Taipei 101 is not really downtown. We mean Taipei Main Station. maybe Songshan is not that comfy.
You haven’t told us what are a of New Taipei your acquaintances live. That may help. You need a hotel just for a few days. If you are staying several months Airbnb or a B&B is better.
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if the big one hit while Hilary was visiting us? Liquefaction could happen anywhere in the Taipei basin, no way of predicting that. The only building to collapse in recent earthquakes was an old hotel on Chengde Road. So avoid old hotels.
If you really want to know…
https://liquid.tgos.tw/TGOSimpleViewer2/Web/Map/TGOSimpleViewer_Map.aspx
But seriously, for a visit don’t even waste time thinking about it. Perhaps hold off buying that investment property in coastal Yunlin county.
If this isn’t the Chicken & Waffles of thread titles, I don’t know what is.
As is known, the hotel on Chengde went down purely as a result of the bank that occupied the main floor taking out several load bearing pillars in order to increase their glass fronted acreage.
The sort of malfeasance that Tía already mentioned.
It should be pointed out that the Nervous in the Service poster @Hilary has more chance of a piano falling on her (one assumes gender) and squishing her like Wile E Coyote than she does suffering damage to life and limb from any eathquakiness that may occur.
Thanks for all the useful information. The liquefaction map looks like a great reference!
Well so far the best hotel deals I found (for the initial period at least) are in Xinyi and Daan.
I’m still not sure where/if I will be staying with the relatives in New Taipei, but they seem to be in various places and maybe central Taipei is the closest cross-roads to all those points.
Is New Taipei actually a bit quieter in terms of crowd?
Depends on the area. Like Yunghe was second only to Bangladesh in terms of density of population per square meter…
Xinyi and Daan might be a bit expensive, but as said central location is worth it. Try something close to the MRT. Plenty of those say Fuxing road. Better along blue line, not brown BTW.
I finally arrived in Taipei. It’s definitely much greener and less crowded than my expectations from reviews/forums. Maybe because I already live in a major city so nothing much different…
I was extensively viewing some short term apartments and most were really old and dusty, but there was one really new and good one in the Jingan/Zhonghe area. The only concern: it’s built right on top of the MRT station. Is that what qualified as unsafe construction?
Welcome! You got here on a nice weather weekend. Enjoy. Go out and have fun.
Nope. But that area is as crowded as one can get. Welcome to New Taipei City!
And those apartments on top of the MRT are usually overpriced, though locals do not like them as they have no land ownership rights -which does not affect you.
‘old and dusty’ is the nature of most buildings here. I wouldn’t worry about it too much - the vast majority of them are structurally sound, they’re just ugly. You’re living on the inside of the building, remember.
I really wouldn’t get a place literally on top of an MRT (the noise will drive you crazy) although I used to live very near there and quite liked it.
Any updates? How’s Taipei treating you?