Thought it might be interesting to hear some stories about what brought people here in the first place.
My story is pretty simple. Had an interest in Chinese culture and history. I took Mandarin classes in uni and did a summer semester in Shanghai. I was vaguely aware of Taiwan but didn’t know much about it at the time. Over there I had a few Taiwanese classmates, found them very agreeable, and made friends with one (female of course…) so that got me curious. Reading about its history and unique cultural and political situation fascinated me and I found it aesthetically appealing, that intersection of modernity and tradition. So I organised to go on exchange there. Liked it enough to go back for round two later on.
My college roommate liked pool and we often hung out at the pool hall in the student center. A lot of Asian guys hung there and we increasingly became friends. One thing led to another after that.
First visited because of my girlfriend wife, decided I like it a lot better than any of the 40 or so various other countries and US states I’ve experienced for any length of time.
If only someone on Forumosa would take a stand a tell the world that the food is vastly overrated, and often barely counts as food let alone world class
