OK, it’s going to take some adjustment. Taoyuan is a city. Busy place.
Lalashan and Daxi are the best parts of Taoyuan county…
If you don’t plan to drive in Taiwan I advise you to live near Taoyuan train station or one of the train stations on that line. This will give you options to get out and about on weekends .
Beautiful place!
Oh you meant the other Taoyuan. 
Guy
Yes it is nice. There are lots of curvy mountain roads great for scooter rides up and around over looking the reservoir.
Yes, I definitely want the opposite to my current situation, haha.
I like the place where I live now, but it’s very small, there’s basically only one shop, and it’s an effort to go anywhere to get groceries for the week for example. About 20-30 minutes drive to the closest shopping centre / supermarket.
We don’t even have footpaths on the road where I live, everyone knows each other’s entire family and more than likely have attended school with each other, so it’s a very insular attitude.
I think city living will certainly be a big adventure & change for me, hopefully for the better 
Taoyuan doesn’t have a great number of footpaths.
Thanks, this is really helpful!
I’d like to get to the train station easily because I don’t drive, and I’m planning on going to Taipei at least semi regularly.
Some teachers I’ve spoken to from the school have told me that it’s essential in Taoyuan to own a scooter, not a car or bicycle. I’m not exactly the most confident person with vehicles (i messed up my driving instructor’s car on my second lesson, and he asked me to do my driving theory test before I came back) so a bicycle sounds like a huge relief to me. Is a bike just as good as a scooter?
That is certainly one way to think about Taoyuan.
Good luck!
Guy
Bike vs. scooter kind of depends on if your transiting across the city frequently, just within a certain area of the city, and transit time.
Just dress well if you ride a bike. Then the locals will think you’re a Mormon and avoid running you over.
I skimmed through this booklet on my way to the airport once in the Beforetimes.
From what I could gather, the main highlights of living in Taoyuan appear to include being elderly, breaking a leg or two, riding a bus, and over eleven buckets of sand in a row. So there seems to be a lot going on.
Taoyuan from a drone
Its going take more than “some”, it will be “major” one going from a tiny town, to big noisy, crowed urban area. They better enjoy the quiet while they can!
I’m trying to ease them in slowly.
Sounds about right.
I never knew about this place but it sounds good. Thanks for the recommendation; I think I’ll head there this weekend.
Let me know how it goes. First pizza I’ve ever had with anchovies. Gross, right? Not when this guy does it. And he knows his wine. Bring money. 
I figured authentic Italian food would be pricey but it’s worth it to me if it’s delicious. I wonder if he has lasagna? If so, I’ll be in heaven.
We went all out on two pizzas, his famous muscles, and two bottles of wine. Maybe NT$3K.
Well worth it. Sadly, on my visit, he was moving to his new location the very next day, so I never got to eat there again. But I’d have ended up taking all my in laws there, one or two at a time.
BTW, I wanna give another shout out to the Hop Inn. Just a great little bar with a ton pf tap beers, lots of IPA choices, and sake. Ran into a bunch of South American pilots and their wives, who brought their own cheese to share. Also, a great place. 
Sounds like a place in Neihu. One Italian guy doing everything himself, menu changes everyday, everything made from scratch. Pricey but fantastic.
Then you’d like this place a lot. Eat that too. 
