Is there anything worth visiting apart from Taipei?
The city looks amazing, but everything I see from the rest of the country seems meh.
Taiwan
Is there anything worth visiting apart from Taipei?
The city looks amazing, but everything I see from the rest of the country seems meh.
Very funny.
Please don't trivialize OPs situation. Being trans is normal in 2023
China is a pretty big country I’m sure you could find some other city to check out
>iseewhatyoudidthere.png
I'll have a look.
Food, temples, history... I'm pretty much autistic and I would travel alone, I don't care much about nightlife, drinks and so on.
>Food, temples, history...
Check out Tainan.
Also agree with the anon suggesting Kaohsiung. It's a comfy city with lots of nice nature and beaches close by. Felt more laid-back than Taipei. Can't recommend Taichung.
Thank you guys.
Well, the Confucius temple in Tainan looks cool.
To be honest I didn't look in depth yet, but that was my first impression. Like, I don't know, many modern cities and so on but that's it. Maybe that's just me, for instance I got bored in Singapore after visiting Thailand and Cambodia (I know you can't compare Singapore and Taiwan, but just as an example).
It doesn't seem really expensive though, that's true.
Now that you mentioned the dating scene... I'm not Brad fucking Pitt but in Thailand I had sex really easily using Tinder (at home -eurofag- it's WAY more difficult). I'm quite pale and have green eyes so that helped.
Wouldn't mind having ONS if it's not much of an effort.
Also an autist who went there solo. Stayed at an Airbnb near Liuhe Night Market in Kaohsiung and got to try all kinds of food. I had to work EU hours, so I'd have a dinner break at the night market, trying all sorts of stuff, then head back to my apartment with a cup of papaya milk and fresh fruit. I would sometimes finish work at 2 AM, so I'd head to the closest 711 for a couple of beers and a warm soup, it was so kino.
Are you sure you don't care for nightlife? Met some pretty cool expats in Kaohsiung and Taipei. Also, the dating scene is decent in Taiwan. You'll likely do well if you look halfway decent, assuming that your stay is not too short.
Sounds like you had a very nice time, hope you come back soon 🙂
>Food, temples, history
As far as food, I don't know if the night markets are recovering at all; the government shut them down during the Shanghai Sniffles outbreak and they still hadn't recovered at all when I left -- people seemed to still be in the mentality of "OMG this disease will kill us if we get it!" and were refusing to go to anyplace crowded to eat.
There are temples all over the place. Incidentally, a lot of temples are simply fronts for the various gangs there -- Bamboo Union, Seven Seas, and so on. The annual Mazu pilgrimage is basically a giant money-laundering operation for them.
If you like nature, Taroko Gorge is worth a look. You can simply take the train (pick an express) from the Songshan MRT station (which is NOT AT THE AIRPORT, it's the end of the Green Line whereas the airport is on the Brown Line) direct to Hualien, walk out of the train station, and pick a taxi driver to take you on a day tour there. Four years ago, they charged the equivalent of about US$100 -- keep in mind that it is a two hour drive there, two hours back, plus whatever time you take to look around. The driver my friend and I had was obviously an old hand at where to drop tourists off and pick them up again; there were a few places where he had us get out and walk for a half mile or so, then picked us up on the other end of that part of the trail. IIRC the swallow nests place was one of those.
South of Kaohsiung is the Kenting beach, which is very very nice and worth visiting. Take the HSR from wherever you are to Zuoying HSR Station. There is a bus from there to Kenting (you can use your MRT card or pay cash). I'd suggest staying in Kenting rather than in Kaohsiung if you want to stay a couple of nights. You can rent a scooter from random shops on the main road in Kenting (they ignore the laws about driver's licenses and insurance) and drive yourself around in the national park (where the beach scene from "Life of Pi" was filmed).
>As far as food, I don't know if the night markets are recovering at all; the government shut them down during the Shanghai Sniffles outbreak and they still hadn't recovered at all when I left -- people seemed to still be in the mentality of "OMG this disease will kill us if we get it!" and were refusing to go to anyplace crowded to eat.
When did you leave? I was there Dec-May this year and night markets were crowded early on but very crowded by the time I left. People still wear masks all the time though.
Yeah, if those sort of things are your focus Tainan would be even better than Taipei. Tainan is regarded as the food capital of Taiwan and it has a lot of Formosa history as well like the fort and the old street and shit. It's public transportation system is a mess but if you're patient it's fine.
China is a third world shithole where people shit on the streets. Even if we count Taiwan as apart of China that makes it the only good part
I have been to China twice and have stayed in most of the megacities. I have scarcely seen litter on the streets, let alone shit.
>poverty
It's not as bad as people make it out to be. Cities like NYC or LA have it way worse since Chinese won't beg for money and aren't bothersome
Anecdotally I was only in China for a total of about 4 days and had grandmas tug on my shirt asking me for money in two cities. They wouldn't let go and I had to quickly walk away when my light turned green. One was in Shanghai.
>Chinese won't beg for money and aren't bothersome
KEK GO BACK CHINKBOT
I love Taiwan but any tier 1 or 2 city in Mainland China is miles nicer and more modern than Taipei. Other Taiwanese cities not even worth mentioning
Kaohsiung was pretty cool. It would help if you shared what kind of stuff you're looking for.
You really think that?
I'm going in a few months and from what I saw, most of the cities along the west coast look decent enough to spend a couple of days in minimum at least, and then also go into the interior/nature, Taroko National Park and Sun Moon Lake, Alishan are all seem popular. I mean there looks like quite a lot you could day trip out of Taipei around the north too, or you can visit some of the islands. It's also super cheap for a first world country, just comparing to my other trips this year it seems to be priced around what you'd see in Poland and 2.5-3x cheaper than Switzerland. I need my friend to sort out the dates he can get off being a wagie for it so I haven't booked yet, but I wont be there for less than 3 weeks and I will go all over the country
>Taroko National Park and Sun Moon Lake, Alishan are all seem popular
Taroko National Park was gorgeous. Sun Moon Lake felt like a bit of a let-down (but then again I'm an Austrian living in Norway so I've seen my fair share of alpine lakes). Haven't been to Alishan.
go down or up the east coast. it is all a bit meh to be honest but you can enjoy it.
I am visiting in a few months because I don't have much hope that the status quo allowing Taiwan's independent existence will last much longer. I am sure that's enough to figure out my recommendation
It's pretty chill, the cost of living is cheap and the large cities are very convenient. You'll get laid much more than in the West. I'd seriously consider it if I were you.
If you don't have anything worthwhile at home (family, friends etc) then no there are essentially no negatives. Unless you hate warm weather. If you live in a major city you can get by with english and a translation app easily. I'm here for at least 3 years and will save 100k+ just from living here
I spent one night in Hualien and then next day hired a private driver to tour me around Taroko National Park. would recommend. The night market in Hualien is comfy
Jiufen is cool. I was told it was over-touristy and gonna be packed, but I arrived about 9pm on a random weekday, checked into my guesthouse, it was pouring with rain and the place was abandoned, I just wandered around this huge empty spirited-away style village on the mountainside in the rain by myself, it was one of the most kino things ive ever experienced (t. fellow Autist) pic related
>I just wandered around this huge empty spirited-away style village on the mountainside in the rain by myself
Fucking amazing
>Jiufen is cool. I was told it was over-touristy and gonna be packed, but I arrived about 9pm on a random weekday, checked into my guesthouse, it was pouring with rain and the place was abandoned, I just wandered around this huge empty spirited-away style village on the mountainside in the rain by myself, it was one of the most kino things ive ever experienced (t. fellow Autist) pic related
Top stuff, mate.
Jiufen and surrounds is a good day trip. I enjoyed Hualien and the east coast but its definitely quieter and more relaxed vs the cities down the west. Kenting and Koahsiung were probably my favourite areas, but did quite enjoy Taroko Gorge/Sun Moon lake. This was all on scooter though to depends how you travel.
Did you feel spirited away anon?
>I was told it was over-touristy and gonna be packed
it is lol, I went during the day in pouring rain and it was still packed. shit views too, would have been awesome first thing in the morning the next day
OH my, going to land in Taipei in a week and I didn't know about Jiufen. Thank you anon, I'm a spirited away fag and looks cool as fuck. I will visit it in my way to Taroko national park
The nature is amazing
Anyone know why flight tickets to Asia from Europe got so expensive lately, is it just the new norm, or what happened?
I used to be able to go for like half or even a third of what is now, and I don't see the same development for other travels inside Europe.
I heard it's the new norm because flight demand recovered much faster than expected from the pandemic, airlines didn't have the capacity planned and that it would take a few years to readjust (but they prices are never going back down I will guarantee you that)
>(but they prices are never going back down I will guarantee you that)
no room for competition to push it down?
Cute to think competition will matter. Cheap flights for the peasants will be killed for good soon because climate change
>because climate change
climate change of all things? really?
I spent 3 months in Taiwan earlier this year. There's lots I can recommend. Starting with the east coast, there's a lot of nature and hiking on that side of the country. Make sure to visit a hot spring, they're all over the island. The east coast also has some nice rural farmland areas that are worth spending a day or two just chilling riding a bike around. Chisang is teh famous one.
Make sure to visit a farm or two and possibly a factory. Taiwan has amazing fruits, ones that are not often popular in the west. The dragon fruit when in season are amazing, the ones back home have no flavour in comparison. Taiwan also has a lot of factories for everything from onions sauce to bubble tea to vinegars, cookies and anything else you can imagine being made on the island. They often let you look inside to see how they make it.
