Taoyuan to Taichung

It looks like I might have to move for work. How does Taichung differ from Taoyuan (for those who know both, I guess?) Taoyuan is pretty industrial and not much greenery. Is Taichung better? Of course I know it’s near Sun Moon Lake and mountains. But what about the city itself? Taoyuan is a fairly gray, no nonsense place with people working all the time. Is Taichung different or is that a description of Taiwan as a whole?

Go have a look!

Taichung’s advantages as I see them from afar: better weather, more space, better tea and department stores if those things are important to you.

Taichung’s disadvantages as I see them: farther from the capital and from TPE, should we ever have the chance to use that facility again.

Guy

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Say what?

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Ah I see. By TPE he means the Taoyuan airport.

Warrior needs caffeine badly.

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Taichung is better because the urbanization is not so spread out and inconsistent
compared to Taoyuan. But like Taoyuan, Taichung has also been amalgamated
since the past 10 years.
You can also get better access to public transit in Taichung, in fact the metro line
there will be running soon. As long as you are in the centralized area of Taichung
you’ll be better off if you need transit access.

With temperatures in Taoyuan hovering around zero, better weather sounds desirable.

Again, my view from afar: Taichung is a spread out mess, a disaster of urban planning, or lack thereof.

Then again, only Taipei and Kaohsiung (out of Taiwan’s major cities) really look planned to me. :upside_down_face:

Guy

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About the first video link: yeah if you have sacks of money. :money_mouth_face:

Guy

Taichung has come a long way in my view. Took a mini vacation there back in the fall and it really turned my head.

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But Taoyuan and Taichung were amalgamated. Before the amalgamation of Taichung, it was Taichung City and Taichung County. The old Taichung City was better planned, but the old Taichung county was different. After those two were amalgamated 10 years ago, it became more of a jam.
Taoyuan on the other hand is more like a spread out mess.

So jam is not spread out mess?

Every city in TW has its ups and downs.

I will never understand why people decide to live in northern Taiwan unless it is for work (and most jobs are sadly situated right there).

Kaohsiung and Tainan both improved enourmously over the past decade. Cheaper in every aspect which more work opportunities coming along.
Sadly the pollution forced me away and despite some efforts the geographical location (mountain range) won’t allow big improvements anyway.

Me ending up in Taichung, which in my opinion offers the best compromise afterall.

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IMO, Taichung is much much nicer except for the air pollution. But hopefully it will improve a bit with the local government putting pressure on TaiPower to reduce emissions from the massive power plant there.

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I will add that despite the better weather that @afterspivak mentioned, it does have very high pollution levels year round.

I have been visiting often towards the end of the year and up towards the mountains where you can see the entire city, there’s just a blanket of pollution over the center of the city.

That might be true, but numbers are not always everything.

My lung problems that occurred on my last 2 years (out of 15) living in KHH/PingDong cities just disappeared after moving away.

Taichung’s air quality for me is just on another level. Yet, I am constantly hearing from local friends how bad the air here is due to that “new” coal plant.

Besides:
The cleanest air, the most blueish sky I have ever seen was in remotely Australia.

Taichung’s air quality has improved massively over the past couple of years. This winter there’s barely any bad days.

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Not to take the discussion off topic, but isn’t the vast majority of pollution in Taichung (and Taiwan as a whole) from scooters, not the power plant? I remember seeing some chart that had Taichung air pollution and the power plant was #3 behind scooters/traffic and China. Not to say it’s not contributing, but it’s an easy boogeyman as opposed to emissions laws that would cost citizens money for scooter upkeep and the like.

Personally, from what I’ve seen of Taoyuan, the main difference is that Taichung has an actual downtown. The converse of this is that it’s much less convenient to hop up to Taipei if you want some northern nightlife.
Basically echoing what others have said - pollution is noticeable, weather is definitely better than the north, great tea and tea shops, short drive from places like guguan and xueshan, urban sprawl hell (but much more manageable once the metro opens). I wouldn’t describe Taichung as a ‘gray, no nonsense place’ but it is definitely more industrial and spread-out than Taipei.

If/when you do move down there, I personally would recommend living in the city. When I was there I lived in an outlying district which was isolating; I was too far to easily get to anything interesting in the city, it was almost as convenient for me to just take a train to Taipei and meet up with friends there. :2cents:

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