Taipei vs Kaohsiung

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

I was wondering if people could share their opinions on the differences between living in these two cities.

Right now I’m living in Kaohsiung, which has been great so far. The people are quite friendly, the winters are mild, and there are always ocean breezes to offset the humidity. However, due to the prodding of friends, I’ve been considering making the move to Taipei, somewhere I’ve never been before, and I’m curious as how it’s different and, according to most people, better.

Specifically, here are my primary concerns:

  1. Cost of living. Wages seem to be the same in Taipei but living expenses are much higher. How much higher? If I’m getting by comfortably on roughly 30k a month in Kaohsiung, how much can I expect to spend in order to maintain the same standard of living in Taipei? Is it worth it?

  2. Weather. I heard Taipei weather sucks. Winters are cold and damp while the summers are hot and humid, even more so than Kaohsiung. Seriously? K-Town’s pretty scorching as it is. How can Taipei at the northern tip be even hotter?

  3. People. There’s more foreigners and westernized people, that’s for sure, and there’s greater potential to meet career-minded people with an international outlook, but I also heard that Taipei residents are more jaded and conniving. Thoughts?

Anything else that can be shared would be great too. Thanks in advance!

2

[quote=“Amasashi”]I was wondering if people could share their opinions on the differences between living in these two cities.

  1. Cost of living. Wages seem to be the same in Taipei but living expenses are much higher. How much higher? If I’m getting by comfortably on roughly 30k a month in Kaohsiung, how much can I expect to spend in order to maintain the same standard of living in Taipei? Is it worth it?
    [/quote]

I think you would probably need at least 40k a month in Taipei. It’s more expensive but not dramatically so. More importantly, you will get a lot less for your money when you rent a place to live. You are going to need NT$15k to rent your own place.

I don’t think it’s hotter. Just more humid. And it depends where you live. But the dreariness of a Taipei winter has to experienced to believe. For this reason alone, I think you would be mad to move here.

[quote]3. People. There’s more foreigners and westernized people, that’s for sure, and there’s greater potential to meet career-minded people with an international outlook, but I also heard that Taipei residents are more jaded and conniving. Thoughts?
[/quote]

Taipei people might be a bit less warm and friendly than people in Ktown but they are certainly not jaded and conniving.

3

[quote=“Amasashi”]I was wondering if people could share their opinions on the differences between living in these two cities.

Right now I’m living in Kaohsiung, which has been great so far. The people are quite friendly, the winters are mild, and there are always ocean breezes to offset the humidity. However, due to the prodding of friends, I’ve been considering making the move to Taipei, somewhere I’ve never been before, and I’m curious as how it’s different and, according to most people, better.

Specifically, here are my primary concerns:

  1. Cost of living. Wages seem to be the same in Taipei but living expenses are much higher. How much higher? If I’m getting by comfortably on roughly 30k a month in Kaohsiung, how much can I expect to spend in order to maintain the same standard of living in Taipei? Is it worth it?

  2. Weather. I heard Taipei weather sucks. Winters are cold and damp while the summers are hot and humid, even more so than Kaohsiung. Seriously? K-Town’s pretty scorching as it is. How can Taipei at the northern tip be even hotter?

  3. People. There’s more foreigners and westernized people, that’s for sure, and there’s greater potential to meet career-minded people with an international outlook, but I also heard that Taipei residents are more jaded and conniving. Thoughts?

Anything else that can be shared would be great too. Thanks in advance![/quote]

  1. I haven’t lived in Taipei, but when I visit friends I notice food especially is higher. Where I can get a 70nt beef noodle here, it is 110nt over there, and the person who had to sew up my suit charged 5 times more than the local person in Kaohsiung. That is my limited experience with Taipei as I don’t like it there as it has too many people all crowded in one spot. In addition the rent prices are much much higher.

  2. The summer is hotter in Taipei because as my local friends say, Taipei is in a bit of a depressed location, and resembles a bowl which does not allow wind to pass through to cool it off. The winter is cold and damp in Taipei compared to Kaohsiung where it is cold and sunny.

  3. My only personal opinion of the Taipei people is that in general, I got the big city feeling where no one cares to smile or say hi or anything. Just your typical big city which was the same way when I was in Toronto. I personally didn’t care for it but your milage may vary depending on how friendly you are :smiley:

I think Taipei might be an interesting place if you decide at one point that you will go home and you just want to experience something else for a year or so. Me personally I have no interest in going there to live unless a good job presented itself.