I'd say the cities outside of Taipei are all very similar and very meh, that includes Kaohsiung. Tainan is kind of the exception, it's chill and the food is really good there.
Nightmarkets are fun, but don't go far out of your way to visit them. They all mostly sell the same food, with one or two exceptions per market. Visit a few but ones convenient for you to get to.
The museums are really good, I suggest going to many. The new ones are all interactive, very well made displays.
Ask me if you want some more pointers.
It will come back once China opens up. In the past I used to fly super cheap through one of the Chinese airlines (usually China Eastern). They're not currently flying internationally but they will. I'd say right now is a good time to stay closer to home and wait for everything to open up down the line.
>It will come back once China opens up. In the past I used to fly super cheap through one of the Chinese airlines (usually China Eastern). They're not currently flying internationally but they will. I'd say right now is a good time to stay closer to home and wait for everything to open up down the line.
yeah that's what I'm thinking, thanks
European airlines can't fly through Russian air space anymore and have to fly longer routes to Asia.
I don't think it would matter that much. If you need to be that cheap then a lot (most?) of the flights with connections go through middle east oil dumps or a Chinese airline anyway
Those middle-east companies aren't exactly cheap, where I could fly with Aeroflot 5 years ago now I have to pay 2x using any of those, and I don't really know about any worthwhile alternatives. The flights are way comfier so there's that.
If you're in the East anyway, and have lots of time, stop by at that 9 arches bridge.
I liked the aboriginal food nearby as well.
Idk if you enjoy Asian foods, Taiwan is heaven. Otherwise I don't see the appeal.
Dude it adds at least 3 hours per flight. Lots of random countries to fly over and negotiate with instead of just... China and Russia, and bam EU airspace.
Have you Euroanons checked whether it's worth it to fly to the US first? The Taiwanese airlines fly about 6 flights from LA to Taipei every day. There's also a new upstart airline that should help keep up with the high demand.
What's the new upstart?
>Would anyone recommend it?
No, not really. I have permanent kidney damage from the food there. It's not a place to live long-term unless you want to fuck your health.
Taiwanese are absolutely fucking obsessed with saving pennies. If they can buy "cooking oil" from some dodgy scumbag and save NT$5 on the whole bottle, they'll do it, and when it turns out the oil is actually industrial chemicals that poison them, oh well too bad but hey they saved NT$5 (fifteen cents U.S.).
>I have permanent kidney damage from the food there.
what was the medical diagnosis/reason it happened?
i never trusted any of their shellfish/seafood except fish.
I've lived there long term, many did, nothing happens to them. No one's getting any permanent kidney damage either. I've never been sick in 3 years of living there.
The only way this shit happened is because you went to one of these customer-empty places, or ordered sushi in a night market, all three things no intelligent human would ever do.
To be honest, if you got fucking kidney damage from living in Taiwan you shouldn't even try going to any country in Asia besides perhaps Japan or you might very well not survive the experience. Alternatively, you just got terribly unlucky but that can happen anywhere.
>B-but serpentza told me they're cheap as a people
Your average taiwanese person really isn't.
Could your lower-class food service entrepreneur be a cheapskate ? Bitch, that's a stereotype everywhere. Captain Krabs isn't Chinese. For every video of a chinese getting some gutter oil there's a kitchen nightmare clip with rotten shit all over the place.
There's nothing 'meh' about Taiwan; I think it's just a hard country to photograph. I've been to 40 countries and Taiwan is easily in my top 5. The mountains and forests are 10/10 incredible (t. Coloradan). Riding a motorbike around the west coast and Taroko Gorge was one of my best experiences of travel, ever. Kaohsiung's appeal is hard to describe; it's almost as if it's exactly what you want an Asian city to be, with just enough glitz but none of the excess. Tainan's colonial Japanese aesthetic is kino as fuck.
Everywhere is clean and unpolluted and people are friendly to strangers. How many Asian countries can say that? I would choose to live there without hesitation if I could.
>Riding a motorbike around the west coast and Taroko Gorge was one of my best experiences of travel, ever
Can you elaborate about this anon? How much it was? Any specific company? Routes? Almost all anons here don't recommend driving motorbikes in Taiwan because accidents are skyrocketing.
Taipei rains way too much. So it's Taichung vs Kaohsiung. Which is better?
Is the weather really that much different across Taiwan? I'm from the UK which is a much larger island, and sure I've heard people say it's more shit in the north weather wise, but it's shit like 80% of the time in the north and 79% in the south. Just asking about the cities on the coast really, obviously the interior/mountains will be hugely different
have a nice day fucking chud. Hope you get stomped to death in rural Taiwan for scaring the local children
I've only been to 4 countries in asia (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines) and I can honestly say it's my least favorite closely followed by South Korea
Is it not at least cleaner/better organized than the phils?
i would class taiwan as Sterile. korea and japan are cleaner and better organised, taiwan is grimy and aged in general but yet has a sterile feel to it, character wise. like a house only half-decorated for christmas you know what i mean? something lacking.
