Not really true…The simple fact is that in days old much of Taipei was a mosquito infested swamp, and it was the Japanese, not the Americans, that established Tienmou as a place to escape the dirt, sweltering heat and disease that was once downtown Taipei.
It became a foreigners ghetto simply because the living standard was so low anywhere else. When I arrived mid-80’s there really weren’t that many foreigners really even in Taipei city. Getting western groceries meant a trip to Tienmou, and I, like many, found Taipei city back then simply unbearable, and headed for the the cooler temperatures of Tienmou, Peitou, Kuandu or Tamshui. If you were desperate back then you could live in Neihu, but it was considered back then to be the most blue collar of the northern Taipei suburbs.
Shilin was for English teachers who couldn’t afford digs in Tienmou proper, Taipei city was students, and you never, ever lived in Taipei county as simply one breath of air from that part of the Island could kill you on the spot. If you were poor and wanted to be out of the city, Shindian, Mucha or, as an absolute last resort, Pitan. Suburban neighborhood experiments ten years earlier meant that you could rent fantastical mansions in the boonies (outside of Tienmou) for next to nothing as the infrastructure to support them really didn’t exist.
The air in all the major cities was choked up by tens of thousands of 2 stroke, fume belching Vespas. Fewer than one in a hundred families had cars.
This thread was obviously started by somebody who hasn’t been here long…For me, and possibly all the other old timers, everytime I drive up Sinyi Road and see the 101 in the distance makes me in complete awe of the transformation Taipei city has make in cleanliness, infrastructure, and standard of living in less than one generation.
“This is the ugliest city skyline I’ve ever seen” That quote would be from me, whispering under my breath at the Grand hotel looking out over Taipei City, circa X-mas day, 1986.
