Taitung Pros and Cons

[CTaitung]

@whatswiththeyams

Just spent a bit of time in Taitung and while It’s fresh in my mind I wanted to get some of my thoughts out there and hopefully see what others’ opinions are too.

This is from a very brief period, but overall I feel like given the laid back nature-filled environment, Taitung is truly a great place to be if you like Taiwan for Taiwanese things - meaning you don’t need or maybe even want a lot of Western things - while still living a relatively convenient life.

Here are the pros and cons I’ve found so far:

Pros:

• So close to so much of Taiwan’s natural beauty
• In and of itself there is always a view of the mountain, and you are right by the ocean
• Air is not polluted - you can breathe in deep and not worry
• Really laid back feeling without the often accompanying “podunk” or “end of the road” sense (a tiny bit of the latter, spattered here and there)

Cons:

• Not a big city, so missing a lot of Western amenities, though it does have a McDonalds, Starbucks, and Carrefour/RT Mart
• East coast means a lot more rain, though nowhere near as much it seems as North of it
• The drivers are really absent minded and there are a lot of them
• The jets that pass overhead are disruptive if indoors and disturbing if outside. It can be really terrible if they’re flying low (which they often are it seems)
• Doesn’t seem to be a lot of Westerners there
• There is a very clear sense of transience as many people passing through on their road trip - this does add to it’s character and so whether it’s a pro or con depends on how you see that, for me it’s not absolute but weighs more to the con side.

Agree? Disagree? Add to the list?

I’ll be going back there pretty soon, so I’d love to be able to have more lenses through which to look at it, as I really like the place, but we all know that long term realities are not always the same as first impressions.

How's Taitung?

In one of the pollution threads, somebody mentioned Taitung as somewhat of a positive oddity when it comes to Taiwan’s logistical issues: it’s on the east coast and thus enjoys much less pollution than basically everywhere else; one may even say tolerable levels it’s in a weird pocket that doesn’t get the east coast rain blasts anywhere near as much as the north it’s not so high latitudinally that Winters are too cold It’s a stone’s throw from beautiful routes and places like taroko …

having short-term memory issues?