There's lots of gays in Taipei so you'll feel right at home.
What would be the go-to things to do and the best period to go for, say, a 12 days trip? I'm not much of a city guy, though I like old stones and wood constructs. From reading the thread, I see there here are national parks so I can add that I guess.
The only people who say Taiwan is one of the best tourist destinations in the world are racist libtards and garden gnomes who cry over the fact no other east Asian country has been judaised to the point that they passed a gay marriage law and Taiwanese people are "above" them beacuse of that, Taiwan isn't that much more impressive than a tier 2 Chinese city.
>Taiwan isn't that much more impressive than a tier 2 Chinese city.
but without the gutter oil
Falso
Taiwan is quite notorious for gutter oil, actually
My hotel is in Hualien near the station
What is the Taroko national park recommended trail? What should I see? I'm fucking lost, the place is just too huge.
I felt the same way. Just rent a motorbike, go there, and fuck around.
>Taiwan
It’s the Republic of China
Taiwan is the island, chuddie 🙂
How much is Taiwan actually like Japan? A big thing I liked about Japan was the availability of toy stores and game centers. Is it the same in Taiwan? I know ichiran is there.
good question with a complicated answer
nowadays most jap shit has been exported everywhere and this has been even more true in the last decade, to the point that Taiwan isn't that "japanized" compared to the rest of the world anymore, especially East Asia.
Honestly, if you really want a "japan out of japan" kind of experience, you should go to Korea, which kind of reproduces the more bling shit with their own take, whereas taiwan really just straight out borrows random shit from japan here and there.
>availability of toy stores and game centers
They don't have much of that shit out there even though it does exist, look for the underground mall at Beimen Station that spans the entire taipei main station area.
>comparing an entire province-sized country to a tier 2 city
in some aspects taipei can be nicer than a tier 1 city due to its more areated, less skyscrapey nature. Also I don't need to get a visa, I can use google maps, people are more helpful (and yes, I know chinese people are actually pretty hospitable but taiwanese people quite frankly top them and even they acknowledge it), and the infrastructure outside of major cities, while leaving something to be desired sometimes, is still very accessible to a foreigner; all factors that can help you make the most of a trip to Taiwan.
It really depends on who you are and what type of shit you're in. Sure, Taiwan's been a bit hyped with all the china shit that's been going on, but it's not as bad as you're making it to be.
On another note, xiamen, fuzhou and harbin are all tier 2 cities i've been to that were really awesome. Acting like that tier 2 cities are meh is crazy when tier 1 cities are just your average boring ass megacity.
Kending, Tainan and the small native villages in the mountains
Just arrived. I quite like it, but I was surprised to see so many residential homes with barbed/electric wire and CCTVs all over the place. Even Taipei 101 have an x-ray to scan for guns though it’s not used. Why are they like this?
HOLY FUCK IT’S FUCKING SCORCHING HOT HERE.
HOW THE FUCK DID PEOPLE VOLUNTARILY SETTLE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!!?!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH
Yeah I was thinking the same thing the other day. It must have fucking sucked living here before the invention of aircon
Welcome to what is practically is south east asia. At least Taiwan is fresher after october up 'till february. which is why i recommend most people to go in november.
Only reason to go to Taiwan during summer would be for cooming, clubbing and going to the beach. You shouldn't be awake until after 2PM and you shouldn't be asleep until 4am at the very least. Fuck visiting cities or hiking under the blistering fucking sun and the suffocating humidity of a tropical island when you're getting 10 matches a day
Does Taiwanese immigration check proof of onward? Everyone says that countries check but my last vacation to Japan they didn't give one iota of a fuck and my Onward Ticket was a waste of like $15
Only heard of such things happening if your passport sucks.
I’m American and it happened to me in Taiwan and Malaysia.
Guess that proves me right.
So what's the deal with Casual Clothes Hotels/Dress Hotels/Uniform Hotels? They look like clubs but give off sort of a conservative version of a strip club/brothel vibe
Yeah that's basically it, and it gets more expensive/"classy" at each level. Not really worth it imo
anyone in Taipei want to get a beer?
>meeting up with ANYONE here
Imagine the smell
I've met several anons from sighsee over the years in various places.
I would rather unironically drown in a swimming pool of semen than meet up with someone from sighsee
How necessary is it to buy a SIM card in Taiwan? I won't be venturing very far outside of Taipei. I don't need calls or texts or anything, but I just want to have it in case of an emergency.
Better to just have. It's not expensive at all either
It's a beautiful country