Shanghai or Taipei?

I have several friends who are claiming that Shanghai is the place to be now in Asia. They say that’s it’s a lot more modern than Taipei with a lot more opportunities in various fields(not just esl and business, but media and entertainment as well) and that there’s a much better club scene. A city that rocks a lot more than taipei.

I was there 3 and a half years ago and wasnt at all impressed with the city. I found it dirty, not too exciting, and the people to be-for the most part-rude and uncivilized. I don’t know, perhaps it has changed a lot since i was there last.

Has anyone spent some time there recently and agree with my friends’ testimonials? Do you think Shanghai is more happening than Taipei, and more livable?

thanks in advance

I prefer here. Shanghai’s full of country bumpkins, foreigners, and Taiwanese now. They’ll probably pull down the French Concession, too, soon - which was the only nice bit.

But Shanghai is the place to be if you think China is going to make you rich. It’s just that everyone and his wife thinks the same, and Shanghai is inundated with people looking for gold paving stones.

Very noisy. I mean Taipei is noisy, but Shanghai… never a second’s peace. Beer is even more expensive than here.

um… it depends what you want out of life

i found shanghai more like a roller coaster
it made me happy then depressed then happy etc

taiwan is more stable, people are more normal, and you can
save more money here. but, its a bit boring, for me at least

shanghai has more people who are not english teachers
i met all kinds of crazy people there, most of whom i didnt like
but at least they were interesting

if the question is - which is the place to be? the answer is definitely
shanghai. you may find you like taipei better though

I moved to Taipei from Shanghai and would always do it again. Shanghai is definitely more of a roller coaster, you might have a few more clubs, it’s easier to buy cheese and rye bread in the supermarket. And a few sights might be a little more stunning. The rest is basically as Hexuan has pointed out. And apart from people being easier to deal with here and not being stuck in traffic all the time, Taipei has something to offer that Shanghai never will: Places to get out of the city. If it’s important for you to see a little green once in a while without being stuck in down-town traffic jams for at least two hours and then either ending up in an industrial port or among dried-up rice paddies, I’d suggest to consider Taipei over Shanghai.

My 2 Cents
Iris

Interesting you guys mentioning this as I’ve been thinking of spending a year in China but then this issue comes up. I need to get out into the mountains on a regular basis. Where is China, that isn’t the sticks, can you live in a modern city and yet have such easy access to quiet mountain trails, swimmable rivers, and so on? I couldn’t bear to be stuck in an urban environment all the time. It would be like the year and a half I spend in Taoyuan. Never again.

my personal choice is Taipei, only because of what I have heard from other ppl of China.

The gap between poor and rich here is not as large as in China. Here ppl can still survive and have health insurance (if they have a job) and most ppl here are ok. Yet, I hear in China its really bad, and In Shanghai many poor ppl on the streets, which kinda will make u sad and feel down.

Up to you, it depends on ya personality but I would probably feel sad being surrounded with so much poverty and not like it there. I find the ppl in Taipei not as poor, so les likely to rob U or beg for ca$h, etc.

Interesting question. The only big cities in China that I’ve been to fairly recently are as mentioned Shanghai and Beijing (and Xi’an - but I suppose that’s not what you’re looking for). Beijing wouldn’t be your choice either I guess. It’s probably worse than Shanghai: dirtier, more bumpkins and much less glitz, horrible traffic, horrible pollution (we could hardly see the sun in the days we were there) and pretty unfriendly weather (sand storms anyone?) - I enjoyed the few days there, seeing everything again. But honestly, I don’t think I could live there (anymore - if spending lots of weekends there as a Tianjin student counts as living there).

I have no idea, but what about Guangzhou or something like that? Or Qingdao? That was quite nice the last time I was there (1997 :blush: ) and easy to get out off. But I’m not sure about how modern it is.

Iris

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ha ha ha!

Ha.

Heh.

Anyhow, there’s some hiking a couple hours north of Beijing around the Great Wall, but it’s a lot uglier and more inconvenient to get to than anything in NE Taiwan. I don’t know if Chengdu or Kunming would qualify as “not the sticks” for you, but there’s some nice scenery 5-10 hours outside of those cities. The only places in China I’d ever consider swimming in are Hainan island and maybe some streams in far western China.

I guess my question was even more outrageous than I thought. :wink:

My friend just came back from a one week visit to Shanghai. His opinion was that SH has leapfrogged Taipei and leaving it in the rear view mirror. If you’re one to like the city-life, diversity that comes with city-life, then Shanghai is the place to be. It is very dynamic and it has a lot more money than Taipei with the foreign investment dollars and companies pouring into there. Recently had a major golf tourney there (when was the last time Taipei hosted one?) and lots of pretty people go there. Taipei, you get people like Elton John dissing it. YMMV.

I went there a year ago, bigger KTV’s than in Shanghai, and the girls you pay for drinking with you also look good.

I would still say: Rude taxi trivers in dirty taxis, the centre looks modern, but you don’t need to get far away form that, before it’s dirty, poor and grimy.

Sure, the skyscrapers are fancier, as it’s a bit newer, but the overall “feel” of the city is that people on average are not as rich as here.

I would still say: Rude taxi trivers in dirty taxis, the centre looks modern, but you don’t need to get far away form that, before it’s dirty, poor and grimy.[/quote]

Wait, are we talking about Shanghai or Taipei :stuck_out_tongue:

My friend was in Shanghai a year ago too and with this trip, he saw the changes and it’s really changed a lot since then according to him.
To answer owl’s question, without knowing what one wants in a city, it’s hard to say which city is better than the other. Since I’m familiar and/or lived in the major cities of the US, London, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, my views of Taipei are going to be kind of unfairly skewed in terms of what I think city life ought to be. And city life is definitely not for everyone.

I think taiwan people overall are definitely more civilized and have better hygiene that people in Shanghai. Man I couldn’t stand all the spitting going on over there. I think the Shanghai the city itself has surpassed taipei definitely, but the people there are still some generations behind as to etiquette and courteously. I don’t like the constant haggling and arguing needed to not get ripped off in Shanghai.
But Shanghai is definitely nice in the sense that most things are dirt cheap. Chinese food was definitely better, 32oz bottles of beer for 6 RMB. Piracy runs rapid, dvd’s for 8 RMB. Massages for like 10 US. There’s a lot more Europeans which I loved, it’s almost like a mini Europe.

So I’d chose Taipei over Shanghai.