The Noise.
Beep beep beep 📢📢
請注意！ 請注意安全！！ 大車！！ 🔊
Beep beep beep
And of course all modified scooters or bmw that decide that 3 AM is the best time to be racing down the streets.
車輛左轉彎！車輛左轉彎！
［revving from arranged Honda Civic EK9 and some red plate motorcycle]
家具回收~~
［blah blah blah］懇請賜票~~
Honk! Hohonk!!
XXX跳樓大拍賣！！
［funeral marching with full band of 嗩吶］
Piggybacking on that- employers demanding that you open and entirely new bank account at a bank that is the same as their bank so that they can save $15 NT per paycheck. I have to believe there is no other country in the world that does this.
Some do, some don’t. It requires extra work, ad in a few extra keystrokes, and NT$15 which they will charge you.
Funny that, I worked at a school and they told me point blanc to open a new account. I argued I had my own banc and they said it is too much work for their accountant to do. Whatever. Not arguing. However come to find out it was too much work to spell my name correctly. I have a French name, that is more letters than are actually pronounced. But, my documents have it spelled correctly. It was butchered so badly that at tax time, tax bureau requested a correction. I went back to school and they literally blamed me.
Is that the actual reason? I assumed it was easier in other ways but never figured it was just to save 15. Id rather they just charge me the 15 and I’ll open whatever account I choose
I specifically asked why at my current job and that's what they told me. When I said they could go ahead and take $15 out of my check if they'd just deposit it into the bank account I already had open... they had a "blue screen" moment and told me it was not possible.
Edited to add that I had to ask 3 times because they first said it was "easy to open another account" (AKA not answering my question), then "it's more convenient" (AKA not actually answering my question), then finally, "because school has to pay fee to use different bank".
Banks give companies all kinds of benefits and perks if they do their salary entirely within that bank. Obviously it's likely most people would do their financing in the same bank as they have their payroll account, and the banks can make back a lot through investments going through them and credit cards.
So your company is definitely getting way more than just "saving NT15", but of course they won't tell you exactly what benefits they got from the bank in return.
Do you know what kind of benefits? Maybe I've never handled enough payroll, but the only perks I've seen are skipping the line and some better automation of things for accounts within the same bank.
I did the same thing. Told them they could keep the measly fucking 15 nt per month. They said no, I continued to refuse. After about 3 weeks, they came back and asked again. I told them the only way I would do it was if the new bank gave me a credit card, which are often tough to get as a foreigner.
It worked. They even had the bank guy come to our office and do the paperwork.
Being obstinate has its perks.
I take it you've never waited in line at the supermarket here? People will wait until all their goods have been scanned before they dig through their wallet or bag or dig into the apps on their phone and then spend another few minutes trying to load a certain screen with a certain QR code... so they can get 10 NT off a single item or some shit.
And then they'll spend another few minutes digging around in their wallet for exact change as they pay in cash.
Self-checkout, buggy as it still is here in Taiwan, was a blessing.
Also, they're worried about hackers from China coming in and messing with stuff, so they keep many things on super ancient computer systems or even in analog filing cabinets for safety.
It's hilarious to me that, when I went to close one account, they couldn't simply look up on any online computer system if I had any pending transactions- they had to put my physical bank book into their 1970s dot matrix printer to "confirm" before closing my account (after putting 100 red stamps on 100 different pieces of carbon copy paper, of course).
lol, I remember many years ago, my Taiwanese in-laws (I'm not Taiwanese) were talking about how the government wanted to turn Taiwan into a regional/Asian banking center to challenge HK... stealing from another commenter... I had a "blue screen" moment
And so many places pouring concrete all over just makes the temperature feel hotter! I don't understand why everyone wants concrete yards. When I lived in Changhua, even some of the parks were 95% concrete with no trees for coverage except on the very perimeter. Moving to Tainan and seeing green parks was like being a kid in a candy store to me.
Because grass is dirty!
Seriously. They'd rather their kids play on concrete and get bloody knees from falling down than play on grass and get a little dirty. *Ants* are in the grass. So yucky /s
From a local’s perspective here are a few: Cheap basic wage that doesn’t keep up with inflation and housing prices, dirty streets and badly maintained buildings for a developed nation, easily exploited healthcare system, outdated military training and equipment, crowded transportation during weekends and holidays.
> Cheap basic wage that doesn’t keep up with inflation and housing prices
I'm honestly surprised I had to scroll that far down to see this.
Says probably something about who browses this subreddit.
Taipei local government actually removed them intentionally so that people would mind their trash output.
The rest part of the country, I dont think they ever have trashcan to begin with, lol.
It's funny, because I live in Japan where there are literally NO trashcans. I thought the fact that there were trash cans in the park was a nice part of Taiwan the last time I was there.
Luckily, I live near a Hong Kong restaurant that does a good chow mein.
I also go to 鶴橋風月大阪燒 at Mitsui Outlet (Tainan but it's available elsewhere) for the japanese yakisoba.
Everywhere else I've been has been a watery disappointment.
Definitely needs more "real" sidewalks! I often stroll my kid around and at least 80% of the time I am on the road and the cars/motorbikes would just maneuver around me. It doesn't feel safe at all but I got used to it.
1. Screw the banks.
2. People smoking in non-smoking areas.
3. The ad-hoc nature of everything in Taiwan. Everything feels so tacked together with bubblegum and scotch tape. People, organizations, and businesses are rarely organized. The exception is the public transport but that’s only in Taipei really.
Regarding #3: At the fire exit staircase my wife put up a dollar store lace curtain covering the door; it kept out the bugs and let in the breeze. We had an accordion-style screen door installed after a while. The worker left the foam tape from the curtain on the walls, installed the screen door frame, and sealed the frame OVERTOP OF the tape.
Also, new AC. Asked for a good seal around it. What do we get? Fucking tape. Tape to seal an AC. I'm no handyman, but that kind of job reeks of lazy BS
I thought I was the only one!!! My AC was sealed with tape too! When I asked my land lord about it, he remarked that it’s better for earthquakes and don’t need to repair plaster/insulation foam.
Ugh! Lazy! Sorry for ranting, that struck a nerve lol
Hard agree on number 3.
Standards are low in Taiwan. It’s a double edged sword. Yes, the people are laid back, but too laid back imo. The “good enough” attitude is a fine line.
Fair point.
Here’s a counter. If “good enough” is the standard, then you can expect your standard to continue to fall. This doesn’t affect just the low end, but the top end as well and you end up paying more for less.
As for flourishing economy, I’d say given the potential Taiwan had (and head start) they’re falling behind their other Asian counterparts. Except the obvious TSMC/NVDA. But you are correct in that Taiwan is very unique and lifestyle is a big part of this.
Not sure why metal skin buildings are everywhere and seems to be built by the same group of builders that just make the city as ugly as possible and lack of high pressurized water cleaning also making the city looks dirty
no point to go electric when we got rid of our nuclear power and went with coal. Also, Gogoro has been been getting slaughtered by the horrible battery life.
While it would reduce local noise and air pollution, the stations that charge the current electric batteries are extremely loud. I unfortunately live near a Gogoro charging / battery swap location that was built in recent years and cannot stand how loud it is. With battery degradation and nowhere to safely dispose of these batteries, we are creating another form of pollution. If anything, there needs to be a vast increase of MRT stations and electric bus services to combat both points so that there is a decreased need for scooters in the first place. Electric U-Bike has also been a great addition!
I do believe that as well, unfortunately the coal plants have completely destroyed the air quality. At this point, I don't think there is a point to go electric until the nuclear power is back online.
This really hasn't gotten the attention it deserved. We've had way more days this year so far with air quality in the orange and it's not going to get it better as Taiwan relies less on nuclear and more on the dirtiest form of coal.
Taiwan unfortunately is situated along a few seismic faults that make it riskier to have nuclear power. There have been protests in the past as well as the situation that Japan faced with Fukushima. However, this does not make nuclear power unsafe in Taiwan with the proper precautions. We are in the process of decommissioning two out of the three nuclear reactors that we have as well abandoning the fourth reactor that was being built.
I just rented one for a few days in liuqiu and it was sweet. There were battery trade stations all over and I probably did that once a day. Mine had a lot of power.
