoriasis and arthritis. It was still difficult in Singapore, but there the doctor tried hard to get the medicine and to get it covered under insurance. In Taipei I was told to navigate the system and get it myself. That’s the one thing I do know the cost of, because it’s extremely expensive in Taipei.
The MRI, CT Scanning, and even dental scanning equipment was better in Singapore than in Taipei. Getting the scan, getting and saving the results, and getting the results analyzed was all faster in Singapore.
I’m sure there are better and worse places in both, and perhaps I just got very lucky in Singapore and have been unlucky in Taipei, but because of my insurance I just asked what the best place was and went there. And the results are quite different.
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Your from a tropical area? For me winter days are longer here for me, where I am from it’s dark at 4:30pm in the winter, in Kaoshiung it’s dark at about 6pm in the winter maybe maybe a bit earlier in Taipei. Taiwan daylight differences are less extreme for me, and in S’pore it’s pretty much the same all year around.
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I’m from a northern latitude and I also hate the way the Taiwan timezones work , stealing time from you in the evening especially. It’s not smart since most people want to do leisure activities in the evening not the very early morning . Finishing work and getting dark quickly…Never liked that.
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Interesting perspective about Sunrise. I never consciously thought about it.
It’s almost like Taiwan is wasting sunlight but then lots of people get up early in the morning
fishing or
farming or
shopping at market for their shop
or exercising in the parks.
Taiwan really should be in the same timezone as Japan
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Yeah, Singapore sunrise is basically 7am all year, and sunset is basically 7pm all year. In Taipei, especially in the summer, the sunrise ruins the morning (by making it too hot to do anything) and steals your evenings (by going down too early, as Brian and I point out). Yes, some people get up early and may benefit from a 5am sunrise as opposed to a 6am one, but virtually everyone is awake at 5pm in the winter (or 6:45 pm in the summer, for that matter). Every day cool temperatures and light are stolen from us unless we have control of our business hours and can just pretend the time is different than it is.
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Ah ok perfect! I must have misunderstood, I thought the implication was that winter is bad.
When I lived in Chicago that was honestly the worst part for me…not so much the cold temps as the fact that I didn’t get to see much daylight at all. But I’ll live with that for a more comfortable temperature (for me the ideal is high 60s…so ~20 C)
I wonder whether those complaining about time zones even finished high school. It’s like the concept of latitude is unknown to you. Guess what. Sun doesn’t rise or set at the same time all year round when you are not located near the Equator, which Singapore does and Taiwan most certainly does not.
The more red/green, the larger the gap between the solar time and standard time is.
Singapore’s official time and solar time are completely messed up. Taiwan’s official time and solar time are accurate. If you want to complain about irrelevant bs at least get your facts straight.
Probably because reviews on healthcare and food will always be subjective. My cousin used to live in Singapore and she travelled back to Taiwan for pretty much all her medical appointments, including when she was pregnant. She also had her delivery in Taiwan instead of in Singapore.
She also hated the food there. Just sayin’.
The only reason why that would even be an option is a political one. There is no reason for Taiwan to change time zone from a SCIENTIFIC standpoint because the timezone now is SCIENTIFICALLY correct.
Yes, I reference that fact. Do they teach reading in high school?
I’m not sure why it is good for people that solar noon equals standard noon. As I mentioned, in Singapore having solar noon at 1pm allows for useful mornings and leisure in the evenings. Whether daylight is 10 hours or 14 hours, it’s better to have solar noon happen at 1pm standard.
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If the Taiwanese palate doesn’t like it, chances are it’s good food!
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