Moving back to Taiwan: should we?

Haven’t posted or looked at Forumosa for months. I guess it got old. But now I have a question I thought I’d throw out to the group:

Should my wife and I move back to Taiwan?

She (Taiwanese) and I (Canadian) have been here in Canada since 1999. Before that I spent about 6 years in Chiayi, where I met her. We’ve got a cool thing going here in an arty town in Southern Ontario with the nifty home office (translation) and the like, but sometimes we both feel like something’s missing: specifically, heat, noise, aggravation, earthquakes, the quirky expat community, etc. In short, we kinda feel bored. Actually, her more than me. I’m quite content here, but wifey is starting to have thoughts about moving back.

Questions:

  1. Work’s not an issue as email freelancers, and with the lower cost of living in Taiwan we’d be very well off indeed. The island would be our oyster. We don’t have kids. So where should we live?

  2. I’ve gotten into cycling in a big way here (road, definitely not mountain), and would like to ride every day for an hour or so, averaging about 35 km/h. Where’s the best area for this, d’you figure? I don’t particularly care about climbing, but would like to have the choice of a couple of 40-km routes.

  3. I’d like to keep our house in Canada, maybe pay a management company to rent it out for us. We’d also like to keep our investments. Does anyone have any experience with this or suggestions?

  4. We fled after 9-21 and 10-22: they really got to me. But during a subsequent visit back to Taiwan I experienced a couple of minor tremors and they didn’t bother me. Am I fooling myself, here? Am I setting myself up for a nervous breakdown? Is asking these questions much the same as answering them?

Why not get a vacation home in Taiwan?
Seems easier than to actually relocate if you are not sure yet.

Hi porcelainprincess. Nice to see your avatar again! Sadly, that’s the most useful thing I have to say, as I can’t answer #2 and #3 and you’ve already answered #4.

I do completely understand wanting to move back. Having lived in Southern California for the last 5 years and in the States for the last 7 (almost), I’d still jump at a chance to move back to Taipei for a similar-paying job. I miss the pace of life there.

Good luck with the decision!

[quote=“porcelainprincess”] Actually, her more than me. I’m quite content here, but wifey is starting to have thoughts about moving back.
[/quote]

This one is a worry. Maybe a 1 month stay here would start to give you more idea if wifey can settle back there. I travel all the time and the only thing I can guarantee is that the other country always looks better after a month.

[quote=“porcelainprincess”]1. Work’s not an issue as email freelancers, and with the lower cost of living in Taiwan we’ll be very well off indeed. The island would be our oyster. We don’t have kids. So where should we live?
[/quote]

Well, with the question of cycling in mind somewhere near Taipei that caters for cyclists.

You know what percentage of cyclists get knocked off by careless drivers. I won’t put myself out there very often. Mostly mountain bike work because there are almost no cars where I ride. Mountain climbs are fine once you set the correct gear and if you use a heart rate monitor you can work out the same level of intensity you are getting on the flat. I agree the flats are better. You get a more consistant work out, but is it worth the risk?

[quote=“porcelainprincess”]3. I’d like to keep our house in Canada, maybe pay a management company to rent it out for us. We’d also like to keep our investments. Does anyone have any experience with this or suggestions?

  1. We fled after 9-21 and 10-22: they really got to me. But during a subsequent visit back to Taiwan I experienced a couple of minor tremors and they didn’t bother me. Am I fooling myself, here? Am I setting myself up for a nervous breakdown? Is asking these questions much the same as answering them?[/quote]

Definitely keep the investments. As above, could you look at a month here first?

Earthquakes? I used to have an escape plan during each one and worried a little. I stayed in bed for the last one recently and even forgot to mention it to the SO when I got up.

The little arty town sounds great. I’ll swap.

[quote=“Ironman”][quote=“porcelainprincess”] Actually, her more than me. I’m quite content here, but wifey is starting to have thoughts about moving back.
[/quote]This one is a worry. Maybe a 1 month stay here would start to give you more idea if wifey can settle back there. I travel all the time and the only thing I can guarantee is that the other country always looks better after a month.[/quote]
She’s goes back to Taiwan every year for a couple of weeks at a time, and is always extremely happy to be back here in Canuckleland when I pick her up at the airport in Toronto. Problem is, her last trip back was now two years ago. Maybe it’s just a question of having a nice visit back?

[quote=“Ironman”][quote=“porcelainprincess”]1. Work’s not an issue as email freelancers, and with the lower cost of living in Taiwan we’ll be very well off indeed. The island would be our oyster. We don’t have kids. So where should we live?
[/quote]Well, with the question of cycling in mind somewhere near Taipei that caters for cyclists.[/quote]
What about air quality, though? I rode bike for a whole year in Chiayi, and I’m certain it did permanent damage to my lungs. And that was when I was simply riding to the bushiban and back–very different from the kind of riding I do now.

