Problem with the south is that it never gets rain unless a typhoon comes, but they’ve avoided Taiwan completely for the last 5 years or so. I don’t know why. It’s like there’s this huge high pressure air mass over Taiwan that kicks away any typhoons, keeping it dry here and making it REAL hot in the summer.
The only real source of rain in Taiwan is the monsoon, and the northeast trade winds that only rains up north (it dries out by the time it makes it past Taichung).
It was late 2016 when we went, and I actually remembered it as being an 85°C before I looked at Google Maps just now to check and could only find a Starbucks. I just vaguely remember buying a disappointing and overpriced coffee from what I thought was an 85°C (I definitely didn’t go in the Starbucks). And the abundance of concrete.
I do occasionally think to go back actually for another look. I remember parts of the lake being pretty nice. It’s just quite a long way to go, and we got concrete in Taipei.
Yeah, I’m sure there are nice places around, but there are very few places in Taiwan I’m eager to go back to. Lots of gorgeous locations - but in approximately 0% of the locations that I can recall do the buildings augment, rather than detract from, the location.
I hope things have improved. The general ugliness of the buildings + the overpriced hotels are big factors in why I mostly stopped travelling in Taiwan a long time ago.
When they opened up everyone was leaving Taiwan for vacations. Reportedly the hotels were something like 5000 a day, and people decided leaving Taiwan was cheaper than vacationing here.
I remember going there when Ifirst came as well and only really being excited about the fact a vendor was selling Entada seeds for massage. times have changed, it really isnt a nice place in my view either, at least not anywhere there is a road. once you walk away from the human parts, it is decent enough! at the same time, I do kind of enjoy Taiwan because most tourism is concentrated in certain areas. easy to avoid. I prefer “everyone” going there rather than goin everywhere 
Half full for 10. April is great - the center of Taiwan will get enough rain, be it by beginning of May or end of May.
The south is more troublesome. It’s just plain stupid there is no pipeline for water north to south - because it rains so much in the North all the reservoirs could be 100% until end of February…
Actually I think in the South the main water usage is fruits and veggies - so that’s why the reservoirs aren’t dropping much anymore - they just don’t give anymore water to farmers from reservoirs (but then most farmers there must have watertanks for when water supply stops).
BTW - some weeks ago I discovered a nice hotel in Lushan hotsprings… Kinda all hotels there are dirt cheap as they operate semi legally (the whole town is supposed to be closed because the government thinks soon a typhoon will wipe away the city again - too much loose soil upstream and when that goes down and stuck the city will be flooded like hell again. If you bargain a bit 1300NTD for a nice double room (they have two hotel buildings, one horribly run down the other pretty nice), one of the best hotspring pool areas in Lushan and average for taiwan breakfast. Yeah it’s run down but has some charm…Way better than any hotel twice that price in Guguan or on sun moon lake.
Some places in Taiwan - though few have good value hotels. Lushan and some other abandoned cities are part of that. Sun moon lake around the lake itself or Gugan are the polar opposite. Bad hotels for crazy high prices.
It’s the same issue with Los Angeles and water supply. LA is essentially a desert area and a pipeline would have helped, except the pipeline would be a huge cost/engineering issue.
Same with a pipeline from north to south, huge cost and engineering hurdle, and who would pay for all that?
Yea it rains damn near all the time in Taipei but for some reason it never rains south. In fact only time you get significant rainfall, as in enough to fill up all the reservoirs, is a typhoon. But for some reason there hasn’t been one since 2020. I don’t really know why, it’s almost as if there’s some kind of a weather control technology out there.
There’s some discussion of desalination plants down south, but honestly thanks to DPP’s energy policy we don’t have enough power for it.
Pipeline wouldn’t be that expensive. Many cities in Europe get all their water from mountains 100-300km away. Especially in Taiwan it can be ugly which reduces costs a lot…
Desalination is a huge economical disaster apart from electricity needed.
