Would you enlighten us!
I’ve recently been egging for a bit of older Taiwan (apart from this forum, of course, as many of the old members no longer frequent). Even picked up a text titled “Japanese Rule in Formosa.” It’s so intriguing.
Well, the cops used to have dinner with gangsters sometimes 
They probably still do that actually
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Feel free to share any then and now type anecdotes here.
Let me guess… fewer tall buildings, more crappy looking, -…
fuck me! @tempogain moving his own OT somewhere else! But he forgot the first message, where he said “you youngsters don’t know how old farts feel about being old” 
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Awesome.
I feel like this would make you gag, but I can’t fathom the amount of class in such a setting. Something I feel is almost too picturesque… like you would only see in films these days.
I don’t know about class, but there was a lot of beer and brandy
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Even better, tbh.
Nothing like putting differences aside over some tasty ethanol it seems.
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How far you want to go back first time i came was about 1985 is that a long time? If so you want to know about crime or pollution, night clubs , transportation,people or what ? A poster called Tommy goes back to the 1970s.
I don’t think any members go that far back. Then again…
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Pshh I would like to hear anything. I feel like it is only a matter of time before memories are all we have left (sorry to be grim).
Night clubs interest me though. Was it more poppin? And the people… given Taiwan was less democratic then I’m assuming it was closer to China than it was now, or?
It was more friendly and less table bottle service oriented. Luxy and primo were pretty cool.
I think that in the old days TG is talking about you weren’t born yet.
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How about dates people first arrived on the Rock? That might help put people’s opinions into perspective.
Me, 2004…so @Andrew0409, you were what, 5? Ha! Been here ever since. Not much has really changed socially since then. Yeah, new MRT lines, HSR was completed, businesses came and went and still do, but that’s about it from my perspective.
I think “older” Taiwan experiences would be from folks who were here 90s 80s 70s etc
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Buffalo Town was the place to go , until an Australian got thrown off the roof. It was great fun, got a bit violent at times. It was on Linsen North Road, almost opposite the Gold Shop that illegally exchanged currencies in the back room. MTV’s were also the popular place to have liasons under the guise of watching a movie.
Later after Buffalo Town got closed Roxy opened and Tops. Later it was Spin… There was one huge place where the roof could open up, but i forgot it’s name. There was another place called Whisky A Go Go or something like that. It contained a swimming pool. Buffalo Town was the place though, full of pin ball machines. Most of the fights happened between locals and overseas Chinese which led to it’s demise but the murder of the Australian by the Bamboo Union gang was the final straw.
There was another bar run by a guy called Shadow who along with his Liverpudlian girlfriend sold large quantities of Meth. He ended up getting shot by the cops after he beat some of them up a few days before hand. That place is a subway shop now. All lots of fun but all got a bit too violent in the end mainly due to Meth. I think things are a lot quieter these days.
I am too lazy to write it all down lol
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Night Owls. I met my wife there, before when Marco from Tops opened it.
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Interesting. Did you know Andy ?
That’s not ringing a bell. Where from?
I knew Marco, is he still around ?
I heard he moved back down to Kaohsiung, a long ways back.
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Been here since 2000. On the contrary I think things have changed quite a bit socially. Now I must put this into context that I’m almost 20 years older but Taiwan is quite a different place in terms of how outgoing people are (noticeably less outgoing ), also young people don’t really go to bars and don’t party as much as they used to.
Back in the day Taipei (and Taiwan) was a lot rougher edged, noisy karaoke buses, noisy everything ! Now it’s noticeably quieter (although not quiet) and older and tries to be all hipstery. Back in the day most people were just into making money hustling doing anything and working crazy hours and the hippy crowd were really hippies ( not hipsters). But even by 2000 things were a lot safer than the the crazy 90s. Girls were open to chat to foreigners and guys in general whereas now I think that few guys would ask to 'make a friend ’ with girls on the bus or the street, that was really common back then.
Also girls holding hands with girls and even boys holding hands with boys !
Young people used to go to bars, KTVs and still quite a few went to teahouses and MTVs. In the teahouses they’d often play cards or maybe dice games (.More so in bars ). Coffee and coffeeshops weren’t really a thing then. More women smoked and they would smoke in the stairwells and balconies of offices.
Taipei MRT had only three lines and a lot of folks depended on Taiwan Rail and buses and scooters to get around. Also the high speed rail hadn’t opened yet so CNY you could get stuck in horrific jams on the highway or the other choice was to just fly to whatever city you wanted to go to.
Around 2000 to 2004 there was a big underground electronic dance scene in illegal clubs and a lot of folks took ectasy. They had clubs all over Taipei, Taoyuan and Zhongli. That may be a surprise to the current generation.
People would sms each other and some even used beepers. Chat apps were already being used such as QQ and MSN.
There were a lot more foreign business people doing ODM electronics businesses (similar to Shenxhen now) and quite a few engineers working on the high speed rail project.
There were few foreign tourists, mostly just Japanese. You had to look pretty hard to find information about places in English, lonely planet being the best bet. No Google maps so was definitely an adventure getting around !
In some ways things haven’t changed a whole lot , so many folks still riding motor scooters is a big disappointment coming up to 2020.
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