I’ve traveled pretty much all over Taiwan, from the obvious tourist spots to places most people never bother visiting, including some that are genuinely difficult to get to.

Hit me up if you’re looking for recommendations, lesser-known places, road trip ideas, or somewhere worth visiting that isn’t on every tourist list. Happy to recommend places based on what you’re into.

AMA.

(Sound on!)

4K YT version here

45 y/o, born in TW, moved to the US as a toddler. Like most TW diaspora, I had not traveled the eastern coast as much (if at all; can't recall!). I had some time between jobs this summer and decided to take a last minute trip to TW, rented a car, and drove down and up the east coast. It was a literal last minute trip; saw the tickets on a Friday and landed in TW the next Tuesday 🤣. I figured that if I didn't do this trip now, I may not be able to do it again until I'm 60+!

(Special shoutout to my wife who couldn't come but said that I shouldn't not go just because she couldn't go)

This is my first time traveling the east coast and I covered as much as reasonably possible (given the weather situation over the first week and the threat of Saudel). I could have easily used up another week and gave up on many, many hikes and exploration that I wanted to do along the east coast.

This is a short video of some of the highlights (working on cutting a longer one).

Lots of great hikes, amazing coastlines, and just breathtaking views!

AMA if you are interested in doing a similar trip; happy to share my tips, learnings, and answer any questions for folks that have wanted to do this but have doubts about how to pull it off, where to go, what to see!

Quick takes

The drive: ~6 hours straight shot from Nangang on the east side of Taipei to Taitung. We stopped for lunch and along a few spots along the way so all-in-all maybe almost 8h transit time by car, but worth it to be able to pop out along the random viewpoints along the coast. The drive is just spectacular with the clouds hanging over the ever-present mountains along the entire route. Every morning I was still in awe of the view of the cloud capped mountains.

Taroko: almost all trails are possibly permanently closed (according to one lady at the welcome center). As far as I could see, there was no work being done on the trails; all work was focused on the roadway and adding cover for some key sections. The railing hasn't even been fully replaced. The drive was still spectacular, but you should get in as early as possible (6:30) since entry and exit are timed via checkpoints. This is one of the scariest drives I've ever done; even scarier than Pike's Peak because the loose rocks and damaged infrastructure remind you that fate is not in your own hands here.

Here is the timetable for the Taroko checkpoints: https://imgur.com/a/YnhTuTt. How to read it: 6:30 - 8:00 is when you can actively drive into or out of the park. It's only one lane each way (some parts only one lane total) and there's a LOT of construction. So they fully close the roads for a few hours at a time each day. I drove in around 7 AM and then around 9:50 AM, I had to wait in an exit line or else I'd miss the 10:00 - 10:05 exit window and be stuck until 12. 3 hours inside the park seems about right to me. There is a longer hike right behind the visitor center that is accessible outside of the checkpoint.

Taitung: A nice little city; worth the drive down. Beautiful beaches and coastline along the way.

Hualien: A better "base" since 1-2 hours drive each day in either direction can take you to a lot of interesting sights. Two routes to explore: coast and valley, both with interesting sights to visit!

Jiaoxi: just north of Yilan, another good base for the north eastern coast. The geography of the coast along the northeast is totally different from the south east coast and worth the visit! Jiaoxi is very close to Taipei and has plenty of hot springs hotels. Makes access to the northeast coast points much more convenient.

Surfing: my daughter is interested in surfing so I did some scouting and asked around about the seasons for both surfing and diving. May - September are the peak seasons. The winter and spring months see bigger waves. Diving completely shuts down; surfing shops are still open, but generally cater to intermediate and advanced surfers in these months. Both said the water is cold and requires a wet suit.

Dive shops recommended Xiaoliuqiu instead for late spring.

Humidity: unlike anything I've experienced in a long time 😅. Haven't been in Taiwan in the summer since my teens; totally forgot how humid summer is. Literally every day was just soaked in sweat from hiking. Walk 100ft: shirt is wet. Sit down and eat: shirt is soaked. (Not sure how folks are eating noodle soups in 32c!) Gave up caring about it and just lived with being soaked. Bring a reusable water bottle (to cut down on plastic waste) and stay hydrated! Don't go hiking without bringing sufficient water with you; definitely had moments of regret bringing only one bottle of water!

