Blah can't find pictures of the bedroom. Here's a few more of the view outside. Also had access to the roof which I can't find pictures of either, but had a cool party up there on NYE. Btw total cost was 30,000 TWD/month:






Yeah I play poker for a living. There's actually a school there run by a couple American-born Chinese. 3 coaches and like 9 students atm. Fluent in English, and they'd be willing to take any English-fluent students/partners. Moving into a new office soon I believe since the main coach just won the Macau Red Dragon; http://fiveofakind.net/ (it's in Chinese, if you're interested PM me and I can help you get in contact with them). I recently moved back to California ... was in TW for 400 days.

wow that place is sick

how easy is it to reach the mrt from there?

You can't walk, at least not currently. They're building the new XinYi MRT extension so it won't be so bad in 2012 or whenever it'll be done. Currently, only options are taxis, motorbike, or the (small) Blue 5. It comes every 5-7 minutes, goes around the mountain, through New York New York, 101, and loops around the MRT Taipei City Hall. So to get from the Country Club to the closest (currently) MRT station would take about 15 minutes average.

Yeah public transit can be a bitch if you have to take a bus to the MRT. When I was at NTNU I would just take the bike all the way down Heping Rd. and it would take 15 minutes tops. I loved riding too and chose non-rush hour hours so it was very bearable.

I'm loving it here in Taipei right now. I'm living in Da'an, right next to Shilin park, which is a decent place to go running right in the middle of the city. I find Taipei a very livable city.

I moved here after living in Shanghai for a year, so I'm comparing everything to that, but I feel much more at home here as opposed to in Shanghai. For a person who's mored used to a western style of living, China can be a very confusing place. You just can't ever get used to people spitting all over the place, like in buses right next to you, and the general lack of courtesy to strangers. It's not uncommon for people to elbow you in the back when they're trying to get by you, instead of saying "excuse me". I find people in Taiwan to be super polite and nice - might be a hold over from the Japanese occupation here. But I guess as an Asian American, I found the people to be really patient and friendly when they find out that I speak chinese horribly. So it's nice. I find that in China they're very impatient and don't understand why I chinese looking person can't speak chinese.

The general friendliness of the Taiwanese people also includes the girls that you meet here. It also doesn't hurt the the girls here are freaking hot. One thing that I've noticed is that I'm a lot more successful when I start talking to the girls in my broken chinese, and then switch over to english later on. I think that most girls here do speak english, or at least understand quite a bit of it, but they're really intimidated to use it. So once you put them at ease by speaking a bit of chinese, you're much better off. Nice thing about going out here is that since they're so nice, even when you get turned down, they're never mean about it. So you don't feel too bad.

So, for right now, I'm having a blast grinding and learning chinese in Taipei. Oh, I also just discovered this awesome blog about this person's experience hiking in Taiwan. I'm looking to get more into hiking and it just made even more excited to be living here. http://hikingintaiwan.blogspot.com/

Very well put, I agree 100%. About the hiking let me know when u're going im really interested as well.

Nice post sir. Makes me wish I was back in Taipei.

Re China, I definitely agree that it's not for everyone. Some people really need the conveniences of Westernization; Taipei is perfect for that. I must say that my experiences there left me feeling that Taipei, in comparison to other major China cities, was a little bland in terms of cultural presence. I always felt that the Chinese were more attached to their roots and in general this was pretty noticeable, especially once you started touring the countryside. And yes also once you took a bus or walked on the streets A cool place overall, great for travel and epic adventures, not optimal for living.

Now that I think about it, I think the best thing anyone can do is live in Taipei and travel in China. They have direct flights to Shanghai now for $150.

Hey Jawks,

What major intersections do you live by? I loved the Da'an area and kinda wish I had decided to live there instead.

RE hiking, I would recommend checking out: http://forumosa.com/taiwan/viewforum.php?f=55. They have some epic hiking threads.

Also, how have you been studying Chinese?

