Six Months in Taichung

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Sometime in January after the paper work is complete I will be going to Taichung for about six months. Work location will be in Changhua Coastal Industrial Park. The company will be providing a furnished apartment, not sure about location.

I do have a few questions.

Any good Korean Restaurants? Got to have my Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap and Kalbi fix.

Phone service to the US. Need a reasonable priced and reliable way to call back once or twice a week for personal calls. Would also like to have a number where people can call me.

Western TV channels. Is there a cheap way to watch western TV? I don’t watch a lot of TV but sometimes it is nice to have.

Anything that I must see or do while in Taiwan?

Also, how much money per day would it take to cover meals and other basic expenses? I would like to get by on 50 USD per day.

2

Taichung or Changhua? There’s a big difference.

Oh yeah, and pick up a tour guide. That will answer almost all of your questions.

3

I’m sure you’ll get more than by on US $50 a day.

4

Cool, that is good to know.

5

[quote=“ichbinjenny”]Taichung or Changhua? There’s a big difference.

[/quote]

They are telling me Taichung but I am still dealing with the folks state side. Will know more when I get past HR and start to talk with the people already there.

6

If they want you to live close to the Changhua industrial park, refuse. There is nothing out there - a couple of small villages and that’s about it. And the place is usually empty on weekends - I sometimes cycle out that way (from Changhua city - 50-60km round trip) and the roads are deserted on a Saturday/Sunday. Good for cycling though - big wide roads with nobody on them.

7

Others have already mentioned it, but be very careful about Taichung vs Changhua Industrial park… One is just barely passable to decent and the other is a rank industrial sh*thole in which even a 6 month sentence is way too long…

Korean places all over Taichung, or more accurately Taiwan… Taiwanese tend to mostly go for Korean style BBQ more than anything and like most foreign cuisine in Taiwan, you’re more likely to get a Taiwanese twist on a Korean dish since authenticity is a low priority… I’m no expert on Korean food mind you…

Easy enough, if you’re only staying 6 months your company should set you up with a phone line since I doubt you’d be able apply to get one yourself with a 6 month work visa… Could be wrong though depends on what kind of visa you have, but again if you can, make the company set this up since the entire system in Taiwan is geared around having a National ID card, which are categorically not issued to foreigners…

[quote]Western TV channels. Is there a cheap way to watch western TV? I don’t watch a lot of TV but sometimes it is nice to have[/quote].
CNN, Discovery, Nat Geo, Travel & Living, Animal Channel, HBO, Star Movies, AXN, and a few other English channels are on cable TV which is fairly cheap and universally present in Taiwan… Again, it’d save you a lot of needless hassle if you can get your company set this up for you… Couple of reasonably priced Satellite TV options too if the tube is important to you…

If you’re living in central urban Taiwan, you really owe it to yourself to check out the East coast just so you realize the whole island isn’t a filthy, run down, quasi-industrial shithole… The parts of Taiwan where the people are the fewest are by far the best for reasons that will be obvious to you as soon as you arrive… Some parts of the East coast and outlying islands are spectacularly good…

Depends on you lifestyle, but US$50 = NT$1640 per day which you could easily live large on… A Coke is NT$25, Large Starbucks NT$80, Big Mac Meal NT$125, Beer in a hip bar NT$150, Movie NT$250, Al la Carte dinner NT$400, USDA Prime Steak meal in fancy restaurant NT$800 and up… You can live without a second thought at NT$1000 per day in Taichung… You could be paying food, gas, utilities and rent out of NT$1640 per day and still have change…

Like cfimages said above, if you can live in Taichung city, do so… It’ll come at the price of having to drive to Changhua every day, which will be shite, but nowhere near as shite as living in the Changhua Industrial Zone…

8

Changhua Coastal Industrial Park is about 1-1.5 hour drive away from Taichung. Furnished apartment is a very uncertain term in Taiwan. I’d definitely would want a location as being stuck in say, Lunwei, would really suck.

Taichung should have it, but Taiwanese are more geared for Korean hotpot, bbq and kimchi. Changhua would have these in only the most loosest and unhygienic form, Trust me I live down the way from a “Korean” restaurant in Changhua.

Hard, pain in the ass, but doable

Cable should have enough, but I tend to download anything new as I’d have to tolerate it it with my screaming baby, at least a year old and cut scenes otherwise.

Like Plasmatron said, East Coast, the islands, and generally any place without Taiwanese people. If you are single, I’d suggest whoring it up. Place an ad on www.tealit.com now for your local long-haired dictionary, make sure she has a car. The others on this board are too prudish to suggest that thing, but you should at least experience some benefits of being an expat.

This is a hard one to answer depending on your location, $50US a day in Changhua is a fortune because you have no where to spend it. In Taichung, it’s a nice life but tight on the weekends. You also don’t know your transportation situation. Will you have to commute to the work site or live close to it.

There is a huge difference between Changhua Coastal Industrial Park and Taichung and if I were you I would focus more on where you will be living, exactly where you would be working and the logistics of it all. Try to get some one to post a map and show you the 2 different locations with a legend.

9

Guys,

Thanks for the good info. Sounds like I need to push some more on aprtment location and setup. Looking at the park loaction on Google Earth it does not look like much. But I am used to working in those kinds of areas. At least its not a man camp I did that for one job and we could not leave the camp, at least that was a short job.

Over all sound like $50 should cover. I don’t live to large, in other parts of Asia I mostly ate from street vendors getting a real meal once or twice a week. The company is paying more for expenses but I would like to save up for a big weekend perhaps a weekend in Manila.

I will definalty check out the other parts of the island.

10

Plasmatron and Okami, thank God you guys found this thread before Sandman did. Powerplantop, you’ve got some great, well-considered advice. Sandman would have told you that the C.C.I.P. is a combination of Venice, Italy, and Waikiki, with a view of the Alps, the only downside being the lack of humidity in summer.

11

Guys once again thanks for taking the time to help me out. But I am still stuck on a project in TX and will not be able to take the project in Taiwan.

I just wanted to post a thank you and not leave you guys hanging.