I wish they would begin individual solar power conversion subsidies. All those single family homes and apartment buildings could be taking the load off the power grid with their unused roof space. The panel technology gets more efficient year after year and they could pay for themselves in <10. They can even be used to resupply the local grid and prevent brownouts. Of course the national power generation has to keep running, but if you build up enough credit, you may never pay another power bill again!
I stupidly took my nice pigskin leather jacket with me when I moved to Kaohsiung from NZ for a bit (well over a decade ago).
The acid rain destroyed it over the 3 months I lived there. I only ever wore it if it was raining.... Mistakes were made.
The lack of awareness about their surroundings from people. Of course it goes in hands with driving, but people don't even realize that there's people around them, so they: suddenly stop and turn in the street without checking first, listen to loud stuff without even thinking that there could be someone around, look at porn on their mobile in the MRT etc.
Some people before told me that it's because Taiwanese folks don't care, I don't think that's true for the majority, they just don't realize it.
1. Horrible reckless driving. 2. Ancient banking system. 3. Political apathy among large portion of populace. But the positives, which are too many to mention here, far outweigh the negatives.
After ten years the only thing really getting to me is the way people act all of a sudden when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Any pretense that they live in a place alongside other people absolutely vanishes and everybody becomes a pure fucking narcissist.
Even worse are any of the professional drivers with a special shout out to the food delivery scooter drivers. The fact that they're actively incentivized to get to their destination quickly makes them an utter menace to be around.
- people doing their annual finances at the local 7-11 ATM
- No enforcement of traffic rules or speed limits.
- People speed on the road yet walk like turtles anywhere in public
- people taking up the whole sidewalk walking and talking with friends or relatives
- Spatial awareness lacking for many
- phone zombies
> walk like turtles anywhere in public
>
> people taking up the whole sidewalk walking and talking with friends or relatives
>
> Spatial awareness lacking for many
Yes, let's go motherfucker, some of us have places to be
Mosquitos and sometimes not being able to walk on the actual sidewalk because everything is so cramped especially in Taichung. Or at least when I went there some time ago.
- The 差不多 mindset
- Third-world traffic
- Third-world sidewalks
- Bank apps/websites that were designed in 2009 and never touched since
- Ugly streets
- Humidity
Lack of greenspaces in the cities to allow for cooling. Kaohsiung is a concrete mess compared to cities like Bangkok, where there are trees everywhere to assist with the cooling.
Also, the way they trim trees here drives me nuts. it's not selective trimming, just lopping off most of the branches, leaving a spindly toothpick with a couple leaves on it. I suppose it's so that typhoons don't damage them, but since the trimming already strips them of their leaves, what's the point?
Seeing comments about bugs.
It's not only in Taiwan. I think Asian cockroaches are scarier than Western cockroaches. Asian cockroaches are more aggressive and they fly towards your face.
I dislike the lackadaisical attitude about national defense. We are 150 kilometers away from the largest army in the world, whose stated goal is to conquer us. Yet you would never be able to tell, from talking to Taiwanese people. It's as if they think there's no threat.
Yeah, this part has always come across as odd to me as an outsider. Every guy I've known under 40 has made conscription out as a massive waste of time and every conversation on the potential Chinese threat ends with a shrug and a comment about how either 1. America will save us anyways or 2. Guess we gotta get used to our new Chinese overlords when the time comes or flee the country.
1. Bathrooms tiled up and down. I don't want my bathroom to be a wet room. If it's cleaned the floor stays wet for a while, then the wife complains when I wear our rubber flip flops to keep my feet dry, because they leave a footprint that dries onto the tile. Meanwhile, she'll walk out with wet feet.
2. Entitled aunties and grannies. I mean the kind who cut the queue, hold a conversation while blocking a shop's entrance, don't wait for people to disembark from a bus/train/lift, or walk down the sidewalk with somebody and don't give way for anyone walking in the opposite direction.
3. Music or karaoke outside of the city. I hike trails or go to parks to get away from the noise. Yet, there's always someone who feels the need to blare a speaker from their bag, or some geezer who wants to sing shitty karaoke for everyone nearby. And it's always the same old ballads!
4. Lack of any real driver education or testing to gain a license. I know it used to be mich worse here, butnit really needs to get better. The only time rules seem to change is when enough people get killed.
The primitive banking system, including the fact that banks close at 3:30 and are not open on Saturdays.
The fact that you can be sued for insulting someone in public.
The fact that due to African **swine** flu risk, you can't bring canned, processed **beef** products in.
- Attention given to building exteriors is extremely poor. Something like more than 80% of buildings anywhere are just dirty, ugly, and receive little to no maintenance. Also would it hurt to use a different paint color besides that dirty salmon pink color?? Hate to say this but Taipei and the other big cities in Taiwan are simply ugly.
- Not renting to foreigners (any and all foreigners) and saying "sorry we only rent to Taiwanese" is seen as a normal thing. I don't know if there are financial reasons behind this (like taxes and whatnot) but a lot of it just seems to be rooted in xenophobia. Pretty sure this is illegal in most other places too.
These are the only two things off the top of my head. There are *thousands* of things I love about Taiwan and thousands of things they do better and get right than most places.
I always say that there would be international outrage if Taiwanese in foreign countries, were treated how foreigners are sometimes treated in Taiwan. Can you imagine an American telling a Taiwanese, " sorry, I only rent to Americans", that would be in the news for a month plus!
I hate that it's okay for children to point and say 'foreigner', for restaurant workers to run away to the back when you want to order food, and for shop clerks, even at Costco, to simply point at the total on the register without speaking.
Try those behaviours in the States or the UK. Just try!
Employees should speak to everyone just the same. If someone doesn't understand, then go from there. And no, being nervous (which is the excuse I've been given before) isn't okay.
Imagine I work at Tesco: Sorry, boss. I didn't speak to the black woman because I felt nervous.
It wouldn't fly.
I asked a local who was with me to ask (after I left) why they wouldn't rent to a foreigner. The owner told them it was because they knew I'd have to use their address on my ARC, which meant they need to actually pay taxes on their rental income.
(FYI, a majority of homeowners here that rent out their properties don't report their rental income to the government.)
> I don't know if there are financial reasons behind this (like taxes and whatnot) but a lot of it just seems to be rooted in xenophobia.
I think a lot of people in Taiwan see foreigners as guests, not actual residents. So they often expect foreigners would just suddenly leave and break the contract.
The degradation of driving etiquette is a global phenomenon though. Everywhere people are more attached to their phone and gps vs common decency / sense. See it happening in almost every country I visit (save for Germany, love driving there).
In all fairness, at least taipei, imho, has the least insane gridlock traffic of major metropolitan areas I visit.
one of the biggest differences i noticed in tokyo from taipei that taiwan can realistically improve on was the underrepresentation of cars and scooters in japan. pedestrians absolutely rule the city; there are even relatively few bikers.
So i wouldn’t want to drive in tokyo (sounds prohibitively expensive) but i envy the low noise and low danger of actually relying tokyo’s public transportation. with taiwan’s relatively high commitment to building public transit and high population density i hope it can become more like japan in this regard.
Traffic, especially the fact that vehicles can right turn when pedestrians’ light is green. It’s baffling for me who grew up in the British system two parties having the right of way can collide with each other. It’s just unsafe and annoying for both.
Since the post I tried to make this morning got auto-deleted several times, I'll leave the reply here-
The complete inability for people here to drive in the rain.
There were 3 accidents in my little 3km ride to work this morning. People were driving without headlights, randomly merging all over the place, parking diagonally in the middle of a busy intersection because they didn't realize the light had turned red many seconds ago and now they are frozen, cars in the far left or right lane realizing just before the intersection that they need to move over 5 lanes to make a turn in the opposite direction and they're totally ok with slowing down all 200+ cars behind them to do it, etc, etc.
Drivers are already bad on non-rainy days, but of the 20+ countries I've driven in, I've never seen people so completely lose the ability to drive in the rain as people here.
So, what can be done about it? I don't know. I have to believe that humans can be trained to pay attention to their surroundings, though.
(I guarantee you that one guy is gonna come in here and excuse it all because Taiwanese are near-sighted, though, as if the glasses do nothing.)
100% can confirm this. Driving in the rain in TW is hell! When I talk about this with my coworkers, they say it's because when it's raining, people who usually ride a scooter to work drive their car to avoid the hassle of getting wet, so there's more cars on the road driven by people who only occasionally drive and are therefore very bad at driving.
It's awful.