4

if you are affected by the weather and need to see sunshine often, don’t move to Taipei. It is not uncommon to literally have to endure weeks on end of unbroken cloud, usually accompanied by drizzle and overall dampness.
The people in general seem annoyed and depressed - I guess this is the big city syndrome as someone pointed out before. Prices are pretty high for almost everything compared to Kaohsiung. The architecture is worse than Kaohsiung. There is less space and it is more crowded than Kaohsiung. If you ride a scooter or drive, the traffic lights aren’t synchronised like they are in Kaohsiung, and its really infuriating. On the surface, and in our foreigner bubbles, people seem to be a lot richer in Taipei, however, when you get down to the nitty gritty, there is a hell of a lot of poverty and disparity in Taipei that is hidden away out of sight. Taipei has all the trappings of a big city without being remotely international or multi-cultured.
Granted, there are more bars and museums and suchlike in Taipei, but there are similar things like this in Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung to me is also more ‘Taiwanese’ than Taipei, and you get a truer picture of what it means to be Taiwanese from the people who live there.

For me, the best things about Taipei are:

1). Fantastic hiking and brilliant scenery up on the north coast and surrounding Taipei.

2):

5

The worse thing about Taipei really (besides the higher prices) is that the winters are very long , very very wet (it can rain weeks or even months at a time), COLDer inside your house then outside and miserable. NO sunshine. Everything can get moldy !

You can drive somewhere but you cant PARK !

So you best take public transport during the day.

The good things? There are truly a LOT of good things. YOu are close enough to drive up to Yangminshan, down to the beach. Left turn to tAmshui or right turn to keelung and beyond to ilan and points south and be back in a day. Lots of great day trips. OUt to shimen dam, wulai, etc. Take in a hot spring in Yangminshan or Peitou or Chiaoshi. Go eat crabs at Nanfanao for the day (taiwans largest fishing port next to Suao).

Theres tons of daytime activities. (summertime hit the beaches at fulung, ginshawan, beishawan , etc) and lots of places to go at night too. BArs, pubs, restaurants, cafes, etc etc.

Hang out with the teenie boppers in hsimenting (but not always ok?) or take in the nice stores EVERYWHERE.

Theres little dives all over the place to make your own.

Thers the gondola up to maokong (apparently theres some great tea houses up there, not that i would know because i didnt find any) , theres hanging out at tamsui.

Theres really a lot to fill your days and your nites. OF course to enjoy this town you have to have your shit together so that your life is sorted.

And its a big city, dont expect people to smile at you like they were idiots. But that doesnt mean they are not friendly. Taipei people are very friendly , even if they dont look it.

And remember 80pct of them are actually from Kaohsiung, tAinan, taichung or the east coast !!!

6

[quote]The good things? There are truly a LOT of good things. YOu are close enough to drive up to Yangming Shan, down to the beach. Left turn to Danshui or right turn to Keelung (Jilong) and beyond to Yilan and points south and be back in a day. Lots of great day trips. OUt to shimen dam, Wulai, etc. Take in a hot spring in Yangming Shan or Beitou or Chiaoshi. Go eat crabs at Nanfanao for the day (taiwans largest fishing port next to Suao).

Theres tons of daytime activities. (summertime hit the beaches at Fulong, ginshawan, beishawan , etc) and lots of places to go at night too. BArs, pubs, restaurants, cafes, etc etc. [/quote]

Again - most of the things you listed are outside of Taipei :laughing:

7

[quote=“Super Hans”][quote]The good things? There are truly a LOT of good things. YOu are close enough to drive up to Yangming Shan, down to the beach. Left turn to Danshui or right turn to Keelung (Jilong) and beyond to Yilan and points south and be back in a day. Lots of great day trips. OUt to shimen dam, Wulai, etc. Take in a hot spring in Yangming Shan or Beitou or Chiaoshi. Go eat crabs at Nanfanao for the day (taiwans largest fishing port next to Suao).

Theres tons of daytime activities. (summertime hit the beaches at Fulong, ginshawan, beishawan , etc) and lots of places to go at night too. BArs, pubs, restaurants, cafes, etc etc. [/quote]

Again - most of the things you listed are outside of Taipei :laughing:[/quote]

uhm, proximity to these places make Taipei livable. Yes they are not technically in Taipei (yet).