Gambit,
I definitely agree with you that China is a cool place to visit. I've done and seen somethings there that are just awesome. Yea, in fact the greatest trips I had there was when I got out of the typical major cities there. When I was traveling around Sichuan and Yunnan and seeing the smaller cities it was pretty damn sick. Hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of my all time greatest trips, it was just crazy there. I actually really enjoyed the fact that it was so different from what I was used to. But that same reason is also why I got sick of living there after a whole year and can just add unneeded frustration that I didn't want to deal with outside of poker.

Right now I'm living right near Xinyi lu and Jianguo lu. On the northeast corner of Shilin park - right next to the unofficial American embassy. It's a really nice area, I can go running in the park, and Yong Kang Jie is 10/15 minutes walk where there are a ton of restaurants.

And I got a tutor through TLI to learn Chinese. It's been pretty good so far, I'm doing about 2 hours a day, 4 times a week, and I my Chinese is improving pretty fast.

Oh, one thing that I've noticed that I don't get, is that people here sort of have an inferiority complex with regards to foreign cities. When I tell them that I find Taipei awesome even when compared to the States, they're shocked. It seems that almost all the young kids, if they can, want to emigrate to America, specifically Southern California. idk, I find southern california the most overhyped area in all of America.

Do any of you guys notice this weird complex?

I think most of the people here just want to make more money and thus having to emigrate to some other country. Maybe it they feel Taipei is somehow inferoir because they cannot make as good living here as they would like to. Average salary for university graduate on his first years is around 20-30k NT/month which is not much at all. 100k NT is considered to be very good salary here. Compare that to western cities and it becomes obvious why they feel such an urge to go there.

Taiwanese people might have some inferiority complex also because last century they got raped, murdered, abused and humiliated big time by Japanese and Dutch for example. My Taiwanese friend just told me his grandmother got raped thousands of times. Btw, if you have noticed people seem to be quite tall here. That is (at least partially) because many of them have some dutch blood in their veins.

not to sound douchy here, but the bolded parts are not true. which part of taiwan do you live in? we are tall because many of us have dutch blood in our veins? no. i have been to taipei almost a year and i've never met any people with any "dutch blood". i am taiwanese and i dont have many american friends in taipei yet, so it might be the reason. most of my friends are taiwanese local, or taiwanese born in america that i met when i was in schools. its been almost 70 years since japanese people were off taiwan. i am 26 years old and none of my friends never even talk about that at all, and we certainly don't hate on japanese. what happened back then was bad, but it wasn't bad enough to have influence on my parents' generation, and it certainly does not have any influence on us. most of my friends are in the early 20's so that might be the reason. how old are you?

i grew up in LA and just recently decided to move back to taipei. i make about 80k USD/ year at work (including 30k/ in poker) and now i make about 60,000NT / month in taipei (on a poker break atm). trust me, the life style in taipei with 60k NT/ month to spend is much better than the the life i had in LA. i mean, everything is cheaper in taipei, and the service overall is just soooo many levels above what was offered in LA. I had to spend at least 500 USD (along with other male friends) when i go clubbing in hollywood (opera, lv3, etc.) , but we only need to pay 3,000 NT each here when we go to primo and have the same if not better service. with the insurance/bills/rent/tax all covered i have 40k NT to burn every month, and in CA i don't even get to live the life better then this with the 80k pretax salary. i think most people who want to immigrate to another country to make money are mislead by the amount of money they could make on paper (when exchanged into NTD), but what they dont see is the relatively higher expense that will be incurred while working in that new country.


oh, and btw, isnt the park on xinyi road/ jian guo road called da an forest park? i go there for basketball twice every week. any of you like to play basketball?

Haha yeah that's why I was confused. I used to play there pretty often, usually after 8 PM. Surprisingly good pickup games sometimes.

I agree in that the general level of nationalism in Taiwan seemed pretty low. The one thing I noticed without fail was if I ever accidentally made the mistake of saying Taiwan was a part of China, I was corrected instantly and usually with a hint of anger/frustration. In China I noticed a pretty significant difference in how the nationals spoke about their own country/referred to other countries. Naturally when money was brought up America was considered the best but I always sensed a "I'm proud to be Chinese and I wouldn't have it any other way" sentiment shared by most of the people I spoke with. This could have something to do with the blockage of media and lack of influence from outside sources .... whereas Taiwan is a culmination of several cultures and extremely Westernized.

