Since I’m a new poster here I’d like to say hi to everybody and thank all the many posters who have been sharing so many great informations about Taiwan in this forum.
We are a young Swiss family planning to come over to Taiwan later this year and hopefully stay there for about two years, 'cause daddy (that’s me) needs to study Chinese and the rest of the pack is up for adventure.
I have applied to three schools in three different cities: National Chengchi University CLC in Taibei, NSYSU in Kaohsiung, and NCKU in Tainan.
Of those three, my favorite would be the option in Tainan. However, I have some serious worries about living in Tainan with children (one is 8 years and the other 6 months old). How are your experiences of parenting in Tainan? My main worry is that there is not much as far as public transportation and I’m not really a friend of packing the whole family on a scooter. Are my worries justified? And are there any larger pedestrian-only areas? 'cause we actually enjoy using our feet, too. How about public parks?
My second worry is about schooling. We’d like for our daughter to attend a public elementary school. I’m not interested in discussing the pros and cons of local schools. But I’m wondering if any of you have experience with enrolling foreign kids at Tainan local schools. What do you have to do to get your kids into a local school? I know similar questions have been discussed elsewhere. But the answers that I’ve seen so far are highly contradictory and so I would like to narrow down the question to schools in Tainan. Also, I’ve read that there seems to be a kindergarten attached to NCKU. How about an elementary school? Would that be an option?
I’d really appreciate any inputs. Thanks for reading my questions.
My son is only two, and my daughter will be born next next week, so I can’t speak definitively about schools here in Tainan. Anecdotally, I believe it shouldn’t be too difficult to get your older child into a public school, especially if you are all on legal visas and whatnot. Many of my friends have recommended Fu Xiao Elementary School (though you may see it spelled variously from that, which is how it would be written in Hanyu Pinyin). It is a bit more liberal and has a slightly higher population of international children than other public schools, according to some of my wife’s coworkers. The school is located in the West Central District and is next to Tainan University, Tainan First Girls High School (where my wife works), and the Koxinga Shrine. It’s a lovely area and many of my wife’s coworkers send their children there. As far as elementary schools go, however, I think your choice is somewhat constrained by the geographic area of the city you live in.
In terms of Tainan in general, it is a lovely city and I’m proud to call it home (for about 7 years now). There are ample parks, lots of historical and cultural sites, and the general pace of life is slower than in Taipei or other northern cities. Public transportation is a definite minus, though there are city buses that will take you most anywhere in the city, as well as shuttles to the High Speed Rail line.
I could go on and on, but perhaps it would be better for you to PM me if you need any more detailed information, or a tour guide for a day or two once you arrive. There are a few Tainan residents here on Forumosa with more experience than me, too.
Tainan is a very ‘family friendly’ place. Lots of good parks, great bus system (some of them are free), bicycle lanes all around the city (if you’re into that) and a very safe place. Food is cheap, markets abound and NCKU is a very good school. A lot of historical places. The city infra-structure is getting better and better every year. We got surfin too…(cue Randy Newman)
Thanks for the replies. That was the kind of feedback I was hoping for.
@ dahsiung: I’d love to come back to your offer of showing us the place once we get there this summer (if we end up going to Tainan). That’s really kind. Hey, and our best wishes for the birth of your daughter! :discodance:
@ MoTi: why would you always prefer Kaohsiung over Tainan? What’s your reasoning?
@ TainanCowboy: Thanks for pointing out the family friendliness of Tainan. It’s interesting how you consider the bus system to be great while most other people on the web seem to consider it not so good. I guess it very much depends on what one compares it with. Oh, and one more thing that gives your opinion about Tainan a lot of weight: I looked at your flickr gallery and saw where you come from. Heck, if you chose Tainan over your former place, than that says a lot. …just too bad it’s closed now.
I think part of the reason you might hear bad things on the web about Tainan’s bus system is that is USED to be terrible and has only gotten quite good recently. In my experience, it’s only been the last two years that it really has become an efficient, useful system.
For my part, I can’t think of any conceivable way that Kaohsiung is better, other than the fact that it’s uglier, has more pollution, and it’s old name in Taiwanese sounds like “kick the dog.”
