What is Taiwan’s Milwaukee? A place with lots of booze, lack of employment opportunities, not a tourist destination . . . I’ll leave aside the cheese part as that’s too tough to line up . . . 
Guy
OK, the best I can come up with on the fly is Wugu (五股) in New Taipei City. Though probably there are more jobs for working folks in Wugu.
Are you comparing rent in the middle of nowhere in the mid-western US vs. Taipei, the largest and most cosmopolitan city in Taiwan?
I. Wouldn’t call Milwaukee the middle of nowhere
Anyway what about phoenix which is the 5th largest city in America?
The average rent is 1600 for 805 SQ ft
It’s about 2,000 Ntd per ping roughly
I’d say a city such as Donggang, Pingtung would probably be a better comparison to Milwaukee.
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I’d say Phoenix is probably comparable to Kaohsiung, which is the third(?) largest city in Taiwan. And both are sprawling car-centric cities with wide open streets and larger space.
I live in Kaohsiung and most people pay US$500-700/month rent for a 2 or 3-bedroom house, or a 4-6 bedroom house if it’s an older house.
Of course, salaries here are also less than Taipei. About US$1,200-1,500/month for a mid-career professional.
Yeah and according to Phoenix, Arizona Salary | PayScale
The average salary in Phoenix is 71,000 USD annually which is about 2,250,000 ntd
Seems about right for the US.
Yeah so based on the proportion of salary to cost of rent, USA is cheaper in most places outside the cities already notorious for high prices (like la,San Francisco, Seattle, New York, and DC)
Or 15 QUID for a small tube of greek salad at Thrifty’s
Oh I see what you’re getting at.
But nobody is saying Taiwan is cheaper relative to the pay. It definitely isn’t, because the pay here is low.
Just saying cost of living is low by absolute terms, which is why the pay is low in the first place.
But if you compare the pay-to-cost ratio between Taiwan and the US, it all balances out. (Much higher tax rate in the US, higher insurance premiums and other expenses).
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I’ve got an aprc. I can tell these people to fcuk off and walk out any time. You have to consider how very sihtty these places can be to work at.
Even if you are the best at what you do there are a ton of landmines in the form of locals and other expats that live only to see others suffer.
I can’t make these things up. Things are really retraded here.
You are the frog in the nice warm water and the gas gets opened after week 1 and continue until the boiling point.
Hopefully you’ll come here with plenty in the bank and not depend on the local schools to support you.
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Kids menus in most countries are terrible. Anyway there are many cheap healthy eats in Taiwan.
Less sugar and salt in Taiwanese food also.
Chua bing and dou jiang also great light desserts.
You need to order veggies separately.in Taiwan restaurants now though…that is my main gripe…lack of veg.
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Douhua (豆花) as dessert, right?
Guy
yeah
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My long-standing gripe is that 98% of the eateries do not provide tea. How can you eat Chinese food without tea? It’s needed to break down the oils and cleanse the palate.
Solution: just bring your own from outside the shop. Hardly ideal, but that’s how things work here.
Guy
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They used to but again, it disappeared over the years.
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I’ve found higher end restaurants in Taipei much, much cheaper than in US cities. fuggetabout it when talking Michelin level establishments. This talk about $200 menus kind of makes the point - I spent $120 for better than average, but not top not sushi in the DFW area last week (that doesn’t include booze and tip). I can easily spend $50 at a noodle joint.
This is true. High end whiskey at a restaurant is generally cheaper though. 
this, on here, constantly. how is it that none of you know any poorer taiwanese not living on family money?
they still have a $1 menu. depending on where you are, you might still be able to get a chicken sandwich, small fries, and large drink for $3.
Allow me to defend Milwaukee for a moment, as you’ve struck a nerve with me in stating that a city with a metro population of a million and a half it is in the “middle of nowhere.”
- You’re an hour and a half from downtown Chicago during non rush hour; theres an Amtrack train to get you there within the same time if it is rush hour. I know a LOT of people who live in the city of Chicago itself who spend more time than that getting downtown to work.
- There are tons of corporations that willingly have offices there because its cheaper than Chicago (the third largest city in the US, remember) but with easy access to Chicago.
- You’re on the Great Lakes, which means you’ve got access to a quarter of earth’s non-frozen fresh water, biology research, shipping galore. A whole butt load of expensive old people cruise ships have started passing through weekly with the pandemic being “over”, so someones capitalizing on the tourism element.
- If you leave the city for a suburb (15 min from downtown, door to door, by car), you’re looking at very high quality public schools, large houses with large yards, everything from ALDI and Trader Joe’s to Whole Foods (and everything in between) for food options. Theres no ultra rich area like in Chicagoland, so an “expensive” house isn’t going to be that crazy to buy, even if it’s huge. Modest housing has obviously become too expensive for everyone, so we don’t need to focus on any one area.
- As a teacher who is licensed in Chinese, I see that most of the Chinese teachers in the public schools surrounding MKE are making 60-70k/year working .57 - .75 FTE. They’re making more as part time teachers than most public school teachers across the US make working full time +. Since teachers unions were outlawed in WI a decade ago, you know those salaries a a reflection of need, rather than just throwing anyone with a pulse in the classroom for minimum wage.
- Its not a “failing city in the rust belt” like many other midwestern cities. There are run down areas kudos to redlining, but that’s not a new thing. Its also not in the legitimate middle of no where, hard to access, with across the board poor schooling for the children and no job prospects when the children grow up like anywhere in Pingtung
You can’t compare Milwaukee to anywhere in TW. But Milwaukee is to Chicago is what Yilan is to Taipei — easily accessible (actually, faaarrr more accessible on the weekends and holidays) with way better “CP value” as far as housing and personal space goes. But again, the schooling available (out of the inner city) in MKE is very high quality, which means parents actually find a way to live in those places, unlike Taiwan where parents only send their children to local rural schools because they don’t have any other choice.
Anyway, this thread is so far removed from the original topic, but please go to Milwaukee the next time you’re in the States and ask yourself if its anything at all like Pingtung.
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And beer! 
One of my coworkers lived in Milwaukee and loved it. I heard it can be a pretty cool place to live.
For the OP, based on my experience many many years ago, and now being an old guy, Taiwan can be a great place to spend a chunk of your 20s if you either don’t have a plan and are taking some time off or have a plan (eg, study Chinese for a career purpose) and stick to it. It worked well for a lot of my friends who are now in finance or business development or started their own businesses. For me, I did not have a plan initially but worked very hard to save money and find a career path that got me back to the US. If you spend a lot of time teaching English in Taiwan, or otherwise not developing experience in your career of choice, it can be difficult to spark interest in employers in your home country. There can be an opportunity/career development cost of putting your future career on hold for a few years, if English teaching is not your long term goal, if you don’t also develop your professional skills. Good luck, whatever you decide.
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