Uncle Pete! I’ve never visited, but man I admire that guy’s cool when he put up with that notorious abusive customer.
Can’t wait to go back to Taitung… : )
Guy
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Me too. It’s as good as a trip to Fiji with the year that’s in it. 
Pro Tip for everybody: Check ahead to when the aboriginal festivals are being held in the city.
This is as good as the crappy Tourism bureau can do in English.
https://tour.taitung.gov.tw/en/discover/calendar
Actually I want to go back to Hualien and jump into some rivers there.
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You mean for drinking or even the shower water?
As an aside to the whole pros and cons, is there a specific area or place to visit to get a better sense of the city? I spent most of my time so far exploring the endless mountain ranges and ocean side, not so much time actually in the city besides early mornings and in the evenings.
I’ve been to the town reservoir. It’s way back in the hills, very clean and access anywhere near the water is forbidden. Problem with the water is it’s incredibly hard- pots and kettles invariably get a limestone build up.
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Elementary school in town, right next to famous 包子 shop on route 11.
Jr. High probably at Taiyuan up the valley on route 23.
Considering homeschooling children in Taiwan on English and local school for Chinese?
Well, we live here and love our hood but school is already shut down for the year and its up in the air as to whether or not schools will be back running in the fall. My fam is in the midwest so if thats open that would prob be plan B, but who knows at this point. The other wild card here is that if any of us have the old CV, then obviously we can’t come back. the main thing is the schools–i am not gonna gooogle classroom homeschool my kids as their education. So if us schools are closed, really no choice to go back til the nj school district is up and running again. online learning and g classroom and the whole thing is no way to live.
Buxiban testing hell is another thing though. That becomes the TW conundrum as daughter will be in Jr. HS, and now they’ve already missed a year of that treadmill…
I fully undetstand your concerns about education environment, etc. and rightly so.
More and more, I am coming to believe that the future of education will not be like what we grew up with. The basic public and private school education will still be there, but there may be some mixture involved that may or may not include online learning (free), homeschooling, etc., that may come about due to parents/schools proactively promoting it.
Jobs and job skills for our children are going to be way different when they enter the work force.
I think corporate and bureaucratic employment will dwindle to an even greater degree (DO NOT think government jobs are the place to be in the future, think imploding pension funds), as people will have to think about multiple jobs at once. Not like 2 waiter/waitress jobs at different restaurants, but like part-time software programmer, part-time XX (and both will more than likely be totally unrelated).
This coronavirus is unhinging the whole core of how people and firms look at jobs.
White-collar firms WILL keep more employees at home in the future. Commercial real estate is a big short here in this regard. First, firms will keep employees home even as shelter-in-place is relaxed. Then firms will offer incentives to white-collar employees to stay home, as accountants realize the money that can be saved.
The key thing in the future job market post-virus is to have multiple jobs/sources of income, so when next crisis comes (and they always do), your risk is lowered for being 100% impacted financially.
This is a game-changer. Those who think about following the old job market environment/career path will lose out hugely to those with multiple, different skill sets that on paper seem unmatchable, but in real life will help survive challenging times like these.
As parents, our goal should be to tell our children how life will be in the future, and gear them towards having 2-3 skill sets.
Heck, I’ve even told the missus that I want to offer up our eldest son (when age appropriate) to be an apprentice/gopher at a local scooter repair shop where we’ve come to know the young owners quite well. Even if the owners cannot afford to pay for a few hours a day, I would give my son a bit of money in terms of incentive. The same thing could be done at a car repair shop.
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…or a village, or a hamlet.
Agree, but to to be fair it’s been like that for a while now for most in the US. The main issue right now is I dont like home schooling my kids. I want them to have the experience of growing up around classmates etc and the social aspect of it. They were just getting used to a routine here. It’s frustrating.
We had nothing but good things to say about the elecmentary school system in Tainan and they are on the ball at our school; but by 6th grade the pressure to be a part of the cram school system was overboard.
they have to be in some kind of ‘normal’ education situation to socialize, if this exists anymore …
Not to deliberately be a pain in the ass but government jobs are always the most protected.
Pension fund crisis. A huge ticking time 
.
I’m sorry, my view is governments are on the downsize, and eventually retirees who used to be bureaucrats will see their pension funds raided or depleted. It’s not an if, but a when.
If we keep electing Republicans. Don’t lose hope just yet…
I totally understand.
Perhaps our kids are different as my wife and I have been full-time parents (my job does not require an office, besides my couch), and so their maturity levels are a few grades higher than their classmates, given the topics we discuss snd books we read.
Whatever your condition turns out to be, push them to be more independent. Evrn if home-schooled, I know the kids will still be ahead of their classmates, as wife and I have a lot of time to give them on homework, etc.
If homeschooled, the connection with like-age children can come through sports throughout the year, or community center activities, or church, or etc. They’ll survive.
I moved around A LOT when a kid. The benefit: able to adjust to any environment, any environment.
Every developed country is protecting the lifestyles of baby boomers at the expense of everyone younger. This will continue as other generations of voters retire. Pensions paid by taxpayers will continue to be protected. Everyone else is going to have to work harder for fewer benefits in return in order to fund retirees.
It certainly will be the case that younger people now will get state pensions at a later age, but they’ll still get it.
Here’s the thing, government pensions may pay out $5000 per month, but when food is $5000 due to inflation? Property taxes are $1000 per month (yes, annualized generally), etc.etc.?
Yes, the government can say it’s paid out its obligations. But the common person is worse off by a large margin.
If there’s hyperinflation then everybody is fucked.
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$1,000 a month property tax a month is in Taitung? That would be cheap here in Kaoshiung (if based on monthly basis)
Which country ? There’s over two hundred of them.
This thread is interesting - I definitely want to check out Taidong and area next time we are in Taiwan.
As for the pension deal, most of them have a “cost of living” increase that is tied to inflation. Also, it is not so easy for the government to just up and change a pension that is agreed upon by a collective agreement. This City government tried, believing that the collective agreement was based upon a city enacted by-law, so they could change it as they wanted - it didn’t work out so well for the city: