Top 10 things about living in Taiwan pro and cons

Hello people, I was wondering what are top 10 things pro and cons about moving to Taiwan

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Iā€™ll start.

Pros

  1. No coronavirus

Cons

  1. Coronavirus

Is this your homework or something?

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In no particular order:

Pros:

  1. Convenience (but only in cities)
  2. Safety
  3. Healthcare
  4. Cost of living
  5. Infrastructure
  6. Culture
  7. Nature
  8. Fruits
  9. Food
  10. People

Cons:

  1. Weather (mainly humidity)
  2. Pay
  3. Job opportunities
  4. Traffic
  5. Pollution
  6. Crowded
  7. Threats from China
  8. Language hard to master
  9. Diversity
  10. Hard to get citizenship
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That had me laughing out loud.

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When I saw your quote, I genuinely had to scroll up to see which list @quandary had put those two items inā€¦ :sweat_smile:

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My food experience in KHH has been consistently awful*. Not just restaurants and street food, but grocery store options as well. Iā€™ve heard things are better in Taipei, so perhaps @quandary lives in a part of Taipei with good food options?

*edit: except arkansas diner, one restaurant in nanzhi, and one meal in the new marriott. so thatā€™s 5 good meals and everything else mediocre or worse, nothing amazeballs

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Itā€™s a weird thing. I never get how people rave about the food in Taiwan. And fecking night markets. The food is FAMOUS!
Just because you and your mama like oyster omelets, dirty fried chicken and rotten tofu, doesnā€™t mean itā€™s FAMOUS.

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Oh you crossed a line there. Taiwanā€™s fried chicken is legit!!

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i donā€™t understand how people can eat this anywhere TBH

there is a spectrum, from dirty to legit

changsha chodoufu took me a few tries to develop a taste, and now everything else is a sad imitation. if you ever head to the mainland, the city of changsha is worth a food stop


if food is so far my least favourite thing about moving to taiwan (or at least, greatest disappointment), i guess my uninspired top pro is convenience

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I agree. The food is shit. Convenience is great. Being able to shop at a supermarket 24/7 is brilliant. Socialized medicine is also a major bonus.

Surprising that weā€™ve had such different experiences with Taiwanese food in KHH. Curious though which restaurant it was in Nanzi that you enjoyed?

could be reasons for it. my first overseas posting was hunan and my last overseas posting was thailand, so if you donā€™t like flavourful food there is a palate difference (maybe you just really like plain food? are you british perhaps?). also i havenā€™t been here long, and i live outside of the city core at present so my options have been limited (maybe iā€™ve just been unlucky?).

for grocery stores, i havenā€™t been to a wet market yet and iā€™m hoping there is better variety of fresh vegetables there. the PX mart and carrefour have so far been quite disappointing. do you know a good place to shop for fresh ingredients? it seems none of the restaurants i go to can find anything except cabbage cabbage cabbageā€¦

dumpling place with cold sides that you can help yourself to, they do a mean beef roll. i understand it is a chain, the location i went to had parking around the corner and two floors. the name is something in chinese, both times i was taken there

Lol, not British no. I havenā€™t been to Hunan, but spent some time in Guangzhou and Thailand and yes, Thai food is on another level, Iā€™ll give you that. Taiwanese food can be really, really good too, just much harder to find. I will admit that I waded through a lot of garbage to find the good places to eat. That and a Taiwanese wife who is an amazing cook helps.

I know the restaurant that you are referring to. YangBaoBao (ę„Šåƶåƶ) It started as a tiny little stand in a traditional market a couple of minutes away from where it is now. It was just a couple of older ladies with a few of those cheap tables and plastic chairs but was so good and so popular that they had to expand. They started with the one side of the building and had to buy the unit next door to expand because they were so busy.
There is another spot not far from there that is pretty good too and the owners are really nice. They sell their version of GongBao Chicken. ę¦®ę˜Ÿå®®äæé›žäøé£Æ No. 57-7, Lane 190, Nanzixin Rd, Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 811 Nothing super special, just simple and good.

If you were looking for a good sit down restaurant I would recommend Tan Zuo Ma Li

For fresh vegetables, I would generally shop at the morning markets. They pop up all over, but that is where you would find the freshest produce/fruit/meat - itā€™s where the majority of the locals shop.

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As another data point, the last place I lived prior to coming here was also Thailand, so that had a definite effect on my relative opinion of food here ( :thailand: >> :taiwan: ).

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Thai food is way superior to the food here. And I hate coconut and coriander!

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Youā€™re missing out.
Also oyster soup.
Also fried oysters.

All the good stuff. :sunglasses:

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I actually stayed above a Taiwanese restaurant in Chiang Mai for several months and walked past it a couple of times a day.

Wasnā€™t tempted. Not even once. :laughing:

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Yes, that might be the difference!

Yes, thatā€™s the place!

Iā€™ve been to Sichuan a few times, their version is really good!

I donā€™t eat anything from the water, more for those who do :wink:

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My wife makes the best Gong Bao chicken. Itā€™s FAMOUS!
I make the best San Bei Ji.
Both WAY better than anything Iā€™ve had in a restaurant/FAMOUS night market stall.

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I think weā€™ve given the kid enough material on Thai food for his homework - time to close the thread? :grin:

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