The mayor is not elected by the city council but directly by the citizens. The city council also does not have the power to remove the mayor from office. Power is accountable only to its source, and since the mayor’s authority comes from a mandate granted by the people rather than the council, the mayor should be directly accountable to the citizens. Therefore, the mayor is not obligated to answer to the city council. In Taiwan, mayors should be like the President of the United States—there is no need for them to attend city council sessions to be questioned.
Whatever you say bucko.
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They do it in Japan. End of discussion.
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Wouldn’t the council be also elected, with part of their job being to oversee the mayor?
holding government accountable seems like an alright idea. We probably don’t do it enough.
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Why does everything have to be about USA?
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How’s that been working out lately?
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Strong riposte everyone, well done. 
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Yes, good to see that our reputation for being relentlessly grouchy curmudgeons is justified. Hopefully, this will be reported widely on Reddit.
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I got an official warning from Reddit today.
Someone asked if Wanhua was too dangerous to stay in. Me being the cunt I am replied, yeah, you’ll be dead by the end of the week. 
But seriously the banality of the questions is mind boggling. When I think back to me going into China by myself in 1989 just after 6/4 speaking no Chinese. Literally an idiot abroad. Best trip I ever took.
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I find reddit more dangerous than wanhua if I’m being honest…
I furtively ventured over there—to Reddit—and had a look around. I was a bit surprised to see so many people whining about Taiwan. The common theme is that Taiwan is overrated. Food isn’t as good as they expected, not modern enough, too many bones in meat, unfriendly people who won’t speak Mandarin. The usual stuff.
It occurs to me that this is an inevitable side effect of Taiwan’s higher profile these days. More people are trying it out, which means that the there will be more, um, innocents abroad who are less likely to have the adaptability that Taiwan requires. Bit of an eye opener for me since I don’t have much occasion to hang out with new arrivals.
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Let’s hope real world example of anything is better than the example reddit sets 
I’m not on there either, but the times Google takes me there it’s often a bit odd. I prefer wanhua.
I have been banned from all of reddit for the last year.
Zenmekeneng…worse than the Chinese that lot.
My sin was was trying to rereg to a forum that a mod took a dislike to me. So they completely banned me, autonanned, persona non grata.
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So many people trying to micro manage shit itineraries in Taiwan. Alishan Sunmoon lake Jiufen, fucking Houtong, which is the worst place in the universe.
You could reshoot Apocalypse Now with Houtong as the final destination where a failed English teacher is holed up surrounded by cats and geckos. 
The horror…
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Haha that hits hard. .Concrete ruins surrounded by mangy cats in a damp valley.
Lazy tourism operators.
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Nah, they don’t sell beer there. Least not any I could find.
You have been warned.
The horror, plus no beer…double horror
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I can’t really see our fictional teacher holing up in a place with no beer.
I guess he might have been previously based in nearby Shuangxi and beat a hasty ill-advised tactical retreat to Houtong after getting into one too many arguments with a neighbor about pipes in a vacant lot. He probably went mad there over the winter due to lack of sunlight and the ongoing refusal of Shuangxi folk to speak Mandarin to him despite his perfect pronunciation learned in China or prepare food to his liking.
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Many new teachers don’t drink because they have been educated about the gossip here and don’t want to set a bad example and lose business for the school. I didn’t drink alcohol at all in Taiwan until I stopped teaching, for that exact reason. When I quite, I rediscovered beer. And it was wonderful! Not all teachers are hippy backpackers outside a 711 at midnight.