I’ve been accepted for the Gold Card and plan to head to Taiwan this September!
But I haven’t actually been to Taiwan in five years. I was never meant to be away this long, but things kept delaying my return (such as the two-year pandemic) and I think this has probably caused me to unrealistically hype Taiwan up in my mind.
Most of my friends either left or are now married with children and won’t be up for mad nights out or weekend hikes anymore, a bunch of new lines have opened on the MRT, the pandemic has taken its toll and there aren’t any foreign tourists, tensions with China have escalated… What other changes should I expect?
I don’t feel that very much has changed in the last five years (I arrived about six years ago), with the obvious exception of the COVID-related shit. I wouldn’t expect that many differences.
Edit: before some indignant defender of the nation pops up, I realise borderline useless phone apps are a worldwide phenomenon. But junk, “one purpose” A-P-Ps have become particularly popular here over the last few years. Use our clunky dog slow app to order your food in advance and save 5NT!
well food ordering has changed (as it has everywhere). Instead of taking the huge effort of driving scooter on front of your apartment to front of a noodle store now you just sit on your couch and order. Somehow it makes it actually harder to pick what you want (maybe just me, too many options…).
This also means your waste amount increases by quite a bit as things do come well packaged but with a cost to the environment.
for other things.
Contactless payments work everywhere, including foreign cards with good percentage as well as apple pay etc. At one point Taiwan was somewhat behind the curve here, not anymore
There are finally electric scooters that actually are usable but still very far behind for example to China on this aspect
China political situation is probably somewhat more tense than it was 5 years ago.
More actually good coffee options (not Starbucks)
Driving down east cost on both ends is much better
you will see this clock guy everyday at 2pm and somehow even though you don’t care you ended up watching his show.