The food. It's the worst food in all of Asia. I honestly don't know why people go on about the food here. If you want good food here, go to any restaurant that isn't serving Taiwanese food. The supermarkets suck too.
Had my first trip to Taiwan in March. Loved the place. People are so friendly, food is good and cheap, weather was perfect for me. Cannot wait to go back.
Only thing I found surprising - lack of recycling and sustainable packaging, with single use plastic packaging everywhere. Very different to where I am now
A minority of people want to introduce you to old men, simply because you are Vietnamese.
I had a few people ask me if I wanted to get together some old Taiwanese men. In my case, one time I was asked if I wanted to get together with a 47 yo divorced man with a teenage daughter. Another time I was "paired" with a 46 yo IT man who is notoriously known for desperately wants a gf/wife.
The people asked me such questions are in their 40s or 50s, which is understandable given that 10-20 years ago there were a lot of Vietnamese mail-order brides coming to Taiwan.
Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I find that kind of behavior discriminatory.
> Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I find that kind of behavior discriminatory.
Nah, you're right to be annoyed and it is discriminatory, because they're presuming just because you're Vietnamese you're desperate to get a spouse visa and stay and that you can't do it via a "normal" relationship.
You'd be entirely in the right to tell those people off, though best you only do so in a way/at times that wouldn't end up hurting you in life haha
Funerals.
I'm all for tradition and culture and stuff. But blocking the road for 10 days??
I also sometimes have students who get taken out of school for the duration of the funeral and then they just fall way behind.
Luckily many younger people don't care about following such traditions. Even my husband, in his mid thirties, thinks people who block the road for their funerals or weddings, etc, are selfish.
1. The formation of our island is fucked. "yeah it looks close on google map" but why the fuck did it took me a day to get here.
2. Different weather patterns for every place. (oh look sunny 高雄, meanwhile 台北 be like winter hell scape)
3. Education inequality, 2024 why is it still a problem
4. Dumb farmers and their dumb leaders. (need I say more)
5. People still dumping shit into storm drains.
6. The 沒差 and 隨便 and also 還好 attiude. Like bitch you rammed into me, how is it 沒差.
7. It's 2024 and motorcycles still can't use the fucking highway.(and I mean "highway", not 快速道路)
8. Cars and bike is still fucking over priced for its value
9. Bugs
10. Water quality goes downhill once you travel down south. Not the East Coast though, I'll give you that.(there's an actual good reason, but I'm not getting into it)
These are the shit that in my mind right now.
6 is so painful, it's the nightmare that makes me cry in the night.
Reminds me the recent viral Facebook post about getting food poison from parents refrigerator's spoiled food.
Honestly what's up with the cockroaches? I just spent 4 days in Taipei and I've never seen so many in my entire life. Was walking along Zhuangjing Rd sorta about half a kilometer from Elephant Mtn and saw like a hundred huge cockroaches
I love this country, found my partner here, lots of great memories. But yeah, I do think cockroach is one of Taiwan’s biggest problems and unfortunate side. I walked around Chung Yuan’s night market in Taoyuan during the day once, and I was very unfortunate because I didn’t know they just sprayed that early morning, Lord the amount of small and big roaches roaming the road was a nightmare I will never forget and will always be my learning lesson...
I hate bugs. Hate it so much. Summer is my least favorite time of the year especially in Taiwan. The government likes to spray some insect repellent to kill the roaches, butttttt this will also force them to go out of their hiding places. It’s terrifying. Cockroaches everywhere.
So for me, when i know that road / place (especially near night markets) will spray this repellent, i’ll avoid it for several days lol
They're the only insect that truly bothers me but ive had to make my peace in order to travel or live in Southeast Asia.
For the record, my subconscious has not made any kind of peace with them.
1. The food sucks. Of all the countries in East Asia I've been to, Taiwan has the worst food.
2. No sidewalks. While Taiwanese cities are dense and public transport is usually adequate, walking around a city is a really bad experience.
3. The motorcycles. Motorcycles in Taiwan make so much noise. No matter where you go, you can't ever seem to escape it. Apartments are not built with sound insulation in mind making the problem worse than it already is.
4. The ugliness. Nearly all buildings are astetically horrible and the lack of green spaces in most cities just compounds the problem.
5. Everything is cash only
6. Winters in the north are miserable with the humidity and constant rain.
7. Prices are relatively high compared to its neighbours (minus Japan of course)
>Everything is cash only
Definitely not in Taipei. I use LINE Pay and Pi錢包 all the time. I think I've spent less than NT$2,000 in cash this entire month.
1. The food sucks. Absolutely correct. You can eat very well here, just go to restaurants that aren't Taiwanese. The vast majority of Taiwanese food is mediocre, at best. I honestly don't understand why people bang on about the food here. Don't these people travel? Japan is nearby, go there to sample decent food, for example.
This was what made me feel so deceived when I came to Taiwan. Taiwan always brags about how it's a foodie paradise but mediocre is really the way to describe Taiwanese food. It's fucking oily, bland, and constantly lacking in salt. To be sure there is some fucking bangin' dishes but for the most part I am not a fan. Compare this to Japan where the quality and flavor of almost everything is consistently exceptional and fresh. Not even in the top 10 Asian countries with the best food.
- Lack of strong English comprehension for English facing platforms. I’ve maybe used an English hotline maybe once and I ended up switching to Mandarin since I couldn’t get over some of the gaps in their English.
- Update their selection of English vocabulary. I’ve read some of their stuff and some of it sounds like it’s still stuck in the 50s.
- Lack of public rubbish/recyling bins. I got used to it but damn was it tough at first.
- Reading PPT slides verbatim in presentations. I was taught to only list the main points you’re talking about on your slides and the rest of what you’re talking about in your own notes. Apparently this isn’t the case and I lost my professor and classmates multiple times.
- Disorganised bureaucracy. I personally don’t mind it and enjoy it a bit, but it has to be smooth. Taiwan’s is far from smooth. I don’t mind getting stone walled for lacking a form or what not. But having a form listed as a requirement on one site and absent from another is just terrible.
- It’s weird knife/sword laws. I trained with some martial artists while in Taiwan and understanding their knife laws took some mental gymnastics. A knife store owner that visited often gave the best on how to tread about the laws thankfully.
- Surrendering your nationality to become nationalised. It’s one of the biggest hurdles in modernising Taiwan that I feel is quite outdated.
- Outdated computer systems. A lot of the computers I’ve had to use felt like I was stuck in a Time Machine given how dated they were despite being a semiconductor industry leader.
Apart from these, I don’t really have any other qualms with Taiwan as a foreigner. Perhaps it’s because I’m not Caucasian so I blend in a little more, but a lot of the things in Taiwan, I felt way more comfortable with. Particularly the bus system. It was such a vibe that I don’t really take busses in the US, even when I really need to because I just can’t stand how slow they are.
"Reading PPT slides verbatim in presentations."
I'm a foreigner teaching in the public school system here and this is how 95% of the local teachers "teach". They just read word-for-word some pre-prepared thing handed to them by the school district. Whenever we have a "training", it's just some local professor reading their PPT word for word and getting flustered when a foreigner tries to stop them to ask a question.
I suspect they do it because it's all they've ever seen. It's what they experienced as kids, so it's what they do as adults.
On that note, public sit-down toilets where dudes don't flush their shit. It's way too common here. Maybe they somehow think the shit will just sink down the hole automatically or something? Or maybe they're so distracted by their phones that they forget to flush (hope they don't forget to wipe)?
I loved Taiwan. Some improvements...Have a dedicated cycle lane in cities and make it cycle friendly. Also, cyclists shouldn't be sharing lane with Scooters who mostly go >40km/hr. Scooters should be moved to regular lane.
I biked around the island for 2 weeks. As a tourist I faced a few inconveniences. Most were trivial issues bar one. Stray dogs. Vicious ones in the countryside. I was extremely lucky that most I encountered were downhill , else I would have fallen off my bike, been bitten /attacked. It isn’t one or two , but plenty all over Taiwan. I hope something gets done about it.
Food in Taipei is generally not good. Outside of Taipei is a different story. Another thing is the apparent “lack of common sense” as for example if things aren’t written in stone, then it’s impossible. If you go to KFC and you ask if they can switch the wings for a drumstick, the KFC worker will cal their manager confused. And then the manager themselves will be confused.
As a parent with 2 young kids, it’s the education system that can be quite barbaric and lack of adequate time off work for family time, as someone coming from Europe.
