Oldtimers: Any posters live as an adult in Taiwan before me?

Simply because Taiwan is evolving to what we left. Oldest one in Taiwan, quite a few for Asia. George Arthur Baker, canning industry, moved to S-pore in 59. Did Twn, Chi, HK, and back to S-pore. Oldest one I see on a daily basis, Hsinchu Dik, around 20 yrs. But 8 years ago, he taught me verbally a great lesson. Never think you have been here long enough, to tell people “how long you have been here”.

I would have thought someone living in Taiwan before me was posting. Christ, I can’t be the oldest expat posting. Tell me it isn’t true. I’m not that old!!!

Expats stay for some time and then return.

There are max 20 foreigners on this island, who have stayed here since before 1965.

I know one of them, but no, he’s 90 and does not have internet access.

Today makes 19 years for me.

[quote=“oldhand”]July, 1976 first arrival for me, lived here ever since…arrived on the same plane as Bob King and if you know who he was, we probably know each other.
[/quote]
I knew Bob King. He was a newspaper reporter for one of the syndicates as I recall . . . . . at near the end of his stay here he was involved in some sort of accident and sued the government under the terms of the “National Compensation Law” . . . . . .

Are we speaking of the same person?

Hello Richard, very long time no see (explained later). In regards to Bob King, he was a stringer for the Asian Wall Street Journal and the London Times. I’m sad to inform you that he passed away, I believe about 10 years ago due to cirrhosis of the liver attributed to excessive alcohol consumption and hepatitis…it was a very sad day for all who knew him…one of the best foreign journalists of the day.

Richard, you may or may not recall many years ago that you and I were hired as training consultants by Taiwan Plastics to prepare their first team of execs who were on their way to the U.S. to open their first U.S. plant, I believe in Texas. I recall vividly you and I having dinner with Wang Yung-ching in his top level mansion. Do you remember the size of the coffee table and drinking expensive Scotch as if it were water?

Well, it’s good to know that you are still kicking and kicking ass on behalf of so many…wish I could claim to have done as much…kudos to you.

  • Dave Marino

I remember that dinner very well. As I recall, your Chinese language skills disappeared after the first few drinks of hard liquor . . . . . but I guess you are much more fluent now. We should get together for a coffee or dinner sometime. Email me.

Congratulations. :notworthy: :loco: :notworthy:

I have a couple of questions for the “Old Timers”:

  1. How was the air quality back in the 70’s and 80’s compared to now? (Worse, better, or the same?)

  2. How about the crazy way that most Taiwanese people drive, completely ignoring all common sense notions of “right of way”? Is it any better nowadays than it used to be or is it worse?

Mark

And Sunday was 18 years for me.

I actually think Taiwanese driving now is pretty civilized, at least compared with what it used to be. And I speak as one who rode a motor scooter for 15 years and has driven a car for a year. It is MUCH slower than it used to be. Time was when anything less than 80kph on any urban street was regarded as waaaaay too slow. There is simply more traffic, which slows things down, and people do obey the traffic regs better. I particularly notice this in things like using turn signals. Some of you might not know that at a Taiwanese driving school you are never taught to use you turn signals because you cannot lose enough points by not doing to make any difference to whether you pass the test or not. But the police have started booking people for not using them and it is getting better. One thing I can say is that if they enforce the law people do slowly start obeying it. I never thought that people would pay attention to the helmet law when it came in, but they started fining non-users and now in Taipei compliance is pretty much 100 percent.

Incidentally, the first m/bike I ever had in Taiwan was a Sanyang 80 I bought off Wolfie. Second time out it caught fire outside the National Art Museum. There’s a moral in that somewhere.

Don’t know about recently, but from 1965 up thru 1980 the number of 2 stroke motorcycles increased so dramatically that the air was blue in the large cities like Taipei, Tainan, and Kaoshiung. Couldn’t hardly breathe and a mask didn’t help much.

Traffic used to be a lot slower in the 60’s than in 1980. With 2000 bicycles and pedicabs thrown into the mix the traffic was SLOW in the towns. Drivers did not pay any attention to the few traffic signals back then either. Didn’t matter if the light was red, if there was an opening the drivers would head for it and drive on through. Also, the taxi’s would drive for maximum economy: up to 3 mph in 1st, 5 mph in 2nd, 8 mph in 3rd, and was shifted into 4th at about 10mph, lugging the engine and bucking like a wild horse the whole time. :laughing:

Helmut law :laughing: None , nada, zilch except for US military.

Family of five on a motor scooter or motorcycle. Three of my brother-in-laws did this. :laughing:

On the other hand, the air quality was not too bad in the countryside and the small villages except for the open benjo ditches, the honey wagons, and the giant piles of garbage containing everything under the sun that would rot alongside the roads that the farmers would spread on their fields when it wad sufficiently decomposed. Tak about gagging with a spoon! :laughing: :laughing:

The family ona scooter thing can still be observed in the countryside.

Up in the mountains, the locals arent too keen on using helmets as well. Also have a lot of cars and scooters with underage drivers and no license plates up there.

Ahh, the rotary shift system of the Sanyang. My view, air is getting better as is the envrionment. Long way to go, but moving in the right direction. Apparently they shipped everything to Malaysia, but they are shipping it back now, so that may change. Driving… Best way to blind a Chinese person is by putting a windshield in front of them. As far as I know, that has yet to change,