The only place I really like in Taiwan is the Xīnyi area. Everywhere else is just business/means to an end for me.
1 Like
The sterile blocks with ten thousand Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department stores?
IMHO, other parts of Taipei (as well as other parts of Taiwan) have far more warmth and organic growth.
Guy
2 Likes
Thats…Weird.
3 Likes
Those are primary things.
Need something specialised? Go to Taipei.
Need niche stuff? Go to Taipei.
Jobs? Offices are mostly in Taipei.
Clubs? Fun? Need to go to Taipei.
Yep unfortunately true. Try getting a well paid job outside of Taipei or Hsinchu!
For example, Sansia has nothing more than the bare minimum. It’s largely houses. Part of that is Farglory’s fault. Most of New Taipei is a commuter’s town. It’s a suburb that was turned into a ‘city’.
1 Like
Linkou is very similar. Only now are they building any office blocks or commercial district . Taoyuan has basically no office zone or entertainment area. Their planning is shit , just building residential blocks , so most people not working in factories have to commute all the way into Taipei again and back . The only commercial office district built in the last 20 years… Neihu…Was in Taipei and the North of it as well !
1 Like
That’s right. They amalmagated all these small cities and towns together into megacities, but there’s no cohesion. Only the former cities of Old Kaohsiung, Old Tainan, Old Taichung have cohesiveness. They’re not districts, they’re small satellite towns stripped of their name.
2 Likes
That is not a weird post from the poster who thinks Taiwan should reunite with the glorious mainland.
Well what can I say? I’m glad to finally get that off my chest.
2 Likes
I think the recent take-off of Nangang (notably the software park) can count as something “new.” Taipei folks think that going there is like going to the end of the earth—but it’s easier to access than crossing that damn river! 
Guy
You’d be surprised. When i lived in banqiao i could do almost everything i needed from there.
Anyway, the burbs it aint. They are just slightly crappier different neighbourhoods of taipei for all intents and purposes.
If you live in one part of taipei and travel to the center does that mean you are commuting? no it does not.
Thats how all cities develop as they grow.
To be honest, Banqiao in its current form looks far better than some of the “crappier” districts of Taipei City.
Guy
3 Likes
I noticed this “baby boom” before I saw this news story. My anecdotal experience: our extended family in Changhua is always having kids. My Changhua cousins have at least 3 or 4 kids each.
In Taipei we visit friends from college, mostly childless workers or single-child families.
In Gaoxiong or Pingtung we visit family who have zero, or maybe one or two kids.
I enjoy spending time in Changhua because my young kids always have a gang of playmates.
3 Likes
The problem with Yonghe/Zonghe is that things decay fast once you cross the bridge. Everything is dirtier, smellier, more crowded. Toilets barely have any water pressure to flush.
I agree that Taipei proper is quite overpriced ironically in the face of steep population declines but it’s just better.
There’s some insane density in those parts of Xinbei.
Historically heaps of public funds were invested in the capital, but not on the other side of the bridge. The often repeated anecdote I’ve heard (but did not witness) was a pedestrian sidewalk on the Taipei City side of a bridge that abruptly stopped half way across the river, with no pedestrian path on what was then the Taipei County side!
Guy
It’s pretty simple. Rents went up. The place I’m in would now be $26,000 (probably $30k+ and there’s another apartment in my building that charges $36,000 a month) or more a month. I’ve looked at other places that are way smaller and in really crappy buildings and the asking price is way more than what I’m paying. On top of that electricity and gas went up under Ma Ying Jeou.
1 Like
That happens more often than you would imagine in the U.S., but it relates to counties.
You can be on a nice smooth county road and then see a sign for “Entering [xxx] County” and suddenly the road turns to crap. Same with roads that go into Indian reservations.
It’s all about the tax population that can support the quality of (local) roads.
This was real and it was the bridge from Jingmei crossing over to Da Ping Lin across the river on Roosevelt Road.
They only built out the full path back maybe 2008 or so.
1 Like
Taipei County is still a dump.
5 Likes