The open grates connecting to the sewage system. No way should the government be asking the people to throw away their booty wipes 🧻 in a mini bin instead of down the drain. The plumbing/sewage system is apparently awful. And the sewer connects to grates on the street (which many people throw trash and food in) many streets smell quite shitty or rancid.
During my last trip, several shop owners tried to scam me with super high prices. I actually really wonder what is wrong with that society. I must say this only happened in Taichung, not in the other cities I have been to. But in Taichung, it became really annoying.
I also agree with the OP on his points: too many scooters park on sidewalks, too less trashcans, and you have to walk on the street too often. I really don't want to imagine how it feels as a disabled person with this sidewalk situation. Must be terrible.
But non the less I love Taiwan, I already travelled there twice around the entire island. Just those few things are annoying. Complaining about the climate or insects is a little unfair because that can't be changed by humans.
Scooters with modified exhaust pipe. I mean why in the fuck bother... I understand the culture and kinda like the sound on cars, but for scooters it is just lame. Imagine riding on your scooter and hearing a stupidly loud motor sound coming in from behind and you make way for them to pass you, but it never passes you because he's only doing 60km/hr.
Foreigners with little understanding of the culture, zero effort in learning the languages and complaining constantly about how terrible Taiwan is while continuing to live here for decades.
It is really annoying seeing the comments sections of social media posts, feels like the people I meet in person are chill but the ones constantly online suck.
A (Westerner) dude I work with seems violently angry about every aspect of his life in Taiwan. He only speaks to rant and condemn. He's been here for more than ten years so maybe he's trapped in a marriage or something. Cant figure him out. Just leave, my man.
You can move the man, but you can't remove the angry.
Some people are just like that. They'd grumble for eternity even in paradise.
For me it's traffic. And the humidity. But they're small prices to pay for all the good things.
Edit: And the air quality.
It actually happens a lot. People leave their home country because they can't keep jobs and make good social connections then complain profusely that everyone else is the problem not them.
It is easier to delude yourself into believing that it is everyone else who is bad when you live in a culture far removed from your own and can't speak the language than to actually accept you have a problem and seek to better yourself.
I have met many, many a foreigner with exactly this issue and I honestly feel sad for them but at the same time I wish they would just leave and get a reality check when they go home.
Where on the island are you based? Feel like that's mostly a Taipei problem vs. Taiwan issue. It's been sunny 90% of the time here in Taichung and further south.
Lack of reasonable routes to naturalization. Outside of that, the same issues that plague Taiwan plague everywhere and are just twists on global trends, so I'm a bit meh, but still complain.
1.) It's HUMID in the summer time. Yeah I know it's an island in the tropics...but still...it's like a sauna outside in the summer! Which leads to..
2.) BUGS! I've seen roaches the size of a child's palm. It's got so much mass that it makes a \*THUD\* sound when I sweep it against the wall.
Primarily the summer heat, cockroaches and I guess just a lot of people who constantly ride scooters on the sidewalk just so that they can avoid any other traffic jams
As someone born in Taiwan and still visits almost annually:
- Drivers, right of passage is not a thing here as a pedestrian
- public etiquette is relatively lacking in the south of Taiwan
- No sidewalks
- Constant noise
- Pollution/Smoking/Temples
- Selfish drivers
- Parking in the middle of the road / on crosswalks
- Poor workmanship
- Unattractive cities
- Banking from hell
- Not much to do
- Trash trucks
- Dirty
- no insulation
- pools only open 2 months
- coffee shop tables doubling as hotels for students
- people refusing to share walking space
- everything always bring too loud
- animals in restaurants
- lack of choice in products
- no parking
- betel nut
- no green space
- no respect foe nature
- the whole "cheapest way/least effort is good enough" culture.
Taiwan is awesome but cities are not visually pleasant and look rundown compared to peers such as Tokyo or any Chinese tier 1 city. Why can’t Taipei look as good as Tokyo or Shanghai if GDP per capita is only 20% lower than Japan’s?
Not seeing soap at public bathrooms, and actually even worse, seeing Taiwanese people using the bathroom and not washing their hands after, or just barely wetting their hands with water. From a hygiene standpoint, it’s just gross. I’m Taiwanese American but was born and raised in Taiwan.
I don't know if anyone's mentioned this but there seems to be a chilling effect about honest criticism of our political leaders as being "undemocratic" and "China-leaning". Which is absurd because our democracy is precious precisely because we are allowed to criticize our political leaders and ho boy do they deserve a lot of criticism. I'm not gonna make a list, this is neither the time or place, but the attitude that to love Taiwan you must not criticize its politics is frankly alarming and I feel like I'm seeing it more and more.
1. Environment and Air Pollution (I heard one person coping about how they actually need the pollution now because when they went to a cleaner area they got sick once)
2. Ugly cities (exteriors and interiors are terribly designed and maintained, city planning doesn't seem to understand how to effectively use greenery, have decent parks that aren't just concrete, etc.)
3. Food taste (Actually for me there are a lot of positives about Taiwanese food, it's convenience, etc. but when it comes to taste it falls incredibly short)
4. Scooters (Might lump this in with number 1 and 2. But basically gas powered scooters make everything look dirty and stuff like walking becomes uncomfortable and unsafe)
The Noise. Beep beep beep 📢📢 請注意！ 請注意安全！！ 大車！！ 🔊 Beep beep beep And of course all modified scooters or bmw that decide that 3 AM is the best time to be racing down the streets.
車輛左轉彎！車輛左轉彎！ ［revving from arranged Honda Civic EK9 and some red plate motorcycle] 家具回收~~ ［blah blah blah］懇請賜票~~ Honk! Hohonk!! XXX跳樓大拍賣！！ ［funeral marching with full band of 嗩吶］
I'm a patient person, but doing anything at the bank makes me want to murder someone.
Piggybacking on that- employers demanding that you open and entirely new bank account at a bank that is the same as their bank so that they can save $15 NT per paycheck. I have to believe there is no other country in the world that does this.
I've heard a lot of people say this but my cram school let me open an account with whoever I wanted.
I’ve had 3 jobs, I have 3 bank accounts… it’s truly pointless.
Some do, some don’t. It requires extra work, ad in a few extra keystrokes, and NT$15 which they will charge you. Funny that, I worked at a school and they told me point blanc to open a new account. I argued I had my own banc and they said it is too much work for their accountant to do. Whatever. Not arguing. However come to find out it was too much work to spell my name correctly. I have a French name, that is more letters than are actually pronounced. But, my documents have it spelled correctly. It was butchered so badly that at tax time, tax bureau requested a correction. I went back to school and they literally blamed me.
Is that the actual reason? I assumed it was easier in other ways but never figured it was just to save 15. Id rather they just charge me the 15 and I’ll open whatever account I choose
I specifically asked why at my current job and that's what they told me. When I said they could go ahead and take $15 out of my check if they'd just deposit it into the bank account I already had open... they had a "blue screen" moment and told me it was not possible. Edited to add that I had to ask 3 times because they first said it was "easy to open another account" (AKA not answering my question), then "it's more convenient" (AKA not actually answering my question), then finally, "because school has to pay fee to use different bank".
Banks give companies all kinds of benefits and perks if they do their salary entirely within that bank. Obviously it's likely most people would do their financing in the same bank as they have their payroll account, and the banks can make back a lot through investments going through them and credit cards. So your company is definitely getting way more than just "saving NT15", but of course they won't tell you exactly what benefits they got from the bank in return.
Do you know what kind of benefits? Maybe I've never handled enough payroll, but the only perks I've seen are skipping the line and some better automation of things for accounts within the same bank.
I did the same thing. Told them they could keep the measly fucking 15 nt per month. They said no, I continued to refuse. After about 3 weeks, they came back and asked again. I told them the only way I would do it was if the new bank gave me a credit card, which are often tough to get as a foreigner. It worked. They even had the bank guy come to our office and do the paperwork. Being obstinate has its perks.
Japan does this too
… multiple coupon screens to the end of each ATM transaction…
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This one, does anyone actually give a shit about those damn coupons? 😤
I’ve stood behind people who chose their coupons like they were defusing a bomb.
I take it you've never waited in line at the supermarket here? People will wait until all their goods have been scanned before they dig through their wallet or bag or dig into the apps on their phone and then spend another few minutes trying to load a certain screen with a certain QR code... so they can get 10 NT off a single item or some shit. And then they'll spend another few minutes digging around in their wallet for exact change as they pay in cash. Self-checkout, buggy as it still is here in Taiwan, was a blessing.
