Taiwan then and now

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Taiwan ca. 1990: Taxis were all different colors
Taiwan now: Yellow only, please.

Taiwan ca. 1990: A convenience store a stone’s throw from wherever you are
Taiwan now: Several convenience stores a stone’s throw from wherever you are

Taiwan ca. 1990: Strangers pop out of the woodwork asking you to teach them English one-on-one for NT$500/hr
Taiwan now: Nah.

Taiwan ca. 1990: A video arcade on every street.
Taiwan now: Nary a video game machine to be seen, but computer network game shops are popping up.

Anything else?

2

Taiwan ca. 1965: Pedicabs!

Taiwan ca. 1965: NO convenience stores. Nada. None. Zilch!

Taiwan ca. 1965: English? Nah!

Taiwan ca, 1965: Video arcades? The show was on the street.

Taiwan ca. 1965: A well-to-do family had a 50 cc motorcycle, a fan, a radio, 1 electric light, and the upper strata a B/W TV!!!

Taiwan ca 1965: 1 US dollar= 40 NT dollars, but a middle class income was < $20.00 US!

Taiwan ca. 1965: Open sewer ditches and honey wagon fertilizer. Talk about making the eyes water!!

Taiwan ca. 1965: 2,000 bicycles per kilometer!!! Side benefit: Taiwan girls had the most beautiful legs!!!

Taiwan ca. 1965: No crime against foreigners except burglary (always when you weren’t home)

Taiwan ca. 1965: One airport in Taiwan (in downtown Taipei). All others were military!

Taiwan ca. 1965: Train from Taipei to Tainan took 8 hours. Express took 6 hours.!

Taiwan ca. 1965: Taxi from Taipei to Tainan only cost US 20.00 but took 8 hours.!!!

Taiwan ca 1965: Hand carved teakwood bar (foldout type) cost US 65.00. (Find one now!!!)

Taiwan ca. 1965: Was Oriental thru and thru. Now its just another industrialized country like any other :cry:

Taiwan ca. 1965: The people are still about the same :laughing:

Taiwan ca. 1965: I met my wife. :heart: Still married 38 years later :heart: :heart:

3

Oh, Shin Gua… the memories you have brought back!

1960’s - water buffalos in abundance

1960’s - no diapers, baby pants had a slit in the crotch ( all the better for teaching your little ones to pee in the gutter outside your house)

1960’s - Foremost Dairy was one of the very few providers of milk

1960’s - The Stinky Do Fu man carried his product on a yoke across his shoulders and would shout out his wares as he walked by on the street. You could both smell and hear him coming from blocks away at times

1960’s - The puffed rice man came by on a three wheeled bicycle. You took your rice out to him and he would “puff” it for you in a thing that looked like a cannon which gave out a huge BOOM when finished

1960’s - Rice paddies in the city

1960’s - chickens on the street

1960’s - At night you could see people watching their neighbours t.v.'s through their neighbours windows or doorways

1960’s - Chinese/Taiwanese Opera in the alleys on portable stages built of bamboo

1960’s - Snake alley, Hagglers alley, the G.I. strip

1960’s - grass in your yard - room to play right next to the bomb shelter

The list goes on… I really miss the sights, sounds and smells I took so for granted!

4

Taiwan 1992: nobody has a clue what the immigration / work permit regulations are.

Taiwan 2004: nobody has a clue what the immigration / work permit regulations are.

5

Chris, I took a renegade blue taxi in Taipei last week. It made the night! :smiley:

6

Taiwan then:
Chienkuo; Chienkow; ChienKwo, Kienkow…the name of the street differed from one intersection to the next. And Tunghua St. and Tunhua Road were spelled the same (causing me to get off a bus at the wrong place once).

Taiwan now:
Street names are in so-called “Taiwan Pinyin”…Aaaaaarrrggghhh! No more “Fukin Street”! And what’s with these “numbered streets” (e.g. 3rd Boulevard?)

It’s typical - to clear up the confusion of street names, the city government invents yet another pinyin system (to add to at least 4 different systems), thus confusing things more and costing businesses millions printing out new business cards and letterheads!

7

Kids in China have those pant slits, so if that is really an appealing thing for you, plan a trip to the mainland soon. You’ll see that pretty much everywhere - slit fully to permit easy, public performance both kinds of “fun-bien”.

