Does anyone live in a house in Taoyuan County (specifically Daxi) and commute to Taipei? Any comments on life there?
Life in Taipei isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, I’m finding. Besides breathing in grimy air all day long and being almost killed by bus drivers on a daily basis, I never have a chance to speak or improve my Mandarin (let alone Taiwanese!). I’m hoping a move to the countryside will change these things.
One of my best friends lived there for a while. He complained about the rude hicks, lack of good supermarkets/restaurants and isolation. And watch out for the crazy man who crawls on the ground and spits on people. On the other hand, if you ever wanted a place with access to good hiking trails, cheap rent, and where no one speaks any English, Daxi is your place. There is a direct bus to Taipei, and it takes about 1-1/2 to get there.
P.S. I think I used to have the cassette single for that song–Peaches, right?
IF you have a car, doesn’t the new tunnel make it like 40 minutes or something??
haha. yep: Presidents of the United States of America. I thought it was fitting, since Tao=peaches. :+)
Commuting will drive you nuts, very very quickly.
haha. yep: Presidents of the United States of America. I thought it was fitting, since Tao=peaches. :+)[/quote]
They may have covered it but the Stranglers version is the best.
Inland Daxi not the coastal one.
Are you not thinking of Daxi in Yilan county there, Chieftain?
The Daxi in Taoyuan is close to the Shimen dam. Long road full of used car lots, but also hills and farms away from the main drag. Not much surf, though.
Are you not thinking of Daxi in Yilan county there, Chieftain?
The Daxi in Taoyuan is close to the Shimen dam. Long road full of used car lots, but also hills and farms away from the main drag. Not much surf, though.[/quote]
Well, what the jeez is the point of having two of the fucking things??
“I’m moving to Perth.
You mean Perth on the whole 'nother side of Australia, or Perth, the suburb of Sydney?
I haven’t decided which yet…”
How about moving to a house in the hills in Xindian, got a few friends up there, although I guess it’s a bit more expensive unless you’re lucky.
Plenty houses around here maps.google.com.tw/maps?f=q&sour … 5&t=h&z=16
Could longevity in Taipei and residency in Xindian, esp. sunny Bitan, be highly correlated?
The answer is
yes.
IMO Xindian beats Taoyuan 100:1.
Bitan sucks. You really don’t want to live there.
Daxi has the best do-gan in Asia, so you got that going for you. And you’re close to the Chiang/Sun statue park.
I’d seriously buy a car if I was out there however.
Where in Taibei are you living now, ichbinjenny? Not all areas are equal.
DaXi is a beautiful area, it was much loved by the Japanese who used it as their summer holiday resort and later by CKS and Co (hence you can see the no.7 road is very unusual, it actually has a pavement running alongside large parts of it!). There are lots of small coffee shops catering to the tourist trade.
There are other nice areas out there, Longtan is a great spot too. There are quite a few ‘hippy’ type foreigners living out there getting it on with nature! It’s easy to go up to ShiMen reservoir and get lost in the hills.
The area around Fulong is really splendid at they say, I was out there recently and it is quite serene in some of the surrounding valleys and there are lots of bike paths and more facilities these days. You could commute on the train. Quiet place of course. I wouldn’t recommend Keelung city etc though as weather is atrocious although I do know there are quite a few foreigners living out that way these days, it’s a quick ride on the no.3 motorway into Taipei.
I’m on An He Rd, just a stone’s throw away from Carnegies. The location is quite desirable, I will never complain about my current location. The reason I want to move is because of air quality, space, and language.
Daxi’s dogan and douhua are stellar…as are the bikeways. There is talk about temporarily moving in with a friend’s sister in Daxi, which is in close proximity to her grandma’s aboriginal-style home (those three-sided houses) with a duck farm out back…where I MIGHT be able to stay. But who want’s to live with a friend’s grandma, right? :+)
Add this all to the fact that one day I would love to have a tea house where Taipei-ren can come and relax.
My lease isn’t up for a good many months, but I want to consider my options before the date. I might just stay in my current place, as long as my landlady doesn’t go under anytime soon (as it seems a number of landlords are doing lately!).
The air is no better in Daxi than in Taipei, most days, and is sometimes worse. But you will learn more Chinese by necessity.
Yup. If you’re in town in Daxi you won’t notice much difference in air cleanliness except at the weekend, when it’ll be MUCH worse than Taipei. Very, very grimy little shithole of a town to be sure.
If you’re further out away from the unregulated, unpoliced built-up area it’ll probably be nicer, but I’d find the complete isolation to be a bit of a pain.
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]How about moving to a house in the hills in Xindian, got a few friends up there, although I guess it’s a bit more expensive unless you’re lucky.
Plenty houses around here maps.google.com.tw/maps?f=q&sour … 5&t=h&z=16[/quote]
I’m actually planning on doing this. I love the atmosphere there and it’s right in the mountains. Is there a specific area I should look? Is there any difference in price between there and taipei?
Couldn’t really tell you, sorry, but there are a few local estate agents, we talked to one up there, but they showed us a horrible place. We didn’t end up moving to that area in the end as it was a bit too expensive for us, but it’s a pretty nice area.