And yeah Jawks those wages you mentioned seem pretty accurate. 100 NT/hour is the standard and you are also working 6days/60hours a week.

Hmm no offense taken and this is very interesting indeed. You are Taiwanese so i am in no position to argue about this with you. I got this information directly from a taiwanese guy that has been studying a lot of taiwanese and chinese history and is also teaching history. Maybe i misunderstood some of his sayings, i need to ask him again. It's very understandable why u don't want to talk about these things and i find it very weird that this guy wanted to talk me about all this.

Did you say by making 80k USD/month in LA you dont get any better quality of life than making 60k NT/month in Taipei? A lot of people, indeed, are only considering how big is the salary on paper, not the cost of living in the particular country. This causes everybody here and in many other asian country to think that westerner = rich (and moving to western countries is way to get rich) which is ridiculous.

Edit: Now that I reread my previous post I understand it might seem insulting to some of you that are Taiwanese. If you got insulted by this (dutch blood thing especially) im sorry and I didnt mean to cause any distress.

i love taiwanese people

they are cutthroat but loving at the same time

Oh yea, lol. I think I mistook the name of the park. But yea, I'd love to go play ball sometime. I haven't played in a while, so I'm a bit rusty, but I used to play a bunch. Let me know if you wanna go and play sometime.

Ahh, I just realized that 大安森林公園 is Daan SenLin Gongyuan. I always thought people were saying Daan Shilin Gongyuan. Sorry for the mix up.

Hey Guys,

I am a former engineer from CA, now poker affiliate on sabbatical leave. I just arrived in Taipei 3 days ago. I'll be here for at least 6 months.

As such I'm looking to make buddies and hit up the night clubs, etc.. I'm 27.

Yesterday I tried out Club Wax. I got there overconfident based on this thread, lol, but didn't manage to pick up a hot Taiwan chick ... which was dissapointing.

Most seemed to be accompanied and it was hard to approach them (other than the dancefloor) with all the noise and the fact I can't speak Chinese.

If you want to hang out, add me to msn. In the message say: "2+2 taipei" and I will add you. It's zen-182 at hotmail.com

I'm currently staying at Forward hotel which is expensive but will be looking for an apartment soon.

Thanks,

I have been in Wax for one time and I didn't like it that much. It was too small and loud. I'd say there is def better places to bag some Taiwanese chicks. I added you to msn...

I just arrived to Taipei for probably a few weeks stay. If anyone is around and wants to meet up, PM me or hit me back in this thread. I wouldn't mind going out to a few bars or playing some sports or something. I'm 24 and half taiwanese.

Is anyone going to be in Taiwan over the next few months. I was thinking of stopping here and would like to get a furnished apartments for a month or two. PM me or let me know in this thread. If this isn't possible someone who knows more than me please let me know.

for months of april-may

it's hard to get fully furnished apartment for only 2 month
you'll have to do with those day rent.
you can negoiated a huge discount for 60 days, but price still will come up alot more expensive then normal 6 month-12 month contracted fully furnished apartment.
i live in taipei, so if you need help on finding housing, pm me with your msn.

im back in Taipei for at least a few months, signuptoday or anyone else that wants to hang out PM me!

What is the dress code like at clubs? I only ask because I will be spending a week in Taiwan as part of a backpacking trip and I'm not sure if I have room to take my dress shoes with me. Will I be good wearing sneakers? They're not dark but the rest of my wardrobe will be appropriate and match with them somewhat. Also I fit the western bill (half-white, actually ) so will that give me more leeway? Just wondering.

Thanks for all the posts in this thread, I can't wait to check this place out.

pretty sure like everywhere in Asia... Taiwan club attire does not match the levels usually found in the United states(Vegas, NY). obv depends on the club though, but most clubs in korea, japan people arent wearing dress shoes. cant speak about taiwan though...