I was on my rooftop in Jingmei. I got roughly woken awake, and despite the swaying of the building, hustled outside of my place to the patio. As soon as the shaking stopped I called my folks in Canada. “Mom, there’s been a big earthquake here!” “That’s strange, we haven’t heard anything about it.” No, mom, it JUST happened." As I was talking I could see big grids of the city going out, so I told her I was ok, but the power seemed to be going out, and I didn’t know if I would be able to call her again in the near future. I was right, because shortly after that, all the cell phone networks were down. She and my dad were relieved that I had called - it made them less anxious when they say the news on the TV. I’d be just as happy not to have to go through one of those again. The aftershocks over the next few days were a little rattling as well…
I was on the 9th floor In Taoyuan City. Felt it pretty well. SPent most of the actual reverb time trying to calm both my wife and my dog down. (Domestic bliss!), as I tried to move them both out of the building. Eventually comon sense prevailed, and it all came down to shouting! I got us all out of the building, and we stayed up all night in a nearby park. The dog and I had a blast, the wife nowhere near so. ALas! 
I found this once when I did an image search for Taiwan.
Dedicated athletes, to say the least!
I was in a cheap little rooftop… in Taichung City.
Basically, I was in a deep sleep and then just instantly thrown out of bed.
Then my stereo system flies across the room.
Not knowing what to do, I walked downstairs to the park and wandered around like a zombie around the park by my building (over by Chung-Yo dept. store and all the hospitals). So, most people just camped out in the park for a while. There were lots of tents.
I went to the children’s park up by Wenxin (is that where JD Smith was?) where some people I knew were, and us foreigners just camped out there.
Taichung City got a lot of media during the quake, but the majority of the tragic stuff was in Nantou, Puli, etc… In Taichung, we were mostly camping in the park for a week or so. Then Domino’s Pizza opened like on 9/23 or something and we were eating pizza in the park.
So for me, it was like a picnic in the park with funny afterquakes.
But I didn’t know anyone who died. I was one lucky mofo.
I was searching for the 2019 Earthquake thread and stumbled upon this. Thought I’d bump it as there’s some interesting historical accounts here. I wasn’t in Taiwan on 9/21, but I live in fear of a repeat of it. I think we all do to some extent.
921, the 2000 election riots, Nari, 911, SARS, the 101 crane falling in the 323 quake, Morakot, Tainan quake, Hualien quake,… this place is full of real time accounts of quite some historical items.
I still believe this. And I still do not sweat the small stuff, which, next to crushing falling screamy death is pretty much everything.
Yes, sorry for the delay getting back to you.
On 9/21, I was in class, recently back from lunchtime recess.