I’m Italian American and I moved here from Japan. I lived in all 3 countries before coming here. The air was significantly better than Taiwan. Comparing it to other worse off countries doesn’t make it better. Pollution is pollution. My asthma didn’t reappear until I moved to Taiwan.
FIFY
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Another “ rare “ day of pollution . 139 here but Changhua down the road is 161😱
Hope youre enjoying it! Ill stick with my 30 and blue skies. Its fine for me not being able to buy everything within 5 minutes 
Chunghua is a special place. Most likely one of the least desirable places to live imo.
Dulan and Taitung are awesome. No need for masks here to keep out particulate matter. The mountain ranges keep all the crap from China and the west coast of Taiwan from reaching us here
Great news. Are they re-naming them Taichung ? I have spent time in Taitung and on the East coast , it is great , but also not good in typhoons and a bit boring , unless you like hiking or cycling etc.
Was in Vietnam a while back. North Vietnam now has pollution similar to China…Ho Chi Minh City also pretty bad from vehicle exhaust
Typhoons, work and convenience of shopping are the only things people have to say negatively about Taitung. Its funny.
Typhoons: your house should be strong enough anyway in taiwan. Its a non issue. Actually its just wind on the east, west coast, especially the south, gets far more crazy rain. So people shouldnt go out in a typhoon anyway, maybe eastern folk are just wiser and stay inside…
Boring: probably also an education thing. If hotpot and shopping malls are the cornerstone of a happy life…no wonder the west coast is in the shape it is. All the more reason not to come here to the east, we dont want that here 
Outdoor activities: isnt one of the biggest complaints about people now a days that they are stuck to a screen and useless? Here you are outdoors, enjoying life with other people of relatively high moral structure and living life. The folk in taitung vs the folk in the west in general wear themselves differently. Watch the head, facial expressions and shoulders when travelling around. The last few years i have raelly started noticing a HUGE difference.
Or maybe its just cause we have oxygen on the east and are more energetic…not sure 
Hey all,
Considering a move to Taichung with young kids but wanted to query just how bad the air pollution is for their sake. From the stats it doesn’t seem too bad (at least compared to cities further down south).
Based on Taiwan government’s own stats. In 2018:
- Taichung (Xitun) has a yearly average AQI of 71, of which 19.45% of the year has an AQI of > 100.
- Taichung (Zhongming) has a yearly average AQI of 68, of which 17.8% of the year has an AQI of > 100.
- Tainan has a yearly average AQI of 76, of which 25.21% of the year has an AQI of > 100.
- Kaohsiung (Zuoying) has a yearly average AQI of 81, of which 32.6% of the year has an AQI of > 100.
I chose an AQI of 100 as the threshold for days I would avoid going outside where possible.
Source: https://taqm.epa.gov.tw/taqm/en/YearlyDataDownload.aspx
From the government stats it seems the further down you go the worse it gets. Is this true or am I reading the stats wrong?
I query this because it seems though Taichungers are alot more vocal about air pollution than Kaoshiungers.
Am I better off sticking to Taipei?
Cheers
I left five years ago and the air pollution was pretty bad much of the winter and spring . Don’t know how it is now so not sure if relevant .
It was significantly worse than Taipei for sure.
The plus was the climate is 10x better than Taipei and it’s sunny almost every day there.
jeez…and taipei’s pollution is already disgusting.
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To be clear it’s not just Taichung but large parts of the country .
The air was surprisingly OK last fall and early winter, but got worse this spring. Most years fall & winter have their bad days, and spring & summer are good. About 4 (or 5?) years ago was the worst that I can remember.
I can’t compare to other cities because I’ve only lived in Taichung. I also wouldn’t trust those air-quality services too much. They may be getting better, but there have been times when they said the air was good, but I could hardly see the mountains out the window because of the pollution.
DISCLAIMER: I have no agenda.
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If 100 is your limit for leaving the house. You need to either move to ghe east side or have an extremely well planned house!
FYI, pollution does go inside. Aside from taiwans terrible pollution, in genetal indoor air is also considered poor quality due to lack of air exchange, uv and the presence of buildups such as dead skin, spores etc. Probably still better than outside in taiwan.
Is really that good in Taitung? I pass by one day and the city have the same problems: no side walk, no tree, full of scooters and cars. I really didn’t see to much of Taitung but I didn’t feel in New Zealand either, I will go back soon.
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is that a fact?
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Thats the problem perhaps youre not taking into account.
Winter vs summer.
So right now it is raining in much of the west. Rain directly equals air washing. Meaning the pollution generated is simply not stagnating in the air, and is being washed down. This does not change the fact the pollution exists and is being manufactured, it is simply being displaced. In this case into the ground. This means your water and food is now totally contaminated. As an agriculture guy i can confirm this is a huge problem in taiwan. But denial can be strong, so take from it what you will.
That said, taiwan is in general in denial mode about pollution. The best case, on scale, is people admitting it but blaming china. But damn near everyone knows the “facts” about being out in the rain without an umbrella makes you bald. If that saying has become cultural, from a culture generally against creating a clean environment, it should be clear…in case the ecological and biological signs havent been obvious enough!
Lucky taiwan has the situation it does with geography and heavy rain. This shit would be near china levels if we were not a narrow island with rain washing most of it into the ocean.
Taitung is the countryside. Sideqalks are new in taiwan outside of ultra downtowns. So ya, its low key there. Not trying to sell it. But if clean air and good place to raise children is the goal, not many people would argue against taitung being the best in the country. But that could lead into many othe converaation unrelated to pollution. In general taitung has the lowest pollution.
There are 2 cases of air quality problems in Taitung. 1 is the river beds get high winds and cause a lot of dust. An issue people tend not to talk much of outside the area. Second is its a big rice growing area. Although taitung is quickly accelerating in agriculture technology, the old style idiots are still everywhere. So rice paddy burning after harvest is pretty common, even though its actually illegal. It will change over time, once the 70 year olds die and smarter farmers take their place. So taitung has these 2 issues. Maybe a 3rd if they are actually planning to store nuclear waste there but thats debatable
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