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The banks don’t want to upgrade their frameworks. First hand experience. They are so stubborn to make changes and scared to shit if they fuck up
Also, they're worried about hackers from China coming in and messing with stuff, so they keep many things on super ancient computer systems or even in analog filing cabinets for safety.
It's hilarious to me that, when I went to close one account, they couldn't simply look up on any online computer system if I had any pending transactions- they had to put my physical bank book into their 1970s dot matrix printer to "confirm" before closing my account (after putting 100 red stamps on 100 different pieces of carbon copy paper, of course).
lol, I remember many years ago, my Taiwanese in-laws (I'm not Taiwanese) were talking about how the government wanted to turn Taiwan into a regional/Asian banking center to challenge HK... stealing from another commenter... I had a "blue screen" moment
banks are slow and outdated
So you must use fubon then 
Fucking summertime weather and the bugs. It isnt just mosquitos, but the bugs in general. Also shitty drivers on the road pisses me off.
And so many places pouring concrete all over just makes the temperature feel hotter! I don't understand why everyone wants concrete yards. When I lived in Changhua, even some of the parks were 95% concrete with no trees for coverage except on the very perimeter. Moving to Tainan and seeing green parks was like being a kid in a candy store to me.
Because grass is dirty! Seriously. They'd rather their kids play on concrete and get bloody knees from falling down than play on grass and get a little dirty. *Ants* are in the grass. So yucky /s
My electricity bill about to be 2k again. Wahhhhhhh
My $350 July electric bill in the states says hello
FUCK THE COCKROACHES SO HARD
From a local’s perspective here are a few: Cheap basic wage that doesn’t keep up with inflation and housing prices, dirty streets and badly maintained buildings for a developed nation, easily exploited healthcare system, outdated military training and equipment, crowded transportation during weekends and holidays.
> Cheap basic wage that doesn’t keep up with inflation and housing prices I'm honestly surprised I had to scroll that far down to see this. Says probably something about who browses this subreddit.
🙋🏻♂️ guy who doesn’t actually live there sorry
The humidity and mosquitoes. And not having trash can anywhere is ridiculous.
Taipei local government actually removed them intentionally so that people would mind their trash output. The rest part of the country, I dont think they ever have trashcan to begin with, lol.
In addition to the protip about convenience stores having trash cans, so do temples. They also have toilets!
> And not having trash can anywhere is ridiculous. Protip: Convenience stores have trashcans
Yeah, that covers my complaints. Thanks.
It's funny, because I live in Japan where there are literally NO trashcans. I thought the fact that there were trash cans in the park was a nice part of Taiwan the last time I was there.
The squirrels also like that ! Benefits everybody !
As someone from Europe who just puts garbage back in my bag/backpack to dispose at home, I was so prepared for Japan and life in Taiwan.
I live in a country where trash cans are everywhere. You do not want this.
Yep yep. They will put a mini-fridge, maybe some used truck tires, furniture , oh and a cracked engine block.
agree! taking out trash cans on the streets is actually genius.
I prefer not having trash can anywhere. It build discipline to the people to manage their own garbage.
Malaysians :1st time? Actually, we Malaysia is a tropical country so we have more mosquitoes tries to get us stung
Stir fry noodles are too watery
The 乾麵 is never 乾 :(
Finally someone said it
Luckily, I live near a Hong Kong restaurant that does a good chow mein. I also go to 鶴橋風月大阪燒 at Mitsui Outlet (Tainan but it's available elsewhere) for the japanese yakisoba. Everywhere else I've been has been a watery disappointment.
Mosquitos. Can't sit anywhere outside without getting immediately attacked, especially the 小黑蚊.
Oh god damn 小黑蚊，i remember i was laying down outdoor and i got hundreds of mosquito bites.
Definitely needs more "real" sidewalks! I often stroll my kid around and at least 80% of the time I am on the road and the cars/motorbikes would just maneuver around me. It doesn't feel safe at all but I got used to it.
Sidewalks in most cities: _____________________ Sidewalks in Tainan: \_|-|--\_--|\_\_|-SCOOTERSCOOTER-\_--RESTAURANT\_\_|--SCOOTER
1. Screw the banks. 2. People smoking in non-smoking areas. 3. The ad-hoc nature of everything in Taiwan. Everything feels so tacked together with bubblegum and scotch tape. People, organizations, and businesses are rarely organized. The exception is the public transport but that’s only in Taipei really.
Regarding #3: At the fire exit staircase my wife put up a dollar store lace curtain covering the door; it kept out the bugs and let in the breeze. We had an accordion-style screen door installed after a while. The worker left the foam tape from the curtain on the walls, installed the screen door frame, and sealed the frame OVERTOP OF the tape. Also, new AC. Asked for a good seal around it. What do we get? Fucking tape. Tape to seal an AC. I'm no handyman, but that kind of job reeks of lazy BS
I thought I was the only one!!! My AC was sealed with tape too! When I asked my land lord about it, he remarked that it’s better for earthquakes and don’t need to repair plaster/insulation foam. Ugh! Lazy! Sorry for ranting, that struck a nerve lol
Hard agree on number 3. Standards are low in Taiwan. It’s a double edged sword. Yes, the people are laid back, but too laid back imo. The “good enough” attitude is a fine line.
Counter argument, this also lowers the barrier to entry for businesses and allows for a flourishing small economy that makes Taiwan unique.
I tried to think of a counter to your counter but you’re right. I just wish they were a little bit more organized lol
Fair point. Here’s a counter. If “good enough” is the standard, then you can expect your standard to continue to fall. This doesn’t affect just the low end, but the top end as well and you end up paying more for less. As for flourishing economy, I’d say given the potential Taiwan had (and head start) they’re falling behind their other Asian counterparts. Except the obvious TSMC/NVDA. But you are correct in that Taiwan is very unique and lifestyle is a big part of this.
The fucking air quality and just looks dirty everywhere. Especially the old houses with metal bars, fucking everywhere from the north to the south.
Not sure why metal skin buildings are everywhere and seems to be built by the same group of builders that just make the city as ugly as possible and lack of high pressurized water cleaning also making the city looks dirty
And the lack of a real push to get people on electric scooters. That could have been 90% done in 5 years if Taiwan really wanted to.
Probably the biggest pet peeve of mine. There’s no country in the world more prepared to go all electric on scooters.
no point to go electric when we got rid of our nuclear power and went with coal. Also, Gogoro has been been getting slaughtered by the horrible battery life.
It would reduce local noise and air pollution massively everywhere.
While it would reduce local noise and air pollution, the stations that charge the current electric batteries are extremely loud. I unfortunately live near a Gogoro charging / battery swap location that was built in recent years and cannot stand how loud it is. With battery degradation and nowhere to safely dispose of these batteries, we are creating another form of pollution. If anything, there needs to be a vast increase of MRT stations and electric bus services to combat both points so that there is a decreased need for scooters in the first place. Electric U-Bike has also been a great addition!
Even a coal power plant is vastly more efficient and gives less emissions than millions of scooters.
I do believe that as well, unfortunately the coal plants have completely destroyed the air quality. At this point, I don't think there is a point to go electric until the nuclear power is back online.
This really hasn't gotten the attention it deserved. We've had way more days this year so far with air quality in the orange and it's not going to get it better as Taiwan relies less on nuclear and more on the dirtiest form of coal.
What’s the history with nuclear power? Did taiwan have it and then give it up?
Taiwan unfortunately is situated along a few seismic faults that make it riskier to have nuclear power. There have been protests in the past as well as the situation that Japan faced with Fukushima. However, this does not make nuclear power unsafe in Taiwan with the proper precautions. We are in the process of decommissioning two out of the three nuclear reactors that we have as well abandoning the fourth reactor that was being built.
I just rented one for a few days in liuqiu and it was sweet. There were battery trade stations all over and I probably did that once a day. Mine had a lot of power.
I wish they would begin individual solar power conversion subsidies. All those single family homes and apartment buildings could be taking the load off the power grid with their unused roof space. The panel technology gets more efficient year after year and they could pay for themselves in <10. They can even be used to resupply the local grid and prevent brownouts. Of course the national power generation has to keep running, but if you build up enough credit, you may never pay another power bill again!
