Myth: Taiwanese people are polite and welcoming.
Nailed it: Food is cheap and life is convenient.
Pleasantly surprised: Theft and crime are very rare(although i did get an umbrella stolen once).
I’m sure they have reasons for not being particularly friendly, sure. I’m not confused by it, just pointing out that it is a thing.
Lack of alcoholism? Man, Taiwan ppl (especially uncle’s) drink uhh nder the table Koreans, Chinese and Japanese, given that the drink of choice here is either Kaohliang or whisky. And they chug it down during meals!
Anyways, for me
Myth: taiwanese food is not great. Not hating it, but far from being this mithical thing, quite sloppy, oily and bland most of the time. They really nail breakfast here for me, and the best dishes here are Taiwan versions of Chinese dishes, but only if cooked in a way that Taiwan people would call salty. Hence for me the best cuisine of Taiwan is hakka. Also Taiwan (especially Taipei) is not cheap at all to live well, In some instances getting close to HK and even Singapore prices (foreign foods and fancy bars)
Nailed: transportation, safety (not traffic), government services (as long as you can tick all the boxes), convenience in general. I would also put NHI, had really only once so far where had to get multiple times to different clinics to get sorted out for a bad case of diarrhea, then they always fixed me up efficiently and effectively.
Surprise: coffee here is good tending to amazing at times. And PIZZA IN TAIPEI IS GOOD! was blown away once I started to explore. Drinking more coffee here than in Italy.
Being a pretty young girl is kind of like playing life on easy mode isn’t it.
Not sure, dealing with unwanted predatory behaviour, expectation of having to do hours of beauty prep and makeup every day, and bleeding from your genitals sounds like a rough deal.
An obvious downside is having all sorts of attention from folks who may or may not be a good match or even a good person.
Thankfully I am unencumbered with this problem. 
Guy
I think the best is to be average looking as a guy or girl. Maybe slightly above average.
Good looking enough that looks don’t hurt you but you still had to learn to navigate through life without “beauty privilege”.
Yes, then you need to earn what you get.
It’s like short guys having to win over people with humour or wit. Ideally it ups their game.
Guy
Myth: Taiwanese food is cheap. Its expensive as all hell. Most people don’t know what taiwnaese food even is, they are used to foreign foods like Chinese, Japanese and American foods which are cheap. This was a learning curve for me.
Nailed it: No winters are fucking great! Also people with perpetual runny shit and live in a country without a winter tend to stay skinnier. Facts 
Pleasant surprise: Individuals in society actually have a voice and easy path to making governmental change. I assumed otherwise, now I feel Taiwan is probably a top leader in this sense. It’s amazing here (for citizens). I came from Canada and Taiwan far surpasses Canadian systems by leaps and bounds mostly in this regard.
I agree Taiwan is better than Canada in this regard. But the path(s) to change are not always “easy” as you put it. The case of Panai and her appeals to the national government over Indigenous land rights is a case in point. 2700 days and no progress!
Indigenous Puyuma singer and activist Panai, second left, her husband, artist Nabu, center, and indigenous filmmaker Mayaw Biho, second right, are pictured at a news conference on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. They announced they would stop camping at the 228 Peace Memorial Park after 2,700 days. They were protesting against the government’s regulation concerning traditional indigenous territories.
Guy
That’s an interesting point.
I feel like in Taiwan the government is one of the more functioning ones that seems to have the citizens interest. I feel like the taxes are fair in Taiwan for what the government does.
There’s still a strong sense of democratic values.
I should note, and I often do run my mouth on this point, Taiwan has serious issues. Deep issues. Issues we need to tackle. Where I am surprised is how readily and available the individual can be to make actual change here. Other nations should really take note before they just allow China to swallow us.
Frankly, I put it down to a bit of a small country thing. But anyone can be involved here. I mean citizens, obviously. We have true freedom and ability to do things. In this country. Foreigners are a different story, but in this threads context that’s irrelevant. I was truly shocked how able people here are able to have a voice and make actual change, very fast!
This is also why I’m a little sad about how many people now are so lazy and entitled and aren’t willing to even sacrifice not watching a TV show or play a game in order to better their community. I view it as a squandered opportunity. Thankfully there remain some people that care, and hopefully they keep standing up and voicing concerns. As Taiwan becomes more and more poor on the individual level, I see this issue exploding in the future. Either for good or bad, extremism will prevail.
Still better than where I was born though. By a lot.
Pray tell, what type of “TW” food are you referring to?
This one is a reason for sympathy, to be sure.
I disagree. I did not say there are no alcoholics here. Of course you get some drunken uncles and wasted teens. But I worked/lived in Seoul for 6 years and it’s waaaay more pervasive there. Like, pretty much every working stiff is a functioning alcoholic. It was not uncommon to see people in expensive business suits passed out on the sidewalk like homeless bums early in the morning, still sleeping off their binging from the night before. I was in my 20s, early 30s when I was in Korea and a pretty big partier back then and I couldn’t keep up with my middle-aged boss who would routinely invite me out to drown me in endless soju bottles until I would feel like vomiting into the plants.
I’ve lived in the USA, Australia, Taiwan, visited Ireland, England, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, NZ and other places known for liking the drink…. And I’m telling you, no one drinks like the Koreans.
Ask yourself how often you see vomit puddles on the sidewalk here. In Korea it was an almost daily occurrence.
Taiwanese food, you know, local. Aboriginal if you will. The common fare in taiwan is foreign, mostly Chinese and a lot of western and japanese. Different cuisine types, night and day.
Proper taiwanese food is expensive and labor intensive, hence why so many people erroneously call foreign food taiwanese, aka Chinese food, because it’s what’s common and more affordable.
The local meats (pig, deer, bear, monkey, hornet, cricket, shrimp, fish, crab and so on) are Michelin level fantastic. The local gegetable are also frigfen fatastic! Ferns, roots, yams etc. The spices and herbs are also pretty cool, albeit limited. As an example taiwan has an AMAZING sumac that nearly no one utilizes despite the plant actually being an invasive weed outside it’s native range! The litter fruit here have now hit foreign markets and even the wholesale prices are at 2k/600grams which is absurd. The Taiwanese food is spectacular, no denying it. It’s also expensive. If a person wants to say Taiwanese are greedy as all fuck and make quality food unavailable to the masses, I fully agree. But that is a different topic than flavor.
I was so surprised how good taiwanese food was once I got past all the cheap Chinese, American etc garbage.
Taiwanese food
Nope. The common fare is Chinese food.
I see ur point and I agree. Hence I asked the clarification. Aboriginal food with native ingredients it’s good and pricey since not widespread at all