8

Taiwan 1990: Occasional waterbuffalo drawn cart.
Taiwan 2004: Waterbuffalo as pets only

Taiwan 1990: BBC
Taiwan 2004: CNN

Taiwan 1990: Cowboy cable with 2 English channels and nothing worth watching
Taiwan 2004: Legal cable with a dozen channels and nothing worth watching (as compared to the U.S. with 200 channels and nothing worth watching, but you can spend all night channel flipping).

9

1985… soldiers with rifles and fixed bayonettes at the foot of major bridges into Taipei.

10

I’m a fair newbie, so I only have a few.

2001 - Revolutionary introduction of Panthene shampoo (but conditioner seemed to be unheard of)

2001 - Brownies practically unheard of.

2001 - Only places to get Western food was either in Shi-Da, Tienmu, or the new(?) Costco…now you can buy grape jello and cottage cheese at the closest Wellcome.

2001 - tealit.com had intelligent and useful discussions.

11

2000 - MTVs everywhere
2004 - no MTVs to be seen on the island

2000 - no one had ever heard of the bagel or baked potato
2004 - every bakery has bagels, 7-11 and McD’s make’em for breakfast, and in the past year there’s been an explosion of baked potato stands on every street corner and night market (at least in Tainan)

2000 - all Taiwanese pop music garishly loud and unbelievably crappy
2004 - 98% of all Taiwanese pop music garishly loud and unbelievably crappy, but in the past few months I’ve actually heard a few songs that are - gulp! - sorta good!

12

They were still there in 1993.

13

1986: First DPP demonstration…One foriegner arrested and deported for trying to break through the barracade.

1986: Su-ao Haulien route only one-way.

1986: No photography on the coast

1986: Could commute from Taipei to Chungli by car in 30 minutes at any time of day…No parking hassles anywhere.

1986: Taipei had the highest car ownership on the island. One car for every 100 families.

1986: LA law once a week…ICRT plays classical music every night from 8pm to midnight.

1986: Taipei was dirtier by a factor of ten…Taoyuan county by a factor of 100.

1986: Go for a night swim in Tamshui…Met at shore by camouflaged commando looking boys with bayoneted M-16s.

1986: The infamous deisel powered Yulong 'wild chicken taxi…

1986: You could buy a 50 ping apartment in Ding-how for 4 millionNT

That’s enough…After reading Totallytikas/Hsingua’s posts, I feel like a newbie!

14

1996 - dump your all trash on the roadside and someone will pick it up.

2004 - seperate your trash into different bags, recycle, recycle, recycle!

1996 - Yong Kang street had open air markets and the best red pork on the island.

2004 - Pork man is gone and replaced by upmarket tourist traps. :cry:

1996 - Bo Ai Rd and the surrounding area had non stop street vendors that could pick up sticks to nothing in 3.4 seconds and be back in business 2 seconds after the cops walked past. And I could wear the clothes!

2004 - Bo Ai Rd has few street vendors and I can’t wear the clothes!

1996 - I ate Taiwanese food everyday, as I had very few other choices.

2004 - I rarely eat Taiwanese food. There are too many other choices.

1996 - My parents worried that China would bomb Taiwan during the elections.

2004 - ditto! :wink:

15

1990…arrived broke and pennyless; had a great time

2004…still broke and pennyless, still having a great time (oh and got a swimming pool now!)

16

1989: People think they can tell if someone has AIDS just by looking at them.

People are so superstitious it borders on, if not all out, mental illness.

2004: People think they can tell if someone has AIDS just by looking at them.

People are so superstitious it borders on, if not all out, mental illness.

17

Taiwan then:
Passengers often had to board the bus while it was still rolling.

Taiwan now:
No rolling stops.

Taiwan then: Construction of the MRT caused horrendous traffic in Taipei.

Taiwan now: MRT works! Traffic situation improved slightly!

Taiwan then: “Six-Year National Development Plan” (Gotta outdo them Commies with their Five-Year Plans, huh?)

Taiwan now: Development continues; the “Six-Year” monkier was quietly dropped around the third year of the Development Plan.

18

1999… ten pin bowling everywhere.

2004… can’t find anywhere close to home to go bowling.

19

1992: Nostalgia much better than it is now.

20

Taiwan December 1985: There were lots and lots of lovely young xiaojies who were eager to make friends and go out with me, which was absolutely great because I was single and could play around as much as I pleased. :smiley:

Taiwan June 2004: There seem to be far fewer lovely young xiaojies who look at me with anything like the same interest I used to elicit, and as I’m now married, they’re all out of bounds to me anyway. :cry: