Would You Recommend where You Live to Others?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

I want to move next year. I live in the countryside area of Kaohsiung, but generally speaking I am quite bored of Kaohsiung overall as I have been here 4 years and want to travel to a new area.

I am currently tossing up 4 areas.

Taipei seems to be more interesting with more food and entertainment and the people seem to be more open but I have heard it is expensive. If you live in Taipei, what is the pros and cons of living in your district.

The other area is Taichung because not only is the weather better, but it is much closer to Taipei to hop on a bus and go there for the weekend, and the same goes for Kaohsiung. But not sure if I would be bored there. I know Nantou and Alishan is close by so that might be a cool spot to do travel.

The last areas are Taidong and Hualian. I have been there before and there is a lot of outdoor activities, but not sure how easy it would be to make friends. Also the possible boring part since there doesnt seem to be much in the way of shopping districts, entertainment areas etc.

I’m strongly leaning towards Taipei, but my main worry is the cost of living and housing.

Anyone want to share what their recommendations are? Do you like where you live and why?

2

Taipei really reflects your assumptions: food, entertainment and costly. New Taipei City, on the other hand, is a more affordable and allows you fast access to Taipei besides having its own attractions. You can look for any district in NTC and you will find that it is much cheaper than the capital city.

I currently live near Taipei University in Sanxia and I’m really happy with the area. It’s new, clean, large roads and sidewalks, and convenient, with supermarkets and restaurants all around. The downside is that you can only count on buses for public transportation (although there are plenty of them), as there is no MRT station yet. If you have a car, however, it’s quite easy to access the highway 3 and get to Taipei in 30 min or so.

3

I used to live near Yongchun MRT on the blue line in Taipei. Really liked it. A food market, open air and indoor public pool in the park nearby, gym, walking distance to 101, the east shopping district, Raohe, and Elephant Mountain for chillin’.

Not much basis for comparison. Panchiao sucked, but I was there in 2000, before the MRT went there, so apparently, it’s a lot better now. Shida was verminous and annoying and bafflingly expensive.

4

To be honest, almost anywhere is a nice place to live in Taipei/New Taipei, as long as you are within striking distance of the MRT/bus, and even when lacking, there are other characteristics that work in your favor -more space, cleaner air, etc.

For example, I live in Xindian. Yesterday I counted furriners every 10 meters, families, couples, friends, mixed couples. As we say in Spanish, you throw a rock and you hit an atoga. I dare to say Xindian has convenient services, nice hospitals and scenic areas, easy access to the airport and other touristic areas lie Wulai and the East Coast -though Shueshan Tunnel, you are in Yilan in a jiffy. Rent is affordable -relatively speaking- and we have a nice mix of the Carrefour mall, supermarkets, traditional markets, 24 hours fruit stands, bike paths,… eh a bit lacking on public parks though.

5

Yes come to Xindian :slight_smile:. But the Carrefour is a disaster zone for much of the week, being pretty much the only shopping center in all of the Xindian area.

6

Okinawa. Just saying.

7

To be honest, I’d wish it would be like Tianmu, with the parks, and the shopping centers -Mitsukoshi, Takashimaya- and many community activities -heck, the lizhang gets special fare tickets to the W Movie Theater and gives them away in the neighborhood.

If you live in Xindian, shopping is either Gongguan/Shida area or Taipei city.

8

Job websites or recommendations? Ah, imagine my doggies prancing on the beach…

9

I lived in Xindian my last 3 years in Taiwan and would say it was the best area in the Taipei region I had lived. Super convenient to get around town by MRT, or out to Tamsui or Beitou, and if you are close to the riverside, endless walking and biking.

I lived right in Bitan, 30m from the parks. Rent was NT15,000 for a 35 ping place.

For groceries I went to Costco once a month and then used the local market and organic shops for daily needs. Sometimes Carrefore.

10

Taipei weather sucks and the sky is nearly always gray. Not mostly blue like mid and southern Taiwan. If I didn’t need to be in Taipei, I wouldn’t. Yea, there are more restaurants, clubs, and shopping, but the people are not as friendly as people in other cities. You can live fairly cheap in Taipei/New Taipei but not in the center.