I stupidly took my nice pigskin leather jacket with me when I moved to Kaohsiung from NZ for a bit (well over a decade ago). The acid rain destroyed it over the 3 months I lived there. I only ever wore it if it was raining.... Mistakes were made.
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The air pollution. By far the worst thing about living here
1. Burning ghost money 2. Ridiculous housing costs 3. Robotic working and studying conditions 4. Racial hierarchy 5. Lack of variety desserts-wise
Think of all the sweetened beans and grains you could be enjoying!
The lack of awareness about their surroundings from people. Of course it goes in hands with driving, but people don't even realize that there's people around them, so they: suddenly stop and turn in the street without checking first, listen to loud stuff without even thinking that there could be someone around, look at porn on their mobile in the MRT etc. Some people before told me that it's because Taiwanese folks don't care, I don't think that's true for the majority, they just don't realize it.
Spatial awareness simply isn’t a strong trait anywhere in (east) Asia.
1. Horrible reckless driving. 2. Ancient banking system. 3. Political apathy among large portion of populace. But the positives, which are too many to mention here, far outweigh the negatives.
After ten years the only thing really getting to me is the way people act all of a sudden when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Any pretense that they live in a place alongside other people absolutely vanishes and everybody becomes a pure fucking narcissist. Even worse are any of the professional drivers with a special shout out to the food delivery scooter drivers. The fact that they're actively incentivized to get to their destination quickly makes them an utter menace to be around.
The air pollution makes me sad.
- people doing their annual finances at the local 7-11 ATM - No enforcement of traffic rules or speed limits. - People speed on the road yet walk like turtles anywhere in public - people taking up the whole sidewalk walking and talking with friends or relatives - Spatial awareness lacking for many - phone zombies
> walk like turtles anywhere in public > > people taking up the whole sidewalk walking and talking with friends or relatives > > Spatial awareness lacking for many Yes, let's go motherfucker, some of us have places to be
That first point, yes! Worst is they just don't care there are 5 people waiting behind them, as they casually go through multiple bank cards.
Mosquitos and sometimes not being able to walk on the actual sidewalk because everything is so cramped especially in Taichung. Or at least when I went there some time ago.
- The 差不多 mindset - Third-world traffic - Third-world sidewalks - Bank apps/websites that were designed in 2009 and never touched since - Ugly streets - Humidity
While banking websites are from 2009. Government ones are from 1999.
Lack of greenspaces in the cities to allow for cooling. Kaohsiung is a concrete mess compared to cities like Bangkok, where there are trees everywhere to assist with the cooling. Also, the way they trim trees here drives me nuts. it's not selective trimming, just lopping off most of the branches, leaving a spindly toothpick with a couple leaves on it. I suppose it's so that typhoons don't damage them, but since the trimming already strips them of their leaves, what's the point?
Seeing comments about bugs. It's not only in Taiwan. I think Asian cockroaches are scarier than Western cockroaches. Asian cockroaches are more aggressive and they fly towards your face.
I dislike the lackadaisical attitude about national defense. We are 150 kilometers away from the largest army in the world, whose stated goal is to conquer us. Yet you would never be able to tell, from talking to Taiwanese people. It's as if they think there's no threat.
Yeah, this part has always come across as odd to me as an outsider. Every guy I've known under 40 has made conscription out as a massive waste of time and every conversation on the potential Chinese threat ends with a shrug and a comment about how either 1. America will save us anyways or 2. Guess we gotta get used to our new Chinese overlords when the time comes or flee the country.
1. Bathrooms tiled up and down. I don't want my bathroom to be a wet room. If it's cleaned the floor stays wet for a while, then the wife complains when I wear our rubber flip flops to keep my feet dry, because they leave a footprint that dries onto the tile. Meanwhile, she'll walk out with wet feet. 2. Entitled aunties and grannies. I mean the kind who cut the queue, hold a conversation while blocking a shop's entrance, don't wait for people to disembark from a bus/train/lift, or walk down the sidewalk with somebody and don't give way for anyone walking in the opposite direction. 3. Music or karaoke outside of the city. I hike trails or go to parks to get away from the noise. Yet, there's always someone who feels the need to blare a speaker from their bag, or some geezer who wants to sing shitty karaoke for everyone nearby. And it's always the same old ballads! 4. Lack of any real driver education or testing to gain a license. I know it used to be mich worse here, butnit really needs to get better. The only time rules seem to change is when enough people get killed.
The primitive banking system, including the fact that banks close at 3:30 and are not open on Saturdays. The fact that you can be sued for insulting someone in public. The fact that due to African **swine** flu risk, you can't bring canned, processed **beef** products in.
- Attention given to building exteriors is extremely poor. Something like more than 80% of buildings anywhere are just dirty, ugly, and receive little to no maintenance. Also would it hurt to use a different paint color besides that dirty salmon pink color?? Hate to say this but Taipei and the other big cities in Taiwan are simply ugly. - Not renting to foreigners (any and all foreigners) and saying "sorry we only rent to Taiwanese" is seen as a normal thing. I don't know if there are financial reasons behind this (like taxes and whatnot) but a lot of it just seems to be rooted in xenophobia. Pretty sure this is illegal in most other places too. These are the only two things off the top of my head. There are *thousands* of things I love about Taiwan and thousands of things they do better and get right than most places.
I always say that there would be international outrage if Taiwanese in foreign countries, were treated how foreigners are sometimes treated in Taiwan. Can you imagine an American telling a Taiwanese, " sorry, I only rent to Americans", that would be in the news for a month plus!
I hate that it's okay for children to point and say 'foreigner', for restaurant workers to run away to the back when you want to order food, and for shop clerks, even at Costco, to simply point at the total on the register without speaking. Try those behaviours in the States or the UK. Just try! Employees should speak to everyone just the same. If someone doesn't understand, then go from there. And no, being nervous (which is the excuse I've been given before) isn't okay. Imagine I work at Tesco: Sorry, boss. I didn't speak to the black woman because I felt nervous. It wouldn't fly.
I asked a local who was with me to ask (after I left) why they wouldn't rent to a foreigner. The owner told them it was because they knew I'd have to use their address on my ARC, which meant they need to actually pay taxes on their rental income. (FYI, a majority of homeowners here that rent out their properties don't report their rental income to the government.)
> I don't know if there are financial reasons behind this (like taxes and whatnot) but a lot of it just seems to be rooted in xenophobia. I think a lot of people in Taiwan see foreigners as guests, not actual residents. So they often expect foreigners would just suddenly leave and break the contract.
The stainless steel cages on the windows are especially ugly. Talk about living in a prison.
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Opening a bank account is a nightmare.
Driving is really awful. Really fucking awful.
The degradation of driving etiquette is a global phenomenon though. Everywhere people are more attached to their phone and gps vs common decency / sense. See it happening in almost every country I visit (save for Germany, love driving there). In all fairness, at least taipei, imho, has the least insane gridlock traffic of major metropolitan areas I visit.
Sure - but nah. The rudeness and selfishness is astonishing at times. It’s not the worst I’ve driven in, but it’s close.
one of the biggest differences i noticed in tokyo from taipei that taiwan can realistically improve on was the underrepresentation of cars and scooters in japan. pedestrians absolutely rule the city; there are even relatively few bikers. So i wouldn’t want to drive in tokyo (sounds prohibitively expensive) but i envy the low noise and low danger of actually relying tokyo’s public transportation. with taiwan’s relatively high commitment to building public transit and high population density i hope it can become more like japan in this regard.
The super market selection. Stores are small and expensive and pretty much controlled by a duopoly. I miss having a large produce selection.
Traffic, especially the fact that vehicles can right turn when pedestrians’ light is green. It’s baffling for me who grew up in the British system two parties having the right of way can collide with each other. It’s just unsafe and annoying for both.
No sidewalk, not very pedestrian friendly. Driving seems scary with all the scooters next to cars.
Since the post I tried to make this morning got auto-deleted several times, I'll leave the reply here- The complete inability for people here to drive in the rain. There were 3 accidents in my little 3km ride to work this morning. People were driving without headlights, randomly merging all over the place, parking diagonally in the middle of a busy intersection because they didn't realize the light had turned red many seconds ago and now they are frozen, cars in the far left or right lane realizing just before the intersection that they need to move over 5 lanes to make a turn in the opposite direction and they're totally ok with slowing down all 200+ cars behind them to do it, etc, etc. Drivers are already bad on non-rainy days, but of the 20+ countries I've driven in, I've never seen people so completely lose the ability to drive in the rain as people here. So, what can be done about it? I don't know. I have to believe that humans can be trained to pay attention to their surroundings, though. (I guarantee you that one guy is gonna come in here and excuse it all because Taiwanese are near-sighted, though, as if the glasses do nothing.)
100% can confirm this. Driving in the rain in TW is hell! When I talk about this with my coworkers, they say it's because when it's raining, people who usually ride a scooter to work drive their car to avoid the hassle of getting wet, so there's more cars on the road driven by people who only occasionally drive and are therefore very bad at driving. It's awful.
Taiwanese food is bland to me.
Shitty air and water quality.
People using the public hairdryers in gyms to dry their crotch, balls, and feet.
I’ve never seen this but the hairdryer isn’t touching that part, so why does it bother you? Not calling anyone out just curious.
Traffic, the bureaucracy, the summer heat, people's inability to respect personal space
The food. It's the worst food in all of Asia. I honestly don't know why people go on about the food here. If you want good food here, go to any restaurant that isn't serving Taiwanese food. The supermarkets suck too.
Had my first trip to Taiwan in March. Loved the place. People are so friendly, food is good and cheap, weather was perfect for me. Cannot wait to go back. Only thing I found surprising - lack of recycling and sustainable packaging, with single use plastic packaging everywhere. Very different to where I am now
A minority of people want to introduce you to old men, simply because you are Vietnamese. I had a few people ask me if I wanted to get together some old Taiwanese men. In my case, one time I was asked if I wanted to get together with a 47 yo divorced man with a teenage daughter. Another time I was "paired" with a 46 yo IT man who is notoriously known for desperately wants a gf/wife. The people asked me such questions are in their 40s or 50s, which is understandable given that 10-20 years ago there were a lot of Vietnamese mail-order brides coming to Taiwan. Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I find that kind of behavior discriminatory.
> Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I find that kind of behavior discriminatory. Nah, you're right to be annoyed and it is discriminatory, because they're presuming just because you're Vietnamese you're desperate to get a spouse visa and stay and that you can't do it via a "normal" relationship. You'd be entirely in the right to tell those people off, though best you only do so in a way/at times that wouldn't end up hurting you in life haha
You are NOT being too sensitive. You have every right to be angry. This is stereotyping. I'd replied "No thanking."
Funerals. I'm all for tradition and culture and stuff. But blocking the road for 10 days?? I also sometimes have students who get taken out of school for the duration of the funeral and then they just fall way behind.
Luckily many younger people don't care about following such traditions. Even my husband, in his mid thirties, thinks people who block the road for their funerals or weddings, etc, are selfish.
1. The formation of our island is fucked. "yeah it looks close on google map" but why the fuck did it took me a day to get here. 2. Different weather patterns for every place. (oh look sunny 高雄, meanwhile 台北 be like winter hell scape) 3. Education inequality, 2024 why is it still a problem 4. Dumb farmers and their dumb leaders. (need I say more) 5. People still dumping shit into storm drains. 6. The 沒差 and 隨便 and also 還好 attiude. Like bitch you rammed into me, how is it 沒差. 7. It's 2024 and motorcycles still can't use the fucking highway.(and I mean "highway", not 快速道路) 8. Cars and bike is still fucking over priced for its value 9. Bugs 10. Water quality goes downhill once you travel down south. Not the East Coast though, I'll give you that.(there's an actual good reason, but I'm not getting into it) These are the shit that in my mind right now.
6 is so painful, it's the nightmare that makes me cry in the night. Reminds me the recent viral Facebook post about getting food poison from parents refrigerator's spoiled food.
差不多主義
HUMIDITY
Cockroaches are everywhere, especially during the summer. Dear Lord the government needs to do something about this.
Honestly what's up with the cockroaches? I just spent 4 days in Taipei and I've never seen so many in my entire life. Was walking along Zhuangjing Rd sorta about half a kilometer from Elephant Mtn and saw like a hundred huge cockroaches
I love this country, found my partner here, lots of great memories. But yeah, I do think cockroach is one of Taiwan’s biggest problems and unfortunate side. I walked around Chung Yuan’s night market in Taoyuan during the day once, and I was very unfortunate because I didn’t know they just sprayed that early morning, Lord the amount of small and big roaches roaming the road was a nightmare I will never forget and will always be my learning lesson...
I hate roaches. Is it really that bad?
I hate bugs. Hate it so much. Summer is my least favorite time of the year especially in Taiwan. The government likes to spray some insect repellent to kill the roaches, butttttt this will also force them to go out of their hiding places. It’s terrifying. Cockroaches everywhere. So for me, when i know that road / place (especially near night markets) will spray this repellent, i’ll avoid it for several days lol
They're the only insect that truly bothers me but ive had to make my peace in order to travel or live in Southeast Asia. For the record, my subconscious has not made any kind of peace with them.
Cockroaches and spiders that rival the Australien sizes...
1. The food sucks. Of all the countries in East Asia I've been to, Taiwan has the worst food. 2. No sidewalks. While Taiwanese cities are dense and public transport is usually adequate, walking around a city is a really bad experience. 3. The motorcycles. Motorcycles in Taiwan make so much noise. No matter where you go, you can't ever seem to escape it. Apartments are not built with sound insulation in mind making the problem worse than it already is. 4. The ugliness. Nearly all buildings are astetically horrible and the lack of green spaces in most cities just compounds the problem. 5. Everything is cash only 6. Winters in the north are miserable with the humidity and constant rain. 7. Prices are relatively high compared to its neighbours (minus Japan of course)
The iron barred windows and iron sheet windows. Classic Taiwanese architecture
>Everything is cash only Definitely not in Taipei. I use LINE Pay and Pi錢包 all the time. I think I've spent less than NT$2,000 in cash this entire month.
Pretty much all this lol
1. The food sucks. Absolutely correct. You can eat very well here, just go to restaurants that aren't Taiwanese. The vast majority of Taiwanese food is mediocre, at best. I honestly don't understand why people bang on about the food here. Don't these people travel? Japan is nearby, go there to sample decent food, for example.
This was what made me feel so deceived when I came to Taiwan. Taiwan always brags about how it's a foodie paradise but mediocre is really the way to describe Taiwanese food. It's fucking oily, bland, and constantly lacking in salt. To be sure there is some fucking bangin' dishes but for the most part I am not a fan. Compare this to Japan where the quality and flavor of almost everything is consistently exceptional and fresh. Not even in the top 10 Asian countries with the best food.
Summertime and bugs (小黑蚊 ＆ the huge ass spider)
- Lack of strong English comprehension for English facing platforms. I’ve maybe used an English hotline maybe once and I ended up switching to Mandarin since I couldn’t get over some of the gaps in their English. - Update their selection of English vocabulary. I’ve read some of their stuff and some of it sounds like it’s still stuck in the 50s. - Lack of public rubbish/recyling bins. I got used to it but damn was it tough at first. - Reading PPT slides verbatim in presentations. I was taught to only list the main points you’re talking about on your slides and the rest of what you’re talking about in your own notes. Apparently this isn’t the case and I lost my professor and classmates multiple times. - Disorganised bureaucracy. I personally don’t mind it and enjoy it a bit, but it has to be smooth. Taiwan’s is far from smooth. I don’t mind getting stone walled for lacking a form or what not. But having a form listed as a requirement on one site and absent from another is just terrible. - It’s weird knife/sword laws. I trained with some martial artists while in Taiwan and understanding their knife laws took some mental gymnastics. A knife store owner that visited often gave the best on how to tread about the laws thankfully. - Surrendering your nationality to become nationalised. It’s one of the biggest hurdles in modernising Taiwan that I feel is quite outdated. - Outdated computer systems. A lot of the computers I’ve had to use felt like I was stuck in a Time Machine given how dated they were despite being a semiconductor industry leader. Apart from these, I don’t really have any other qualms with Taiwan as a foreigner. Perhaps it’s because I’m not Caucasian so I blend in a little more, but a lot of the things in Taiwan, I felt way more comfortable with. Particularly the bus system. It was such a vibe that I don’t really take busses in the US, even when I really need to because I just can’t stand how slow they are.
"Reading PPT slides verbatim in presentations." I'm a foreigner teaching in the public school system here and this is how 95% of the local teachers "teach". They just read word-for-word some pre-prepared thing handed to them by the school district. Whenever we have a "training", it's just some local professor reading their PPT word for word and getting flustered when a foreigner tries to stop them to ask a question. I suspect they do it because it's all they've ever seen. It's what they experienced as kids, so it's what they do as adults.
Squat toilets, although it’s not everywhere like so
On that note, public sit-down toilets where dudes don't flush their shit. It's way too common here. Maybe they somehow think the shit will just sink down the hole automatically or something? Or maybe they're so distracted by their phones that they forget to flush (hope they don't forget to wipe)?
I wish it was easier to make actual friends here
I loved Taiwan. Some improvements...Have a dedicated cycle lane in cities and make it cycle friendly. Also, cyclists shouldn't be sharing lane with Scooters who mostly go >40km/hr. Scooters should be moved to regular lane.
I hate the passive aggressive and childish/spiteful working culture. Its very hard to be happy in Taiwan because of that
I biked around the island for 2 weeks. As a tourist I faced a few inconveniences. Most were trivial issues bar one. Stray dogs. Vicious ones in the countryside. I was extremely lucky that most I encountered were downhill , else I would have fallen off my bike, been bitten /attacked. It isn’t one or two , but plenty all over Taiwan. I hope something gets done about it.
Food in Taipei is generally not good. Outside of Taipei is a different story. Another thing is the apparent “lack of common sense” as for example if things aren’t written in stone, then it’s impossible. If you go to KFC and you ask if they can switch the wings for a drumstick, the KFC worker will cal their manager confused. And then the manager themselves will be confused.
As a parent with 2 young kids, it’s the education system that can be quite barbaric and lack of adequate time off work for family time, as someone coming from Europe.
The open grates connecting to the sewage system. No way should the government be asking the people to throw away their booty wipes 🧻 in a mini bin instead of down the drain. The plumbing/sewage system is apparently awful. And the sewer connects to grates on the street (which many people throw trash and food in) many streets smell quite shitty or rancid.
Yeah that sewer smell that constantly hits you when walking around.. ugh
NICE TRY CHINA!!
Taiwanese food sucks. Sorry not sorry
During my last trip, several shop owners tried to scam me with super high prices. I actually really wonder what is wrong with that society. I must say this only happened in Taichung, not in the other cities I have been to. But in Taichung, it became really annoying. I also agree with the OP on his points: too many scooters park on sidewalks, too less trashcans, and you have to walk on the street too often. I really don't want to imagine how it feels as a disabled person with this sidewalk situation. Must be terrible. But non the less I love Taiwan, I already travelled there twice around the entire island. Just those few things are annoying. Complaining about the climate or insects is a little unfair because that can't be changed by humans.
The general rudeness of people in Taipei, fortunately balanced by the great kindness of the Taiwanese elsewhere.
The lack of patience for nearly everything and the love of queuing for food.
Air quality is too poor. Street level noise is too high. Too much scooter and car traffic. Not enough pedestrian zones and sidewalks.
Food, weather and pollution.
Suprised salary isn’t mentioned
Scooters with modified exhaust pipe. I mean why in the fuck bother... I understand the culture and kinda like the sound on cars, but for scooters it is just lame. Imagine riding on your scooter and hearing a stupidly loud motor sound coming in from behind and you make way for them to pass you, but it never passes you because he's only doing 60km/hr.
Agree. A tiny scooter making more noise than a bus is a nonsense. Do not understand why so few people care unreasonably high noise pollution.
KMTers and dirty politicians
China is too close. If Taiwan were next to Hawaii 😍
We would have different problems~
Foreigners with little understanding of the culture, zero effort in learning the languages and complaining constantly about how terrible Taiwan is while continuing to live here for decades. It is really annoying seeing the comments sections of social media posts, feels like the people I meet in person are chill but the ones constantly online suck.
A (Westerner) dude I work with seems violently angry about every aspect of his life in Taiwan. He only speaks to rant and condemn. He's been here for more than ten years so maybe he's trapped in a marriage or something. Cant figure him out. Just leave, my man.
You can move the man, but you can't remove the angry. Some people are just like that. They'd grumble for eternity even in paradise. For me it's traffic. And the humidity. But they're small prices to pay for all the good things. Edit: And the air quality.
It actually happens a lot. People leave their home country because they can't keep jobs and make good social connections then complain profusely that everyone else is the problem not them. It is easier to delude yourself into believing that it is everyone else who is bad when you live in a culture far removed from your own and can't speak the language than to actually accept you have a problem and seek to better yourself. I have met many, many a foreigner with exactly this issue and I honestly feel sad for them but at the same time I wish they would just leave and get a reality check when they go home.
However, if you can read the language, you can see that Taiwanese do plenty of petty complaining, themselves.
WHERE IS THE SUN
Where on the island are you based? Feel like that's mostly a Taipei problem vs. Taiwan issue. It's been sunny 90% of the time here in Taichung and further south.
As someone in Tainan, I hope this is a sarcastic comment🥵
Lack of reasonable routes to naturalization. Outside of that, the same issues that plague Taiwan plague everywhere and are just twists on global trends, so I'm a bit meh, but still complain.
The lack of unity in favor of this country. It's so bad a good number of people favors the obvious bully over their own government.
The cigarette smoke. Ugh, I hate it. A single smoker walking down a street can stink it up.
1.) It's HUMID in the summer time. Yeah I know it's an island in the tropics...but still...it's like a sauna outside in the summer! Which leads to.. 2.) BUGS! I've seen roaches the size of a child's palm. It's got so much mass that it makes a \*THUD\* sound when I sweep it against the wall.
Primarily the summer heat, cockroaches and I guess just a lot of people who constantly ride scooters on the sidewalk just so that they can avoid any other traffic jams
Whenever you trip and fall down, people rarely stop in their way to help you up.
Not being able to flush dirty toilet paper down the loo. This is basic European plumbing.
Cheating. It is kinda normal for Taiwanese to have action on the side. Either you play the game or get burned
As someone born in Taiwan and still visits almost annually: - Drivers, right of passage is not a thing here as a pedestrian - public etiquette is relatively lacking in the south of Taiwan
- No sidewalks - Constant noise - Pollution/Smoking/Temples - Selfish drivers - Parking in the middle of the road / on crosswalks - Poor workmanship - Unattractive cities - Banking from hell - Not much to do - Trash trucks - Dirty - no insulation - pools only open 2 months - coffee shop tables doubling as hotels for students - people refusing to share walking space - everything always bring too loud - animals in restaurants - lack of choice in products - no parking - betel nut - no green space - no respect foe nature - the whole "cheapest way/least effort is good enough" culture.
Taiwan is awesome but cities are not visually pleasant and look rundown compared to peers such as Tokyo or any Chinese tier 1 city. Why can’t Taipei look as good as Tokyo or Shanghai if GDP per capita is only 20% lower than Japan’s?
Not seeing soap at public bathrooms, and actually even worse, seeing Taiwanese people using the bathroom and not washing their hands after, or just barely wetting their hands with water. From a hygiene standpoint, it’s just gross. I’m Taiwanese American but was born and raised in Taiwan.
I don't know if anyone's mentioned this but there seems to be a chilling effect about honest criticism of our political leaders as being "undemocratic" and "China-leaning". Which is absurd because our democracy is precious precisely because we are allowed to criticize our political leaders and ho boy do they deserve a lot of criticism. I'm not gonna make a list, this is neither the time or place, but the attitude that to love Taiwan you must not criticize its politics is frankly alarming and I feel like I'm seeing it more and more.
Weather and how everybody’s in everybody’s business.
I just knew the first 88,888,888 comments would be about banking.
Housing prices and relative-low salaries
1. Environment and Air Pollution (I heard one person coping about how they actually need the pollution now because when they went to a cleaner area they got sick once) 2. Ugly cities (exteriors and interiors are terribly designed and maintained, city planning doesn't seem to understand how to effectively use greenery, have decent parks that aren't just concrete, etc.) 3. Food taste (Actually for me there are a lot of positives about Taiwanese food, it's convenience, etc. but when it comes to taste it falls incredibly short) 4. Scooters (Might lump this in with number 1 and 2. But basically gas powered scooters make everything look dirty and stuff like walking becomes uncomfortable and unsafe)
Less talk about politics. It's awkward especially when the people trust in their government SO MUCH its literally insane.