Thread: Living in Taiwan??

I am thinking about taking a job in Taiwan, has any other TD members lived there before?? are there any TD members living there now?? if so, could you give me some infomation about the place.

1) People
2) Food (wife is Thai, this is very important to her)
3) Cost of living
4) Schooling

Cheers in advance!!

TSsausage

I know Taiwan quite well. Will you be in Taipei? Quite a nice place.
Food is Chinese so Thai's will like it. Since most of the taiwanese population fled with the Nationalists back in 49 there is regional food from all over China.
Cost of living is quite high though - especially if you want a nice apartment downtown. Schools also pricey but quite good.

Thanks "BLAKE 7"

I won't be in Taipei, in a place called Pingtung City in Sothern Taiwan. As for the cost of living? what is quite high?? restaurants?? bars?? cars?? supermarkets etc....
I have been given a 4 bedroom house fully furnished, so nothing for rent.

Cheers

I stayed there for 6 weeks once with a view to teaching English. I liked it but obviously it is a more expensive than Thailand. I found the cost of living ( 20 years ago ) to be on a par with the U.K. in all departments......food, accomodation etc. The people were initially a little more stand offish than Thais but once the ice was broken they were very friendly and generous. Being a young hansum man, I was lucky enough to chat up a waitress on my 3rd night there and move in with her. She was forever trying to buy me stuff and it was difficult to persuade her to hang on to her money.
The food is good and pretty well the same as Thai-Chinese fare.' Khow Moo Deng ' and ' Khow na Ped ' are staples and can be bought on the street as in Thailand. Noodles are also widely sold so Thai gf won't starve.

Lived and worked there for nearly 5 years.
2 in Kaohsiung and the rest of the time in Taipei .
Pingtung not a bad location. About 40 mins drive from Kaohsuing , with just about everything you need as it is the second city on the island, and about an hours drive to the beaches and national park at Kenting in the south.
If you are into history and scenery it is also a good centre. A shortish drive to Hengchen - the last remaining completely walled city in Taiwan, and going East you can be up in the mountains in less than an hour.

Driving is not too bad - far safer than here in Thailand - but cant advise on costs as I used a motorbike most of the time and had a company car available if I wanted one !

Food is good, clean and cheap - especially in the markets and hawker stalls and in many ways similar to Thailand. In a sort of reverse logic when we moved to Thailand my lady ( Taiwanese) raved about Thai food as it was the nearest thing to Taiwanese she had found in the 3 years or so that we spent in Malaysia after leaving Taiwan and before we came to Thailand !!

People were OK - very Chinese of course- but I got along with no problems.

Ex pat type supermarkets are in most big towns - dont know about Pingtung.
There is a group called Far Eastern Department Stores - (like Robinsons) and they have a Supermarket in the basement ( like Tops)

Don't know about schools - sorry .

I would go back and live there tomorrow except getting a retirement visa is virtually inpossible .

I go back to Kaohsuing a couple of times a year for a month on short term consultancy contracts with the High Speed Rail and the ROC Navy .



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Cheers for the replies! the wife wears the trousers, so the decision is hers