It depends on priorities (job, friends, lifestyle, cost of living, etc.) and likes/not likes about where you have been living.

11

Reporting from Yilan here. I’ve lived for 1 year in Luodong and I’ve recently bought home in Zhuangwei (or Juangwei). Before that I’ve lived 14 months in Taichung.

Someone before me on this forum said:“Pros and Cons of living in yilan: Pro: You’re living / Cons: in Yilan”. I’ll elaborate that.

Pros:

If you don’t like living in big cities, Yilan county is great. You still get all the commotidies and services of a large city, in a much smaller and quieter package. Taipei Nan Gang is 45 minutes away.

In this region there’s everything: seaside and beaches, surfing spots, cycling routes, hiking paths, mountains, fishing lakes and rivers, waterfalls, hot springs. There’s no lack of ideas for weekends.

I have 0 experience about teaching in this area, but there are always many companies looking for people who can speak English (and foreign languages in general) for export, manufacturing etc etc. There are also many opportunities in the hospitality/tourism industry.

Local traditional food is pretty good, and each small town has different things to offer.

Very common earthquakes, but always very small (this is no Hualien)

The region is pretty small, so a motorbike is enough to travel everywhere, and traffic is not an issue (with the exeption of the central area in Luodong and Yilan, particularly the Night Markets)

Houses and apartments are very cheap compared to Taipei, and especially if you’re willing to live in what locals consider “the middle of nowhere” (5 minutes from the city) you can get a great deal.

Cons:

The weather, man. The fucking weather. “Oh come on, I’ve lived in <insert other country/region here>, it cannot be that bad”. Yes, it is. It sucks ass. It’s humid 350 days a year, and there are basically only 2 seasons: rain season (late Autumn/Winter/Early Spring) and slightly less rainy season (the remaining time). The “slightly less rainy season” is filled with Typhoons, so yeah, there’s also that. Yilan is between the East coast and the mountains, so each Typhoon that makes direct hit here or in Hualien is not a pleasant experience at all.

Salaries are much lower than in big cities. The cost of living is also much lower as well, but if you expect to live in Yilan to make a ton of cash it’s not going to work, unless you have enough money to invest into some activity.

Relatively easy to find old/middle age people who don’t speak Chinese at all, only some obscure dialect.

Fairly easy to find young people with 0 knowledge of English (may be a problem if you move here and can’t speak Chinese at all).

While you’ll very rarely end up in a situation like:“I want to buy the thing but I cannot find it, screw this place!”, there are much fewer options for shopping, so if you’re in a rush you may end up being forced to buy things at relatively high prices. Buying online is a good options, and for computer components Sunfar can usually offer decent prices, but forget Nova, Ikea, Costco etc.

Fuck the weather.

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TL;DR

Hualien - Taroko - Earthquakes + Rain + more convenient location (closer to Taipei) = Yilan

If you’ve ever spent time in Hualien, thought it was great but you felt a bit “in the middle of nowhere”, you could give Yilan a shot as long as the weather doesn’t bother you.

12

I think it varies quite a bit depending on the area.
Obviously anything central taipei is gonna cost if its decent and not some shit box. You can get a decently priced nice place in xinzhuang or something, but then the surroundings are not so nice.
I live in banqiao, its cool but in future i wouldnt mind either upgrading to a nicer area or to a less nice area with a better apartment. That said, i couldn’t live in taichung.

13

Anywhere near the Meidi Riverside park. Great running routes, tolerable biking routes. Nice apartments. Jiannan MRT next to the little mall. Clean wide pavements. Trees ‘n’ stuff. Views of hills. Lots of nice cafes with no expats in them (a big plus). You get to watch the planes at Songshan on the MTR into town and when you’re running at the riverside park. Far enough out the city to be healthy, near enough not to face a several-eon trip on an overcrowded train (a la ‘living’ in Xindian).

14

As a long time Taipei resident, I have to tell you that the weather is a real problem. It’s not quite as bad as Keelung or Yilan, but it really rains a lot and is unpleasantly cold in the winter.

If you must live in Taipei, live in central Taipei. For example, Da’an or Zhongzheng. Wanhua or Datong (especially the the Dadaocheng area) are also worth considering. What is the point of living in Taipei if you are commuting to the wilds of New Taipei City every day and spending money on taxis to get home or rush to work? Well, there is one good reason. Decent housing is much more affordable.

