Leaving aside the obviously thorny question of employment, Taiwan has honestly become easier and easier to live in: better infrastructure, better public transport, better signage (yes we know there is still room for improvement). Again, depending on employment conditions, where YMMV, Taiwan has in my opinion become a better place to be.
Nothing that would affect a young lady like yourself, obviously.
Just that a lot of older folks, like I believe that poster to be, don’t always have the necessary adaptability to deal with suddenly being here rather than their home in some Western country.
You know, old folks, they can’t always eat lots of different things, they don’t really like loud noises, and they often need to use the bathroom a lot.
I can eat lots of different things but yeah I don’t like loud noises (not including music) and yes bathroom more and more. I often post in the middle of the night on here , no I didn’t just get back from some raunchy new night spot , just my 3AM get up and piss time.
Twenty years ago we barely had the internet. Three MRT lines in Taipei . No GPS so was constantly getting lost. Oh yeah I was also illiterate so couldn’t read anything. Working conditions were even worse, lots of places would try to make you work Saturday mornings and unpaid overtime was standard. I had multiple years with no paid leave. If you changed your job you would start the first year with no paid leave.
Some people made bank back then of course to compensate . I didn’t .
Getting an ARC and work permit was a real rigmarole, had to do loads of visa runs. You had less than a week to exit upon job or ARC termination.
Income taxes were higher although you didn’t have the 20% non resident rule.
Basically no or barely there (mobile) internet , lack of coffee shops , lack of public transportation and harsher working conditions.
Oh yeah and it was seriously hard to get Western food! You’d get like two cheeses in Carrefour . Easy singles and some other rubbish. Four types of beer. That was it !
There was only CNN on cable as the English channel!
There were almost no western clothes brands, like Zara or H&M. It was really hard (and still a little hard ) to find proper fitting clothes for Western guys and gals. None of my clothes fit me for years and years and you could literally tell who had been here a few years by looking at people. And still can .
Some things were better for sure believe me, but living here was definitely WAY more challenging. Anybody who moans about how hard it is living in Taiwan now needs some slaps . It may well have been better back in the day for many, but it was not easier.
I do miss the availability of jobs back then. People would stop you on the streets to offer you all kinds of well paid gigs. Now they offer me Scientology pamphlets…
I arrived slightly after you on the downturn I think. But I still got some cushy part-time job offers the first few years . The bosses would bring me out to slap up lunches and dinners even . Then the hard times really bit in. 2003 or so things started to get really tough right into the 2010s. A lot of pessimism .Chaotic government (because the KMT blocked every bill , the President would veto stuff, it was a total mess ) and little investment. We who lived through that time here, we are made of sterner stuff.
I do remember scooting out to line up at the 2 or 3 western breakie places. Line up for an hour no problem. Watching young Taiwanese take pictures of their western breakfast for about 30 min and proceed to eat once ice cold.
I remember when the bbq street vendors and night market 50nt hot iron plate noodles and reconstituted beef was a fun night out
I think the government really needs to pay attention to the environment . Other stuff is mostly sorted out . The river water quality and the air quality are really poor . Not super hopeful on that though. The beaches and coast are a lot better looked after now though more work needs to be done on them too.