8

[quote=“tommy525”][quote=“Super Hans”][quote]The good things? There are truly a LOT of good things. YOu are close enough to drive up to Yangming Shan, down to the beach. Left turn to Danshui or right turn to Keelung (Jilong) (Jilong) and beyond to Yilan and points south and be back in a day. Lots of great day trips. OUt to shimen dam, Wulai, etc. Take in a hot spring in Yangming Shan or Beitou or Chiaoshi. Go eat crabs at Nanfanao for the day (taiwans largest fishing port next to Suao).

Theres tons of daytime activities. (summertime hit the beaches at Fulong, ginshawan, beishawan , etc) and lots of places to go at night too. BArs, pubs, restaurants, cafes, etc etc. [/quote]

Again - most of the things you listed are outside of Taipei :laughing:[/quote]

uhm, proximity to these places make Taipei livable. Yes they are not technically in Taipei (yet).[/quote]

I think he means that a lot of places in the south have the same thing. I admit, i’m biased towards Kaohsiung.

You have monkey mountain here to climb, which a lot of people do. Kending is very close to us as well if you want beach. There is hot-springs in Baolai which is about 1.5 hrs away by bus or faster by car. Shiziwan is here too if you like looking at the ocean, and there is a large fishing port here too in addition to the bars and restaurants, although admittedly not as many as Taipei.

Did I mention the good weather?

But if you want more dating opportunities Taipei would be a lot better than the south.

9

Kaohsiung is getting better and better and I have long said it will one day soon be the most livable city in Taiwan. Especially when the petroleum plant closes in 2015. For now though the air pollution levels are still a red flag for me (and yes they are much worse in Ktown, so let’s not go there).

I still prefer Taipei because you can live on the edge of the city and it feels like a small town, with access to nature, hiking and bike paths, and also a great MRT system to whisk you into downtown. Rain? I’m from vancouver so it doesn’t bother me.

Monkey mountain is nice but it can’t compare to Yangmingshan or Maokong where you can hike all day in dense forest without seeing hardly another person.

But yes, having beaches right in the city is great and the city wide bike lanes are good but they are much better in taipei because there is an actual effort to keep scooters off them. Ktown is still a little too wild west for my liking. A little more like China despite the claims it is the “real” Taiwan.

As for the friendliness of people, that’s a draw. Those who say Taipei people are cold or depressed are simply expressing a personal bias, nothing more.

In short, Taipei and Kaohsiung are different cities with different strengths and weaknesses. Whichever one you prefer is going to depend on what you value.

10

still theres a lot to be said for the sunshine in the south and AIR you can SEE (something we would prefer didnt have to be said at all ) !!

11

To MM

I didn’t know they are going to shut the petroleum plant down eventually. That will be a welcome addition. When I was here 3 years ago, the sky was brown every day. Now I haven’t seen one day where the sky hasn’t been blue. Obviously that doesn’t mean no pollution but it’s obvious they have done a good job at limiting it.

I agree that Taipei edges of the city are nice. Jilong is nice and there are places in the mountains with hotsprings really close by.

Kaohsiung has taken great stides to setting up new bike paths here and I never see scooters on it. The MRT is very clean but somewhat useless though.

I haven’t been to Yangming Shan or Maokong but if it is a nice as you say I might go down there soon to hike.

Lastly I tend to really like the wild west attitude of Kaohsiung as I think Taipei has gone overboard in enforcing every single rule. Down here everyone is more laid back with much less enforcement but just my personal preference.

12

Yeah, the CPC plant is supposed to relocate by 2015.

That’s good news about no scooters on the bike paths. When I was there 2 years ago it was a major nuisance.

Maokong is a great place for hiking. Take the gondola up to the last stop, cross, head up the path beside the temple and when you get to the top of the ridge you can go for hours in either direction. Left and you can hike all the way to Shiding in about 8-9 hours.

Nice teahouse and restaurants up there too and biking is superb. It’s on roads but they are very quiet and connect with the riverpaths below.

13

Yeah…the bike lanes in Taipei are nice but they don’t really serve a purpose except for recreational activities. The ones in the city are useless because you get squashed by buses.
In KHH, the lanes can at least get you to work without having to scrape yourself up off the floor with a spatula every 5 minutes.

14

That’s good enough for me. Who the hell would want to ride to work in Taipei’s heat, humidity and rainfall when you have a world class subway system?

15

That’s good enough for me. Who the hell would want to ride to work in Taipei’s heat, humidity and rainfall when you have a world class subway system?[/quote]

Taipei’s subway is pretty world class. Compared to the crap those of us from Toronto call a subway back home.

I take a scooter in Kaohsiung because the city is pretty much designed for easy access with one and parking usually isn’t a problem. The MRT here is good but doesn’t get you to very many useful locations. Hopefully they will expand it later on. That may be a consideration for the OP.

I will check out that hiking location. Out of curiosity, do you go yourself or in groups when you go there?

16

Absolutely.

Except that I live in Yong He, which is the most populated are of the island. The nearest MRT station to me is DinXi, which is at least 25 minutes walk away. Getting on a scooter is the most convenient thing to do next to riding a bicycle. The MRT is nice, but it is not nearly as extensive as it should be and it is nowhere near as extensive as newly constructed systems in other countries.
Of course, you could pay through the nose to live near a station, but in reality, most people can’t afford to do this.

17

That’s good enough for me. Who the hell would want to ride to work in Taipei’s heat, humidity and rainfall when you have a world class subway system?[/quote]

Taipei’s subway is pretty world class. Compared to the crap those of us from Toronto call a subway back home.

I take a scooter in Kaohsiung because the city is pretty much designed for easy access with one and parking usually isn’t a problem. The MRT here is good but doesn’t get you to very many useful locations. Hopefully they will expand it later on. That may be a consideration for the OP.

I will check out that hiking location. Out of curiosity, do you go yourself or in groups when you go there?[/quote]

Both. I used to live in the area so went up a lot on my own but also with my hiking club. Give me a shout next time you are in the north and I can show you the trails.

18

That’s good enough for me. Who the hell would want to ride to work in Taipei’s heat, humidity and rainfall when you have a world class subway system?[/quote]

Taipei’s subway is pretty world class. Compared to the crap those of us from Toronto call a subway back home.

I take a scooter in Kaohsiung because the city is pretty much designed for easy access with one and parking usually isn’t a problem. The MRT here is good but doesn’t get you to very many useful locations. Hopefully they will expand it later on. That may be a consideration for the OP.

I will check out that hiking location. Out of curiosity, do you go yourself or in groups when you go there?[/quote]

Both. I used to live in the area so went up a lot on my own but also with my hiking club. Give me a shout next time you are in the north and I can show you the trails.[/quote]

Thanks, appreciate that.

19

Food in Taipei’s terrible. It’s more expensive than the south and tastes worse.

If you want to pay a fortune for a really good meal, though, it’s better than you can get anywhere on the island! But we’re talking world-class really expensive meals here.

There’s a lot to do and discover around Taipei, and it’s nice to be next to places that sell things like bagels and cereal and whatnot, but I don’t think I could hack living there. The best thing about Taipei is really the ease with which you can LEAVE Taipei to do something fun.

20

[quote=“tsukinodeynatsu”]Food in Taipei’s terrible. It’s more expensive than the south and tastes worse.

If you want to pay a fortune for a really good meal, though, it’s better than you can get anywhere on the island! But we’re talking world-class really expensive meals here.

There’s a lot to do and discover around Taipei, and it’s nice to be next to places that sell things like bagels and cereal and whatnot, but I don’t think I could hack living there. The best thing about Taipei is really the ease with which you can LEAVE Taipei to do something fun.[/quote]

I couldn’t disagree more. Food in Taipei is excellent, especially Chinese and Asian food. There is a fantastic food culture in Taipei. I think it comes from having a lot of mainlanders, mixed with Taiwanese and Japanese influence and then well established ethnic restaurants. Taipei’s kuai chao restaurants are streets ahead of the rest of the island. In fact it is one my ‘dreams’ to open an overseas chain of Taiwanese kuai chao modelled on the reataurants on the street in Xindian where I used to live. I travel in China regularly and just cannot find the same quality fresh food and great fun ambience. Regular Chinese restaurants are still reasonably priced in Taipei, especially if you consider the quality is higher.

Taichung is all about eating big meals and all you can eat and Hot Pot, terrrible compared to Taipei. Most of the mom and pop restuarants don’t seem to care about the quality of their food., very different to my experience in Taipei, where restaurants have often been in operation for decades and they really know how to cook.

Down South they like heavy gloopy food with that terrible red sauce on everything. Do you want ‘geng’ with that?
:wink: