Lotus Hill with Young Children?

We currently live in Singapore, but my husband travels quite frequently to Taipei on business trips. His company’s offices are located in Xizhi, and they would love it if he was there all the time. We have quite a sweet deal in Singapore (living with extended family, great medical care, live-in maid), but with a one year-old son and another baby coming soon we value our time together. Moving to Taipei after the second baby is born is something we are strongly considering.

Our biggest priority is living somewhere that makes it easy for our son to socialise with other children, and for me to not feel completely isolated with two children under the age of two. Someone on Parent Pages referred me to the thread here about Lotus Hill where I read through all 23 pages of it, but no one mentioned quality of life with children there. Do those of you who have children there enjoy it? What do you like or dislike about it?

If Lotus Hill is not the greatest place to live with very young children if you want to socialise with them, where else would you recommend? From looking through Parent Pages it seems as if all the playgroup/meet up types of activities are in the city or Tian Mu. Is there anything like that going on in Xizhi?

If we move to Taipei it will probably be in the summer, so finding a specific apartment is not a pressing issue. I am just trying to do as much research ahead of time as I can before my brain turns to mush due to lack of sleep.

i live near Academia Sinica which is about 10 minutes from Xizhi and about 20minutes from downtown Taipei city. Around that area there are plenty of communities that would be suitable for small children. Some are 5 story houses in the hills, quite big gated communities, others are flats (apartments).

Xizhi is cheaper and has a wide range of gated communities.

The best thing to do is come and have a look.

We live in Songshan District of Taipei. It’s very nice. Lots of trees, nice neighborhood parks, restaurants, shopping, public transport, 5 minutes from the riverside bike paths and grassy fields. We have a 5 year-old girl. I walk her one block to her nice, local kindergarten in the morning. In the afternoon, the school bus drops her off at our nanny’s house (a local lady who has cared for her since she was 2 months old), which is about 4 blocks from our house. I take a taxi to nanny’s house after work and walk home with her. She’s got lots of friends within a few blocks of our house and when we play in the neighborhood park she’ll inevitably run into a few of them.

Sure, it’s not all grassy with a pool, like Lotus Hill, but it’s very nice. In fact, I’ve lived in 4 apartments over the past 8 years in the same neighborhood, and I decided not to apply for a position with another company in Hsinchu because our present living environment is so nice and convenient.

Hi, I’ll weigh in here, since I’ve probably been living at Lotus Hill as long as any other foreigner if not longer. I’ve been here since 2002. When I first moved here, it was just me and my girlfriend, then we got married, then we had a kid, so now it’s the three of us, plus a dog. I still think Lotus Hill is uniquely groovy because of the quietness. No cars, no motorcycles, no buses. All the access roads are underground. [color=#BF0000]Click on the picture below, and you’ll see the notes that I’ve added to it.[/color]

With regards to kids, Lotus Hill is pretty good! There are mothers from all over the world here, but English is the most commonly spoken language. Vanessa (my wife) has a pretty good mommy network here, so she’d be happy to introduce you around. There are lots of foreign and mixed kids here, and it seems that China Airlines puts a lot of their foreign pilots and their families here too, so your family wouldn’t be out of place at all. You might also want to talk to the poster Sharky, who doesn’t post much since she moved to Singapore. Send her a PM and ask her what she thinks - her kids were toddler-ish when she and her husband lived here, and as far as I know they were pretty happy. Give us a call if and when you get here - I’ll be happy to show you around.

Anthony
0935-560-995

I can see your house from here!

Lotus Hill has a preschool within the complex that most of the young kids attend every day, so all the kids (and moms) have plenty of opportunity to socialize. There are also 4-5 Singaporeans living at Lotus Hill … not sure how many have kids.

Your husband works for a company in Xizhi … I’m guessing Garmin or Acer? No need reply … perhaps too personal for a bulletin board.

[quote=“Paniolo”]Your husband works for a company in Xizhi … I’m guessing Garmin or Acer?[/quote]Not Garmin or Acer actually. He works in that part of XiZhi which is just across from the Carrefour and the burnt out office building.

Neither one of us is actually Singaporean, I’m American and he is British. We have both been ex-pats as children with our parents and we are crazy enough to keep moving as adults. This time around with two such small children neither one of us feels the need to prove how hardcore we are by living somewhere with no foreigners. We are hoping to make things as easy on ourselves as possible.

There may only be 1-2 kids here below 2yrs who speak English … there are several who are a bit older. But I would just suggest the on-site preschool is a great place for your kids to learn Chinese. The teachers have a few foreign kids every year and they are good with them. We are also American and moved from Singapore in '07.

I know where your husband works … we all shop at the Carrefoure and Costco there. You simply won’t do better than Lotus Hill given his commute to work.

Vanessa just counted off by name about 15 kids under the age of 3 who are either foreigners or have a foreign parent. :idunno: Of course, under the age of 2, lots of kids don’t speak much of any language, including our own kid who seems to be content speaking in tongues! :laughing:

[quote=“Maoman”]Of course, under the age of 2, lots of kids don’t speak much of any language, including our own kid…[/quote]Don’t blame her. Nothing she can do about it. It’s a genetic thing. :wink:

marboulette

The preschool in Lotus Hill is nice, my five year old goes there and loves it. Yours will be to small though so I don’t think it’s an issue for you.

There is a nice indoor pool and kids playground and an outdoor playground where I’m sure moms congregate during the day with their kiddies so it shouldn’t be hard to meet people.

I don’t live in Lotus Hill but in the community next to it. I have three kids including a one year old and I co-ordinate the City Playgroup on Wednesdays so you are more than welcome to come over for a playdate or join us for playgroup.

Take care

Vanessa just counted off by name about 15 kids under the age of 3 who are either foreigners or have a foreign parent … [/quote]

Well, suffice to say Taiwanese define ‘foreigner’ rather loosely … I’ll be polite and leave it at that.

does anyone have a google map location of Lotus Hill, it sounds like a good place when we think about moving to a house.

Thanks

Edit - Before i get a barrage of abuse for not searching. I have now searched (all be it on Google) and found this link with a map on it.
wikimapia.org/1772984/Lotus-Hill … Shanzhuang

Vanessa just counted off by name about 15 kids under the age of 3 who are either foreigners or have a foreign parent … [/quote]
Well, suffice to say Taiwanese define ‘foreigner’ rather loosely … I’ll be polite and leave it at that.[/quote]
Vanessa defines it as someone with a foreign passport. Brazilians, Russians, Norwegians, Americans, Filipinos, Canadians, Germans, Australians, Ukrainians, Koreans, etc. How would YOU define it? I’m curious.

As Maoman said, we loved Lotus Hill. We moved there when my Son was just over a year old I was pregnant with my second child for the sole reason of the lifestyle it afforded. We are Americans and used to having places for the kids to be able to run around and play outdoors without having to go to a “special park” or be on the constant lookout for kids. While we were there we found lots of other young kids for Declan and Kiera to play with. While we both worked downtown we did not ever have to resort to car ownership (the shuttle was really handy) but had we stayed and the kids would now be at the American School (based on age) we would have gotten a car and driven the kids there. We have loved our life in Singapore, but I can say without a doubt that had we remained in taiwan we would still be at Lotus Hill.

Comparing Life Singapore to Lotus Hill (depends were you live here in Spore) but we have lived at Dairy Farm and Cashew Heights and Lotus Hill and they are very comparable. The only downside I would say is that many of the daily staples that you have come to be able to buy freely in Cold Storage for example are still luxuary items in Taiwan, so expect to pay more for processed American type snacks, cheese, good wine… but it is all available, you just need to suss them out. Lotus Hill will not be a luxury apartment like you find on Orchard, but the units are BIG compared to most apartments here and reasonably priced if you are not on a package. Think about getting closets though as I recall most did not have built ins…

All and all we loved the Lotus Hill apartments, the people we met there were great (in fact one person moved to Singapore about the same time as we did so it was fun to retain the connection). Looking at the picture Maoman posted brought a little sniffle and small tear of rememberance (OK not really) but it was a great place to live and I think you would like it.

If you want to contact me and talk (we are going to KK for the Christmas Hols) but will be back after Christmas Day, send me a PM and we can talk on the phone here in Spore.

Peace,

Kristy

Hi Kristy,

Welcome back. Nice to see your post. I hope you guys are surviving the financial crisis ok and enjoying life in Singapore.

Funny, I didn’t even know you lived on Lotus Hill back then. Actually, I didn’t know of Lotus Hill back then.

Happy holidays. :candycane: :santa: :candycane:

Yes, I’m sure you would enjoy arguing with me, but I will decline the invitation thank you. Like my grandfather used to say, “Wrestle with a pig and you’ll both get dirty … but only the pig will enjoy it.”

In a nutshell: I know better than to label people according to the color of their passport.

Yes, I’m sure you would enjoy arguing with me, but I will decline the invitation thank you. Like my grandfather used to say, “Wrestle with a pig and you’ll both get dirty … but only the pig will enjoy it.”

In a nutshell: I know better than to label people according to the color of their passport.[/quote]
WTF? So you wouldn’t label a person as British because they have a British passport? What about a Candian? Would a person with a Canadian passport not be described by you as Canadian? :laughing:
And why do you perceive Maoman’s question to be an argument? He just asked you to clarify what you mean.
The OP wants to know about Lotus Hill and about the likelihood of other foreigners living there. Vanessa names 15 kids off the top of her head with parents of nationalities such as Brit, US, Canadian, Ukrainian, Norwegian, etc., and you imply that these people are not really foreign.
You need to explain yourself if you don’t want to look like a complete dickhead.

That sounds really great. I have always managed to pick up mandarin really quickly on holidays to the mainland, and I have always forgotten it with no one around to reinforce it at home. My hope is to one day be able to read the Chinese menu well enough that I can have good Chinese food outside of Asia without always having to cook it myself.

Yes, I’m sure you would enjoy arguing with me, but I will decline the invitation thank you. Like my grandfather used to say, “Wrestle with a pig and you’ll both get dirty … but only the pig will enjoy it.”

In a nutshell: I know better than to label people according to the color of their passport.[/quote]
WTF? So you wouldn’t label a person as British because they have a British passport? What about a Candian? Would a person with a Canadian passport not be described by you as Canadian? :laughing:
And why do you perceive Maoman’s question to be an argument? He just asked you to clarify what you mean.
The OP wants to know about Lotus Hill and about the likelihood of other foreigners living there. Vanessa names 15 kids off the top of her head with parents of nationalities such as Brit, US, Canadian, Ukrainian, Norwegian, etc., and you imply that these people are not really foreign.
You need to explain yourself if you don’t want to look like a complete dickhead.[/quote]

I don’t think anyone looks like a dickhead, I actually get the point they were trying to make. Once people have been expats a long time things get kind of fuzzy. I often get told I don’t act like an American, which makes sense when you consider the fact that I left during my teenage years. My husband has not lived in the UK since he was two years old! We are still technically British and American but we find it hard to relate to people in our home countries when we go back because our experiences have been SO different.

That being said my parents and I get referred to as ‘Local Angmohs’ in Singapore because we have been here for over ten years and have Permanent Residence. We do not have Singaporean passports, no one in the family receives an expat package, and employers have to pay into our pensions so our local friends think of us as local instead of as foreigners.

It sounds like in Taiwan foreigners can never become local, is that true?