I wake up 5:30am and go hiking twice a week before work.
Here is the view from Elephant mountain albeit at night time.
[quote=“Acujer”]Can you make comparisons to Mainland? Like Taipei is like Beijing and Tai Zhong like Shanghai or something? Suburbs are like Gu Bei. Maybe you never been over there.
I guess I fly into Tai Bei anyways. I don’t even know where I’ll go once I fly into the airport.
Taxi: “Qu nali?”
Me: “Bu zhi dao.”[/quote]
Taipei (3 million) is like Shanghai Putong or Gubei … Taizhong (1 million) is like a suburb of Shenzhen … Gubei …
You can not fly into Taipei on international flight from the States, you fly in TTY Taiwan Taoyuan International airport … than go 30-45 min North-east to Taipei by bus or 2 hours south to Taizhong by bus … 1 hour by HSR …
Every place you guys mention sound very cool. I cant believe Sandman has a yard. I can fly into TPE airport from Los Angeles.
Nice view there. Although I got to say Stella is overrated. I still like it though.
So far I am leaning towards living in the outskirts of Taipei off the MRT. What do they call MRT in Chinese? Just Di Tie?
I wake up 5:30am and go hiking twice a week before work.
Here is the view from Elephant mountain albeit at night time.
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Oh yeah? Well I’ll take your Elephant Mountain and raise you my … er … can’t remember the name of it but still… That’s Taipei 101 in both shots just to the right of centre.
Maybe you guys laugh at English teachers, but, are there decent teaching jobs out in these places you mention?
Belgian Pie look at this:
Yeah, we got mountains here. This is the view out my front window.
Edit: oops, sorry, raising Sandman’s unnamed mountain. That’s Monkey Mountain in the background on mine. At least I know where I live. :raspberry:
Are there decent teaching jobs in Taipei? Hell yeah, loads of them.
Belgian Pie’s just yanking your chain I think. I know the flight guides and codes say TPE, but the actual international airport is about 40 minutes by freeway south of Taipei. Many regular buses though. NT$1,000 or so by taxi.
Ok that’s it. I am either living by Mucha Man or Sandman.
Could I just show up and find teaching jobs there that can pay the rent? Don’t you pay more money to live in such a scenic part of town? I am not clear what the job market is like there.
Yes, TPE is not really Taipei … it’s outside Taipei as Sandman wrote … typed … posted
[quote=“Acujer”]Ok that’s it. I am either living by Muzha Man or Sandman.
Could I just show up and find teaching jobs there that can pay the rent? Don’t you pay more money to live in such a scenic part of town? I am not clear what the job market is like there.[/quote]
These two guys are homeless clochards, they both live up a mountain because the police chased them out of the city …
Here I am thinking Taiwan would be China but with less corruption, filth and harassment. But to my surprise I find you guys are living amongst mountains, drinking Stella and eating Pizza from wood burning ovens. Exceeded my expectations by far! Next you’re going to tell me Taiwanese don’t hate Americans.
In fact they don’t … they love Americans … but we hate them … proof is our forum threads … well, not really … 
[quote=“Muzha Man”]Yeah, we got mountains here. This is the view out my front window.
Edit: oops, sorry, raising Sandman’s unnamed mountain. That’s Monkey Mountain in the background on mine. At least I know where I live. :raspberry:
[/quote]
I just remembered: He Mei Shan. Peaceful Beauty. So poo to you. :raspberry: And see the hill over on the right there? That’s Lion Head Hill and it’s a 10-minute walk across the suspension bridge to get there. From there you can hike all the way to Muzha Man’s Monkey Mountain and beyond. All the way around the lip of the Taipei basin to Tycoon’s Elephant Mountain, in fact.
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In fact they don’t … they love Americans … but we hate them … proof is our forum threads … well, not really … [/quote]
Actually that’s what I want. To live in a country where they love Americans and the expats hate them. As long as everyone agrees to hate the French.
Or from Monkey Mountain you can hike to Ergeshan and then all the way to Shiding via Bijiashan. That’s about a 8 hour walk all on natural trail. I did most of it the other day. It’s just so lovely. By June you’ll be able to reach the trailhead by the MRT and cable car. Fortunately the first 30 minutes are straight up.
Acujer, you’ll find Taiwan a very easy place to live especially since you are used to whatever hassles there are here on a greater scale in China. The thing about Taiwan is there’s almost no poverty, so you don’t get the beggars like in Beijing, you don’t get the nasty shop owners, or the local resentment. The civil service is not corrupt at the level you will deal with them. Corruption is rife at the political level but that oddly enough does not affect most people on a day to day basis.
It’s also a really mountainous place so you can get away from it all really quickly. I was out hiking yesterday for 6 hours and saw 4 other people.
Oh, did I mention we have tons of hot springs too.
Better not mention the xiaojies, or he’ll rupture himself in his hurry to get here.
Hehe Xiaojies. Love those Taiwan birds.
Mucha Man that is great. One of the reasons I had to leave Mainland was the “local resentment” that you said. It’s also one of the main factors I was concerned about when going to Taiwan. Many expats that live in Mainland China for a long time feel that the local Chinese hate foreigners but put up with them to help develop their country. You may walk down the street and have some poor peasant laugh at you, thinking you come from an inferior culture.
Once you become accustomed to Chinese life, it’s hard to just leave it forever. I was hoping Taiwan would give me a more positive experience, the way I felt when I first moved to China, before I knew about how dark it gets.
Thanks.
[quote=“Acujer”]Hehe Xiaojies. Love those Taiwan birds.
Muzha Man that is great. One of the reasons I had to leave Mainland was the “local resentment” that you said. It’s also one of the main factors I was concerned about when going to Taiwan. Many expats that live in Mainland China for a long time feel that the local Chinese hate foreigners but put up with them to help develop their country. You may walk down the street and have some poor peasant laugh at you, thinking you come from an inferior culture.
Once you become accustomed to Chinese life, it’s hard to just leave it forever. I was hoping Taiwan would give me a more positive experience, the way I felt when I first moved to China, before I knew about how dark it gets.
Thanks.[/quote]
once you have sampled life in TAiwan and some of the xiaojiehs, the hard part will be leaving. STay for 3 years, stay for 30 they say.
I have already sampled Taiwan mei nv, and I love Bing Lang.
Hmm, maybe taichung IS the place for you then! 