Living in the countryside

The sounds of silence…
different folks for different strokes…

I can be 10 mins in a taxi and be anywhere … :smiley: and you’re sure in Xinyi there are no spiders and roaches?

How about Yilan? I lived in Luodong for about a year and a half and there’s far more that I miss in Yilan county (good hotsprings in Jiaoxi, mindblowing sunrises around Toucheng, frolicking in Xinliao waterfall, crazy beautiful coast south of Su’ao, MUCH cheaper food) than stuff I enjoy in Taipei (namely Cafe Odeon and the Dunhua Eslite store.) Also, if you have Chinese ability, you won’t slowly lose your mind from people ignoring your Chinese and always answering you in English. The people in Yilan are far friendlier than the people in Taipei. The big disadvantage for me to living in Yilan was the miserable winters where you never see the sun, but Taipei is only marginally better in this regard. Also, most foreigners think the dating situation is better in Taipei, but I was never able to find a GF in either place, so I don’t have much experience with that.

If you’re doing the typical 600NT/hr buxiban teaching gig, you’ll have a much higher standard of living if you get an apartment overlooking Luodong Sports Park and eat locally than you would anywhere in Taipei.

You have to read the “location” tag underneath Sandman’s name. I have the misfortune to live five minutes walk away from the guy, and it’s true what he says. You have to walk across the river on a footbridge to get to the MRT, and from there it takes you as much as twenty minutes to get into the city centre. I usually divert up the hill instead. The same place, viewed from a bit higher up:

As someone pointed out, there are many grungy places in Taipei County. There are also plenty of cleaner options with lots of green space. Peace and quiet is easily achievable within easy commuting distance of all the money.

I drove 25 minutes home from work last night and then took my dog out. The neighbours were sitting out as they often do by the big playing field behind my home. Trees and and a small hill in front, moon and stars above, virtual silence, quiet greetings from old folks who never seem to be worried about anything or in a hurry, little brown furry cheerfulness frolicking about at my feet. Pretty good, really. I have a friend who lives 15 minutes further out by scooter, and from his house you can only see one other artificial light. It’s just trees as far as you can see, and complete silence - except when he’s playing with his drumkit.

Does Jojo know about any of this?

Don’t listen to Sandman and Loretta; their pictures are obviously doctored. Xindian is HORRIBLE and everyone should just STAY AWAY. Go live in Neihu or Xizhi or Muzha someplace like that. We’re full up here, sorry, no vacancies.

Loretta and Sandman, how can you stand to live surrounded by such ugliness? There’s not enough concrete, for a start.

I carry a pocketful of small slabs of the stuff to look at while I’m up there in case the green gets too much to thole.

Can I just say that you can see scenes like that all over the place. XinYi has Elephant mountain, which makes my heart pump with gladness/lack of cardio-vascular fitness.

People will argue here till the cows come home about which square ping on Taipei is the best. Just pick one and you’ll find something cool about it. Except Panchiao.

[quote=“Buttercup”]Can I just say that you can see scenes like that all over the place. XinYi has Elephant mountain, which makes my heart pump with gladness/lack of cardio-vascular fitness.

People will argue here till the cows come home about which square ping on Taipei is the best. Just pick one and you’ll find something cool about it. Except Panchiao.[/quote]
I can see Heffelump Hill from my daily vantage point. A tiny speck of green altitude awash in a sea of foetid brown smog, sometimes with the upper tip of Taipei 101 managing to peek out from the mess. And I chuckle to myself that yes, Victoria, there really ARE people who think that piffling pimple constitutes a walk in the woods. :wink:

Aiyo … Xindian is a pain in the arse. Me, I just like being near the boozer.

Neener neener!

You’re a great big FANNY. hahaha!

MODERATOR! She called me a fanny. In a fit of jealous rage she called me a fanny! I demand retribution swift and merciless.

Hardly counts as a personal attack, 'round these parts, though.

I think we should take these photos of Muzha and Xindian with a grain of salt. Most days it’s raining and you have trouble seeing a hundred meters.

I also find it ironic (and a little dishonest) that Mucha Man is so pro Taipei because as a travel writer he spends so much time out of his beloved city.

In fact, he once mistakenly sent me an e-mail that was meant for his Lonely Planet employers. It would be unfair of me to post it in full here, but let’s just say that he was begging them for a job because he was desperate to get out of town. To quote one line,“I dont care if it’s @#$%^ Kurdistan, I need to get out of this shithole.”

[quote=“almas john”]I think we should take these photos of Muzha and Xindian with a grain of salt. Most days it’s raining and you have trouble seeing a hundred meters.

I also find it ironic (and a little dishonest) that Muzha Man is so pro Taipei because as a travel writer he spends so much time out of his beloved city.

In fact, he once mistakenly sent me an e-mail that was meant for his Lonely Planet employers. It would be unfair of me to post it in full here, but let’s just say that he was begging them for a job because he was desperate to get out of town. To quote one line,“I don’t care if it’s @#$%^ Kurdistan, I need to get out of this shithole.”[/quote]

Goddam, I should put down my beer when I see your posts. :laughing:

But of course, I don’t love Taipei, I love Muzha south of Muxin Rd, and that little strip of land beside the Jingmei and Danshui rivers, and the finger ridge of the Fairy Footprint, and a few block of Xinyi and Heping. I think Zhongshan Bei Lu Sec 6 is not bad in parts. Xinsheng near the park where it’s treed. Da’an Park. Maybe a bit of Lishui Jie and few alleys behind Sogo. The rest, meh.

Kurdistan, not bad. But come back from a month in the gulag of Qinghai and Taipei entices like a fair maiden after a month at sea with Sandman lookalikes.

[quote=“Mucha Man”][quote=“almas john”]I think we should take these photos of Muzha and Xindian with a grain of salt. Most days it’s raining and you have trouble seeing a hundred meters.

I also find it ironic (and a little dishonest) that Muzha Man is so pro Taipei because as a travel writer he spends so much time out of his beloved city.

In fact, he once mistakenly sent me an e-mail that was meant for his Lonely Planet employers. It would be unfair of me to post it in full here, but let’s just say that he was begging them for a job because he was desperate to get out of town. To quote one line,“I don’t care if it’s @#$%^ Kurdistan, I need to get out of this shithole.”[/quote]

Goddam, I should put down my beer when I see your posts. :laughing:

But of course, I don’t love Taipei, I love Muzha south of Muxin Rd, and that little strip of land beside the Jingmei and Danshui rivers, and the finger ridge of the Fairy Footprint, and a few block of Xinyi and Heping. I think Zhongshan Bei Lu Sec 6 is not bad in parts. Xinsheng near the park where it’s treed. Da’an Park. Maybe a bit of Lishui Jie and few alleys behind Sogo. The rest, meh.

Kurdistan, not bad. But come back from a month in the gulag of Qinghai and Taipei entices like a fair maiden after a month at sea with Sandman lookalikes.[/quote]

Yup to me Taipei was always like coming home to a home cooked meal after a day out with the mistresses (outside of Taipei)

[quote=“alidarbac”]How about Yilan? I lived in Luodong for about a year and a half and there’s far more that I miss in Yilan county (good hotsprings in Jiaoxi, mindblowing sunrises around Toucheng, frolicking in Xinliao waterfall, crazy beautiful coast south of Su’ao, MUCH cheaper food) than stuff I enjoy in Taipei (namely Cafe Odeon and the Dunhua Eslite store.) Also, if you have Chinese ability, you won’t slowly lose your mind from people ignoring your Chinese and always answering you in English. The people in Yilan are far friendlier than the people in Taipei. The big disadvantage for me to living in Yilan was the miserable winters where you never see the sun, but Taipei is only marginally better in this regard. Also, most foreigners think the dating situation is better in Taipei, but I was never able to find a GF in either place, so I don’t have much experience with that.

If you’re doing the typical 600NT/hr buxiban teaching gig, you’ll have a much higher standard of living if you get an apartment overlooking Luodong Sports Park and eat locally than you would anywhere in Taipei.[/quote]

I’d agree with most of that. I’ve never lived in Taipei so can’t agree with all of it. I noticed that the original poster was after cleanliness which is hard to come by in Taiwan.

Not relative to China. In fact, Taipei was invited to some clean city expo in Shanghai as the Chinese think we have a very clean city and a great MRT.