There’s a tofu shop on Heping near technology building with tables outside. Herds of roaches are crawling over everything at night in the summer, and in the daytime, people are there buying the tofu. roachu tofu…
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Speaking of, and it happened to be right near there, a large roach that upon closer inspection flew! directly at us
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My first WTF moment before I even stepped onto the soil.
Looking out the window as my plane taxied off the Taoyuan airport runway for the first time.
. …WTAF!
Singapore Airlines Flight 006 …RIP.
BONUS WTF points. Scary scary stuff.
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An acquaintance of mine had the same WTF as you. He’s one of two foreign PhDs in English Literature teaching at a university here. Whenever the English department has a meeting, he and the other prof are required to attend the meetings, but all meetings are conducted in………CHINESE. Yep…English department…and neither can understand Chinese…WTF!!!
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I understand Mandarin to a reasonable extent, but the meetings I was forced to attend at first ended up being in Taiwanese. After that, I refused to attend if it was going to be in Taiwanese. I didn’t have to attend anymore after that; they just wanted to blabber in Taiwanese.
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i’m still having wtf moments. this chinese new yrs i went to the bathroom to wash my hands. a family membr walked in beside me and started taking a piss. im not a fan of doors open pissing either.
just started driving here recently so noticing some wtf things about that. how on a red light sometimes people will slowly move their scooter forward as if nobody noticed them… then just drive off. optional rules as always.
when i first got here the biggest wtf was definitely the stinky tofu. 3rd day i was here i went to shillin and was confused as to why the entire place smelled like shit. little did i know i would come to enjoy it now everytime i catch a whiff of it.
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and you know what happens when you use that kind of toilet paper that falls apart in your hands when you try to wipe your you know what?
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Only when it’s wet. It’s otherwise just normal but less soft. The toilet paper here is just not very soft, but I’ve never had a toilet clog in Italy. Which is pretty unbelievable.
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First city I lived in was Kaoshiung. So, I heard all the urban legends about the blue trucks so I was careful on my scooter but still a little careless. Until one night at an intersection, I thought I might be able to pull out into traffic, beating a blue truck down the road. Before I could even start to accelerate, that thing flew by me like Satan on a mission.
Second, at a red light I see a taxi bump two men on a scooter from behind. Both men jump off, one grabs the scooter lock and run to the driver’s side of the taxi, yanks open the door and proceed to beat the daylights of the taxi driver with the lock. The traffic cop watching all this, moseys over as if he’s going to get coffee.
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Ahhh, thems were the days…
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Ditto Taoyuan Night market. Man that place ponged. Everywhere ponged ! 
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Not washing hands with soap is the most WTF. I don’t get used it so it’s a WTF moment every time I go to a public restroom.
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Same in Taiwan, there is a little icon on the packet indicating if it is flushable.
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Yes, the “And they can fly!” moment.
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This was my dad’s main WTF moment when he came here to have the wedding ceremony. He calls them “Chinese blackbirds.”
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I got used to Taiwan too early to really have any true WTF moments. I do remember being little and feeling disturbed and saddened by the sight of amputees begging in the street, but that’s still true today, and such sights will probably never stop being upsetting.
The first time I went to China I remember glancing over at what I can only assume was a doorless public restroom to see a man squatting over the toilet taking a tremendous dump. That was really something.
I forgot to mention my dad’s second WTF moment — watching my aunt grab a roach with her bare hands and dispose of it accordingly. Absolutely fearless shit.
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Since we’re bringing up bathroom incidents…I’ve two more I remember from when I first arrived.
- My first time seeing a kid take a dump in the gutter on the side of the road. WTF! (Kaohsiung).
The other time seeing an older guy walking down the street, stops on a bridge, unzips and has a piss over the side of the bridge. WTF!
- The infamous cleaning ladies in the men’s restroom while men are in their taking care of business. It still bugs me. WTF!
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Third. Seeing people kill mosquitoes by clapping their hands or using battery powered tennis rackets.
Fourth. A good WTF. Being able to attend a Presidental election and buying the political trinkets. Still wear one every winter and have this on my wall(a good conversation piece with guests)
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But, what’s the alternative? They would have to close the men’s restroom during cleaning as they do in the west. I prefer the system they have here when I’m desperate.
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True. It’s more efficient.
Was still a WTF “shocking” moment for me the first time it happened to me.
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