Personally, I would move to Taichung if I were you. It will be a lot more socially and culturally interesting than rural Kaohsiung. It also has great weather and is much more affordable than Taipei.

15

[quote=“Feiren”]
Personally, I would move to Taichung if I were you. It will be a lot more socially and culturally interesting than rural Kaohsiung. It also has great weather and is much more affordable than Taipei.[/quote]

I agree that for someone who enjoys big cities Taichung is probably the best pick in Taiwan. Air pollution is really bad, though.

16

I love the little corner of Taipei I live in. Right next to a park, nice flat, next to a MRT stop, fairly quiet and 300 meter away from Viewshow with all the bars there. The weather is the weather, suck it up I say, alternatively get some heating and some aircon.

17

[quote=“Feiren”]As a long time Taipei resident, I have to tell you that the weather is a real problem. It’s not quite as bad as Keelung (Jilong) or Yilan, but it really rains a lot and is unpleasantly cold in the winter.

If you must live in Taipei, live in central Taipei. For example, Da’an or Zhongzheng. Wanhua or Datong (especially the the Dadaocheng area) are also worth considering. What is the point of living in Taipei if you are commuting to the wilds of New Taipei City every day and spending money on taxis to get home or rush to work? Well, there is one good reason. Decent housing is much more affordable.

Personally, I would move to Taichung if I were you. It will be a lot more socially and culturally interesting than rural Kaohsiung. It also has great weather and is much more affordable than Taipei.[/quote]

The wilds of New Taipei City…xinzhuang, Banqiao, Zhonghe, shizr, Xindian…are but a very short MRT ride over some rivers, 20 minutes will usually do it! I’d rather live in most of those places than Wanhua as well.

Taichung is far better laid out than Taipei with more open space and many new apartment buildings and nice newly developed areas to choose from but yes it does suffer badly from air pollution, plus making a decent living can be a challenge.

I also love luodong in Yilan, very green and great sports park and nature around there. Didn’t move there as a but far from the airport for my liking. It’s commutable into Taipei by train and bus.

18

I live in Taipei City on the edge of the city! Wenshan District is Taipei City but it extends to the city’s edge here in Muzha. I love where I live. I’m five minutes from an MRT, there’s a bus stop right outside, a supermarket on the ground floor, a river park over the road, an amazing view of Taipei Zoo and the surrounding mountains, my son’s school is five minutes’ walk away and the sports centre with free swimming pool is closer. My only gripe is that it can be noisy. Not, surprisingly, from the main road but from scooters and cars cutting through the small street to avoid the traffic lights.

Though the weather is probably worse here than further south, the air pollution levels are often lower, and there are a ton of things to do when it’s raining.

19

I live in Da-an District in Taipei, not too far from 101, and I love it. When I landed in Taiwan in the 90’s, I thought it would be awesome to live here some day, and when I finally did move here, I was right - I couldn’t be happier.

Parks, MRTs, restaurants, the Eslite Main Store, Sun Yat Sen, libraries where the kid can hang out … it has been great. There are 5 hospitals within a 10 min ride from where I live, which has been meaningful for me and my family as we get older. Plus 4 post offices, 5 Wellcomes (oops, we just lost one this week… it’s being converted into a Jason’s!), 2 (now 3) Jason’s, and a night market. By MRT, we regularly take the kid to the zoo, the bug museum, Taipei 101, Daan Park, CKS, Miramar, Ikea, and Songshan Airport, and his grandparents – all within 20 min or less from our station.

The weather doesn’t bother me, maybe because not too long ago, I lived in Shanghai where the environment is more extreme in every way, much colder and much hotter. And because I visit my folks in Manila every chance I get, I experience heat, air pollution, and traffic that are multiple times worse than what I experience here. I count my blessings.

My in-laws are in Zhonghe, and we spend some time there. And I used to live there for 4 years, so I appreciate how much more convenient it has become. Even though it is not too far from the city, I am happy to be living where we are in Da-an.

20

Thanks for all the suggestions, i will edit this post tomorrow with a reply, it’s been a long 2 days at work :bow: