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You won't find anyone to teach you Mandarin with 10 bucks. People either do it for much more or they do it for fun, aka language (body fluids) exchange.
Considering that it's a tropical island in the Pacific, the beaches aren't good and it's not very beautiful nature wise. Not compared to Hawaii or Costa Rica.
It's also not a very fun country as people don't drink much there. Japanese and Korean people drink far more.
I have known broke western men staying in Asia just to be with their Asian girlfriends or wives. You can guess what Asian people think of these foreigners. And most parents of the Asian women dislike these men without the ability to feed him, his women and children. Due to various reasons, they are unemployed or underemployed in Asia, maybe without the proper visas to stay long term or legally.
Having less opportunities and income for foreigners. Taiwan is particularly bad for westerners who normally earn better in their countries or other rich places in Asia.
Well, my guess is, that learning to speak Chinese decently would make a difference. But then again, it might be better to approach company representatives in their US offices, than in Taiwan, IDK. But the OP didn't say he might be looking to settle down there.
Yes, OP; Taiwan is beautiful to visit. It's a great place for sight-seeing around the island, and the food is legendary. Not sure if I'd want to go there with the pandemic still active, even if Taiwan is doing a better job of controlling it than the US. For one thing, I'd want to know how they're monitoring food preparation in restaurants and with street vendors. But if you do go, get vaccinated for hepatitis, and see what other vaccinations are recommended.
Considering that it's a tropical island in the Pacific, the beaches aren't good and it's not very beautiful nature wise. Not compared to Hawaii or Costa Rica.
It's also not a very fun country as people don't drink much there. Japanese and Korean people drink far more.
How sad, that your idea of fun is dependent on alcohol. Taiwan is, indeed, beautiful, IMO; maybe it's a matter of knowing where to go. And it's much cheaper than Hawaii, and has more ethnic diversity than CR, for those who are into that. Anyway, the OP doesn't have a gf in Hawaii or CR, so they're irrelevant.
How sad, that your idea of fun is dependent on alcohol. Taiwan is, indeed, beautiful, IMO; maybe it's a matter of knowing where to go. And it's much cheaper than Hawaii, and has more ethnic diversity than CR, for those who are into that. Anyway, the OP doesn't have a gf in Hawaii or CR, so they're irrelevant.
No offense, but try to consider context before you lash out at another poster.
No, alcohol is not everything, but Japan and Korea are more fun places for young people.
Considering the distance to get there for most people, there's other places I'd generally recommend for travel.
It's my ancestral country so I wouldn't put it down unless those were the facts...
In my opinion Taiwans nature is underrated, but its economy is overrated.
Wages in Taiwan are somewhat low, work hours are long and it has very expensive and low quality housing. The end result is that a lot of Taiwanese are not happy with their quality of life.
However as a tourist it is pretty great, it is cheap, it has beautiful mountains, temples and beaches, the food is great, internet is free and people are friendly.
Yeah it is significantly overlooked as a tourist destination, especially areas outside of Taipei. Beautiful country in the south and well worth considering on top of the other destinations in the eastern Asia region. But friends who came from there tell me they enjoy living in North America much more so go figure.
I've lived there for a bit and visit about once every two years or so.
I really like it, and I especially like Taipei. The food's great, the countryside and landscape beautiful, the people are friendly, the infrastructure is fantastic, the local culture has its idiosyncrasies, and it's a repository for a lot of traditional Chinese culture and crafts. They’re fairly open and progressive there and are pretty welcoming to other people. It's pretty under-the-radar as far as a place to visit, but it's a developed country with a lot of modern amenities while being fairly affordable in most respects. The caveat, and it's a large one, is that it's only very affordable if you aren't living off of Taiwan service industry wages which is pretty tough on the Taiwanese peoples themselves though at least higher education, transport, and healthcare is fairly good and cheap, and it's culturally very acceptable to live in a multigenerational household and I'm guessing that plays some part in how people still remain so friendly and generous to each other despite the low wage growth. If you can get work as an expat worker in a branch of an European or American company, have some capital and a solid business idea, or have the ability/experience teaching/tutoring US standardized testing to wealthy people, then it can be really comfortable living.
One thing to note is that it's a small island, but it's really not *that* small the way Hong Kong or Singapore are. There's a lot of variation in its cities and geography (especially as a volcanic island with very high summits), so there's a lot to see.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 05-17-2020 at 01:51 PM..
I've lived there for a bit and visit about once every two years or so.
I really like it, and I especially like Taipei. The food's great, the countryside and landscape beautiful, the people are friendly, the infrastructure is fantastic, and it's a repository for a lot of traditional Chinese culture. It's pretty under-the-radar as far as a place to visit, but it's a developed country with a lot of modern amenities while being fairly affordable. The caveat, and it's a large one, is that it's only very affordable if you aren't living off of Taiwan service industry wages which is pretty tough on the Taiwanese peoples themselves though at least higher education, transport, and healthcare is fairly good and cheap, and it's culturally very acceptable to live in a multigenerational household and I'm guessing that plays some part in how people still remain so friendly and generous to each other despite the low wage growth. If you can get work as an expat worker in a branch of an European or American company, have some capital and a solid business idea, or have the ability/experience teaching/tutoring US standardized testing to wealthy people, then it can be really comfortable living.
One thing to note is that it's a small island, but it's really not *that* small the way Hong Kong or Singapore are. There's a lot of variation in its cities and geography (especially as a volcanic island with very high summits), so there's a lot to see.
I would say the reason that it's under the radar is because most people who travel that far can get more bang for the buck in other places.
Natural beauty and beaches, you can go with SE Asia.
Big Asian metropolis - Tokyo, Seoul
Big city 'Chinese type' culture - Shanghai, host of Chinese cities.
The weather can also be a little overbearing.
The museum and zoo are really good.
And the mountains and lakes are really nice ... of course, you'd need to know where to go. Taiwan and Taipei has overall a good amount of things going for it (to visit). But none of them really jump out at you.
I would say the reason that it's under the radar is because most people who travel that far can get more bang for the buck in other places.
Natural beauty and beaches, you can go with SE Asia.
Big Asian metropolis - Tokyo, Seoul
Big city 'Chinese type' culture - Shanghai, host of Chinese cities.
The weather can also be a little overbearing.
The museum and zoo are really good.
And the mountains and lakes are really nice ... of course, you'd need to know where to go. Taiwan and Taipei has overall a good amount of things going for it (to visit). But none of them really jump out at you.
I can see that on some points, but there are a few things that are unique to Taiwan that can admittedly be a bit niche. You covered one of them which is the National Palace Museum which has probably the most extensive collection of valuable Chinese artifacts assembled anywhere. Taiwan’s use of traditional Chinese script and not putting a heavy hand on wiping out religious practices, customs, and temples arguably means that it preserves a lot more of the pre-industrialization Chinese arts, crafts, and ceremonies which were eliminated to a larger extent in China though there’s been a good deal of pretty interesting cosplaying and recreation of really old traditions of dubious authenticity that I find interesting. That’s obviously not something that’s of interest to everyone though. The beaches aren’t much, but the hiking up in the mountains is pretty good and the island has some fairly unique flora and fauna, not just from being an island, but because of its sharp ascent in elevation with that elevation being fairly accessible since the island isn’t super large while the cities are very developed.
I’m biased, but it’s a combination of a lot of things like being fairly relaxed and slow-paced as a place which reminds me of parts of Southeast Asia while still being a developed and fairly well-functioning country like some of its other East Asian counterparts.
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