Yeah, this is the age-old debate between MTB’ers and roadies…the MTB’ers figure it’s better to be taken out by a tree stump than f**ked up the arse by a cement truck. Thing is, I currently live in a town of 30,000 with rolling farm fields all around. It takes three minutes to get out to pleasant roads which are just about completely empty at 2:00 pm. Which is freakin’ nirvana in July when it’s 30 degrees (honestly, it’s heavenly), but this is still Canada: I may be in the warmest part of Canuckleland, but I’m inside on the trainer for four months of the year, and the winter bookends, mid-October to mid-November and mid-March to mid-April, are touch and go months weather-wise. In effect, you get six months of great riding, and six months where you wished you lived in a Mediterranean climate. Like in Sydney. Or Spain.

I’m a bit obsessed. By the way, I’m not comparing going up mountains with riding along flat stretches, but rather wide-tired shock-absorbered mountain bikes (MTBs) i.e.:

with the very elegant type of bike the guys in the Tour de France ride, meaning road bikes, i.e.:

Meaning, in other words, that I’m one of those wankers in lycra shorts hunched over so that my chin rubs against the front tire.

[quote=“Ironman”][quote=“porcelainprincess”]3. I’d like to keep our house in Canada, maybe pay a management company to rent it out for us. We’d also like to keep our investments. Does anyone have any experience with this or suggestions?

  1. We fled after 9-21 and 10-22: they really got to me. But during a subsequent visit back to Taiwan I experienced a couple of minor tremors and they didn’t bother me. Am I fooling myself, here? Am I setting myself up for a nervous breakdown? Is asking these questions much the same as answering them?[/quote]Definitely keep the investments. As above, could you look at a month here first?

Earthquakes? I used to have an escape plan during each one and worried a little. I stayed in bed for the last one recently and even forgot to mention it to the SO when I got up.

The little arty town sounds great. I’ll swap.[/quote]
Maybe we need to try a month first. Or at least a trip back. That’s probably the ticket. As for the swap, how would you like to spend a month or two here in winter? It’s a winter wonderland, and there’s not really a heckuva lot to do unless you’re into snowmobiles or cross-country skiing (not my thing–maybe yours?), but it’s not so bad. Actually, that would really be ideal, having someone look after our house and cats for January and February every year. That would be really cool.

I think this quote below emailed by a friend of mine who went back a while ago says it all.

Air qaulity is my number one reason for wanting out of this shithole eventually. Sure it is a beautiful Island. It just doesn’t happen to be beautiful where most of us live (Exception being Satellite Tv in Alishan and he has to talk like a machine gun when he meets an expat after being locked up there for any period of time).

You could consider Yang Mei and Yan Gwan Shan Lin for the same reasons I’m here.

Gated community.
Large cheap houses.
Quiet leafy streets.
ABOVE THE WORST OF THE POLLUTION.
Hundreds of km’s of paved biking trails just outside the door through tea fields and down to the flats and rice paddies and you don’t need a mountain bike. You ride 15 minutes down to the the river flats and can then do quiet roads for 10’s of km’s. You then climb the mountain again for 40 minutes.
50 minutes by car on the number 1 or 3 freeway to Taipei outside peak hour driving times.
12 minutes by car to Starbucks and I need a dose of the west most days. Not that Starburn is great coffee. Just a little bit more like home for a while.

Yeah, come over. Breath some shit air for a month then feel glad you can get out again. I just got my ARC after 5 years here. Don’t I sound like a happy resident. :wink:

Taipei and Taipei County have 200km of bike trails along the rivers. No danger of getting hit by a car.

The air quality has dramatically improved since 1999. And as you know, almost all air pollution in the north is from cars. So get out in the morning for a ride, or later at night, and you’ll be fine.

Here is Mucha I often go for a ride around 10 pm. I get on the dikes, ride out to the zoo, then through the university up the ring road (good workout to the top) and back home along the dikes. I go out for an hour or so and I am on the road with cars for 1 minute (and that’s just riding to the dike). The air is fresh, and I am surrounded by trees and flowers and the sounds of crickets and owls.

[quote=“Ironman”]You could consider Yang Mei and Yan Gwan Shan Lin for the same reasons I’m here.

Gated community.
Large cheap houses.
Quiet leafy streets.
ABOVE THE WORST OF THE POLLUTION.
Hundreds of km’s of paved biking trails just outside the door through tea fields and down to the flats and rice paddies and you don’t need a mountain bike. You ride 15 minutes down to the the river flats and can then do quiet roads for 10’s of km’s. You then climb the mountain again for 40 minutes.
50 minutes by car on the number 1 or 3 freeway to Taipei outside peak hour driving times.
12 minutes by car to Starbucks and I need a dose of the west most days. Not that Starburn is great coffee. Just a little bit more like home for a while.[/quote]
Where do you think I could find some photos of these areas? And I’m not too familiar with Taipei overall…what’s the Chinese for those two places you mention (for to facilitate a Google search, like)?