I rather wonder if Taiwan could filter water from air. Though I guess needs too much surface which Taiwan doesn’t have. Unlike most water scarce countries Taiwan air is super humid.
The annual Sun Moon Lake open water swimming event has been canceled because of Taiwan’s drought. Organizers hope to hold it again next year.
That requires far more energy than desalination. Taking water out of the air means using ac to cool the air to suck it out of the air. In addition to making the entire area hot (unless that waste heat can somehow be sequestered or used) it’s not going to get you much water.
No that is only one way. In high humidity and temperature there are plenty other mechanical ways to do so. But yeah even though there are a few which need no external energy - the output is rather limited - e.g. you can gather enough water for drinking with a rather small area/construction but not for agriculture or other uses.
The water will also be disgusting, it will have to be treated before it can be used. Water out of a desalination plant is fit for drinking.
Well I guess it depends on smog vs sea water quality - but surely it’s wrong to say it’s worse de facto. There are plenty technologies - I was mainly thinking about “fog net” - see here for some:
High humidity countries are perfect - but I think most work best with big temperature difference day/night.
So far desalination was cheapest in many areas - but the residue left from it is very problematic. Unlike getting water out of the air.
Won’t work in taiwan. Have you seen any dew in taiwan? I never see them because most the time, the day night temperature is not that different.
Also the reason desalination plant water comes out clean is because the process, distillation or reverse osmosis basically purify the water. Any filtering is only to keep debris out.
Also where water is needed the humidity is much lower, and the temperature never dip below the dew point even at night, so dew never forms in taiwan. Places like Tainan and kaishung which is where water is needed often is dry and sunny for long stretches unless a typhoon shows up. What we need is a pipeline or water way of some kind. It rains all the time in the north.
Yes the dew point is too low in general - but maybe there could be some inventions to increase it for that purpose.
And yes - a pipeline north to south for water I have often mentioned and am pretty sure is the cheapest solution. May need some new low altitude water reservoirs down South/center however to save on turbine energy for pumpinp the water around.
Please stop making stuff up TL. Of course atmospheric water generation is possible in Taiwan. Whether or not it’s the best solution for general use (probably not) is another question, but if the motivation and investment were there it’s doable. Just because you can’t figure out a way to do something, it doesn’t make it impossible.
The obtained water can be treated by any number of post-condensation purification processes. The only reason that “desalination plant water comes out clean” is because the bulk of the purification is conducted during the desalination processes. Nonetheless, post-treatment is also needed depending on the application, as is filtering (not only for debris as you said - there are also particles and microorganisms to be removed; suggest you look at a schematic of a desalination plant rather than assuming stuff all the time).
https://ide-tech.com/en/blue-is-the-new-green-achieving-sustainable-seawater-desalination/
Brine is becoming less and less of a problem. Taiwan also could help lead the charge and innovate some solutions.
Considering they keep talking about water shortage, people are really insanely wasteful with regards to water in Taiwan.
A building across the street has been leaking water. We’re not talking a small amount of leaks, we’re talking freaking waterfalls coming off the stairs for several days now. Not long ago their roof was dripping water for several days, and I reported them (it was irritating as hell) and they couldn’t do anything about this. It stopped but now I still see torrents of water coming off their stairs. I got no idea what their water bill is but it has to be astronomical. This is considering that the water may cause structural damages because it may seep into concrete and rust the rebar which will destroy the structure.
I mean water in Taiwan is like 10nt per cubic meter, so it would cost you like 25,000nt to fill an olympic sized swimming pool (there are no upcharge for excess use). Maybe they need to change this because people here waste water like crazy. My parents save dish water for watering plants/flushing toilets because water in California is so expensive.
Agreed, water security is a complete joke in Taiwan. It’s disgusting. From the source and prep work for storage to the societal level of wastage. I thunk people take rain for granted and are too selfish to really bother conserving anything themselves. It’s not a good sign.
Probably a good design to invest in excavators, cause those dudes are gonna get busy pretty soon with the knee jerk reactions that are destined to come 