Ten Things to Love About Taiwan
You may or may not know that I recently spent a year in Taiwan, living & working in Kaohsiung. I went there not really knowing much about the island nation, and had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised and really fell in love with the place. Here are 10 things that I really loved about Taiwan:
- The People:
- The Public Transportation:
- Taxis:
- The Haircuts:
- Technology:
- The Liquor Laws:
- Taroko Gorge:
- Love Hotels:
- 7-11:
- The Low Crime Rate:
My previous experiences traveling in Asia, especially India, had my guard up. You know the deal, thousands of touts & hustlers all descending upon you at once.
People in Taiwan are extremely helpful and friendly with no underlying agenda.
Taipei to Kaohsiung in an hour and a half! Love it! Cruising around the city in a CLEAN subway. Love it! Train ride along the scenic east coast. Love it!
Am I really saying I love taxis? Absolutely! They’re inexpensive, metered, and almost everywhere. It was often more economical to take a taxi than to pay to park, and without the burden of a car while out on the town you’re free to drink!
Heavenly. Seems an odd thing to love, but seriously, if you haven’t had a haircut in Taiwan, get your ass on a plane NOW!
I love my gadgets and they were readily available in Taiwan. I also love to roll my own gadgets and there’s an entire district in Kaohsiung devoted to selling electronic components. It’s as if radio shack has a farm (but you don’t have to give your phone number to buy a resistor).
Eager to get out the door but don’t want to leave your beer? No worries, just take it with you. It’s like Las Vegas in that regard. Want a beer at 7AM on Sunday? No need to drive to the next county or state where the churchies haven’t ruined it for you yet – just go to the store, damn near any store and grab a cold one ANYTIME. Going home from a hard day’s work but don’t

A typical scene at the betlenut girl stand Photo Credit - Tobie Openshaw
want to go through the ordeal of finding parking so you can buy a beer? Just pull over to the betle nut girl stand and a negligee adorned beauty will RUN with a beer to your window. You can do this while stopped for a red light. Awesome!
This is Taiwan’s National Natural treasure. I’ll be writing about it at some point in the future with photos and the whole bit. For now, take my word for it. It’s GORGE-ous!
This was one of those things I figured I had to experience before I left Taiwan (by ‘I’, I do mean ‘we’ – I didn’t go to the love hotel by myself). Drive-thru check in, parking garage right by your door and ‘Batman’ themed room? How romantic is all of that! Really! I expected it to feel sleazy in that run down hotel on the interstate frontage road kind of way. The place was quite surprisingly classy.
Pay your parking (there are no meters in Taiwan – they use a different system), pay your utility bills, buy concert tickets, airline tickets, cassette tapes, scotch, wine, Bailey’s & beer, even get a tea egg or some salty squid bits. Taiwan 7-11 redefines convenience. And they’re everywhere.
Ever left something in a taxi? When it happens, you usually figure you didn’t need it that bad anyhow, or you figure that you’re never going to get it back so why bother. Lost cause right? I left an iPhone in a taxi in Taiwan. I got it back – took a couple of days of tracking it down, but I got it back. We had another phone – one of those $10 throw-away phones pretty much. It also got left in a cab. Got that one back too – from the bar where we had caught the taxi from.
Violent crime is almost unheard of in Taiwan.
So that’s the short list. There’s so much more to say about my life in Taiwan – Use one of the follow along buttons below to keep up with what’s new.