What about going somewhere new, if location is not an issue, and the world is your oyster? HK and Singapore are both quake free and closer to home for your Mrs. They also offer a nice half way point between 1st and 2nd world.

Good question. Thing is, yes, we could live virtually anywhere in the world we wanted to, but we’re drawn to places with family–Canada and Taiwan. At the moment, anyway. You see, we’ve only just become somewhat flush financially over the last couple of years, and then we went and bought a house with our newly stable income, so we don’t have great stockpiles of cash on hand at the moment. Maybe we will seek out other options. Hard to say.

But right now my wife misses Taiwan. I do, too, though I’m not sure if I miss it enough to actually want to live there again. Do I? Hmm…

[quote=“Ironman”]


[/quote]

Ignore the idiot on the bike. This at least gives you an idea. Front door of my house and another picture just up the way.

Looks pretty nice. I’ll have to do some research on the area.

may i ask… are you planning on having kids anytime soon? i find at the mo i am super bummed on taiwan. i too am an avid cyclist but work doesnt see me home til late and with anewborn bub in the picture, my cycling opps are very limited.

i love taiwan and we live in the mountains so we have clean air and quiet and this is kind of waht you have now yeah? if i were single and had my own timetable re work i would live in the xinyi district. from here you can access quiet mountain roads for training and get to some of the river paths for the flats. that said, road riding in taiwan is super dangerous. bombing down a DH trail in the forest is safer.

its a tough one… you want to keep the good bits of where you are (riding, clean air etc) but you miss the madness of here. if you moved to taipei you would get the madness but not the good bits… and if you say moved to the mountains it would be the opposite…

[quote=“porcelainprincess”]2. I’ve gotten into cycling in a big way here (road, definitely not mountain), and would like to ride every day for an hour or so, averaging about 35 km/h. Where’s the best area for this, d’you figure? I don’t particularly care about climbing, but would like to have the choice of a couple of 40-km routes. [/quote]East coast definitely. There’s a choice of two long flat routes – the coastal road or the rift valley road. If you lived in either Hualian or Taidong you could reach both these routes without any mountain riding.

However, if boredom’s a problem, the east coast might not be ideal. And of course earthquakes and typhoons tend to be more intense there.

Ewww! Just say no to AsiaLite. SIN might be better since you don’t get as much bridge and tunnel.

[quote=“AWOL”]may i ask… are you planning on having kids anytime soon? i find at the mo i am super bummed on taiwan. i too am an avid cyclist but work doesnt see me home til late and with anewborn bub in the picture, my cycling opps are very limited.

i love taiwan and we live in the mountains so we have clean air and quiet and this is kind of waht you have now yeah? if i were single and had my own timetable re work i would live in the Xinyi district. from here you can access quiet mountain roads for training and get to some of the river paths for the flats. that said, road riding in taiwan is super dangerous. bombing down a DH trail in the forest is safer.[/quote]
Kids aren’t a part of the equation for us. And I do get busy translating, but I force an hour or two per day into my schedule for riding. I certainly wouldn’t want to ride anywhere with a lot of traffic, that’s for sure, especially when getting up to speeds of 50 km/h or more on slight declines with a tailwind. I think I’ve gotten a bit spoiled with the traffic-less country roads around here!

I’m afraid I don’t understand a word of what you’ve said here. Care to explain?

Muzha sounds the ideal place for you, except we got too much rain here.

We have a bicycle route along the river, which is allegedly extended to Tamshui. I never try that but I did jogging along the river all the time. That should be a nice place. Plus, if you live right next to the campus, the surrouding is just green.

however, it is a bit far from central Taipei.

Or, you can think of Nantou county. Particularly Zhong Xing Village. That was the old Provincial government capital but now it is just a bunch of offices with a park alike town. I think you would like it.

Currently living in nantou, but both places make me feel comfortable. However, I prefer the latter more since we literally are living right next to a huge PARK. GREEN, GREEN, and nothing but GREEN.( sounds like I am one of those pan-green politicians…:P) And Riding a Bicycle in the town would be alright. Also, considert accessiblity to the mountain area, I think this is idea here. Plus, if you do have a car, Taichung city is 40 mins away.

Three years on, three years off. That’s what I do.

Lord Lucan wrote [quote]Three years on, three years off. That’s what I do.[/quote]
Um. Is this a warning or a suggestion?

Are you crazy? Go somewhere nice.