Reminds me of...: Azores! I've visited both Terceira and Sao Miguel in the Azores and wow, it's uncanny how similar these two are. But I have to say: I prefer the way the Portuguese have their beaches set up: fresh water rinse stations at every beach, public restrooms for changing, natural pools, and lots of man-made jump points even in rocky beaches.

Tracking weather: I was in utter disbelief at some of the rain estimates for some days where it was several inches of rain. I found that most western forecasters mostly had it wrong (except for 2 days when it was literally buckets). Windy.com and Zoom Earth were the best resources and I found Windy GFS representative of my observed weather conditions for the day even as far as 3 days out.

Shoes: I regret, regret not bringing my Crocs because there's just no way to get around in the rain without getting your feet absolutely soaked and having a bad time. For summer rainy season: bring Crocs or hiking sandals and accept that your feet will get wet AF if it rains.

Watch your drinks though. Monkeys be thirsty.

Throw away and this happen awhile ago. Mom had a stroke and was admitted to ICU for few day in the tri service hospital. She claims that the nurse in ICU abused her, slapped her face multiple times and bad mouth her. None of us believes her because they had to sedate and drug her. She has bruises but it's probably from her trying to escape the tiedown. We thought she was hallucinating. Until later a nurse that was working in her ward left and hinted we need to investigate it. We won't ever find out if it's true because there is no evidence so I wonder if anyone heard of similar things.

1. “God Pouring Neon” - Paramount

2. “Cats Kill 2” - Paramount

3. “Favorite Punk V3” - Revolver

4. “Asian Death Invasion” - Jack’s

5. “Loud Sonic Party” - Sound

6. “Fuck the World” - Stardust

0906 “Yellow Room Anniversary” - The Wall
Not a heavy show!

1. “Caveman Diplomacy, Sexual Peace” - Continue

9/11. “Don’t Push Me!” - Pipe

1. Nargaroth, Heretoir - Jack’s

2. Sabrina tuā ga̍k tuī - Pipe

3. Brujeria - Jack’s

0919-20. “Mental Disintegration 12” - Paramount, Sound

9/20. Band Maid - Legacy Terra

9/22. Beast in Black - Moondog

09/25 “All the Beast” - Legacy

9/29 The Omnific - Wildlab

I moved to Taiwan about a year ago on a Gold Card. I kept my remote job and initially moved here mainly to study Mandarin, experience a different culture, and have the chance to live in Asia again.

It took me a while to decide whether moving here was the right decision, and in many ways I think it was. I'm still really happy I gave myself the opportunity to do it.

What has surprised me, though, is how many foreigners I've met who seem quite unhappy with life here, particularly people who've been here for several years. I've heard a lot of complaints about work culture, dating, difficulty making local friends, feeling like an outsider, being charged “foreigner prices,” and generally feeling disconnected from Taiwanese society.

I've also met a couple of foreign women who seemed to have become very cynical about Taiwan and Taiwanese people. Eventually I found myself spending less time with them because I realized their constant negativity was starting to affect how I viewed my own experience here.

The foreigner Facebook groups don't help either 😂. There seem to be a lot of very bitter conversations about living here.

What's interesting is that my own experience has been quite different so far. I still have plenty to figure out, and I definitely don't feel completely settled yet, but I genuinely like living here and don't want to become someone who spends years here complaining about how much they dislike it.

So I'm curious about people who've lived in Taiwan for a long time:

What helped you actually settle down here and feel like you became part of a community?

Did your experience improve the longer you stayed, or did you eventually decide Taiwan wasn't somewhere you wanted to build a long-term life?

I'd love to hear from Taiwanese people as well as foreigners who've been here for many years. I'm interested in different perspectives rather than just the usual expat complaints.

I’ve bought so many raincoats and all the years I lived in Taiwan and none of them have ever been waterproof. Water always seeps through and get absorbed and ends up making my clothes wet. Is there one that actually works and keeps you dry? I don’t usually go for the poncho style, but instead the jacket/pants style because it’s more maneuverable. I’d prefer jacket/pants if possible. It would also be nice to have something that can cover up your shoes because my shoes will always get soaked. I know there’s a shoe thing you can put over your shoes, but I was hoping for something built into the pants. Something kind of similar to bell bottom pants.

Taiwan, Nantou County, Route 21 Southbound from Shuili to Alishan offers the best roadside views of the Yu Shan mountain range. We still feel that it’s the most scenic mountain route. Anybody else got alternative perspectives?

I've been bothered for YEARS with this question: does anyone know of any dental provider in Taiwan (literally, the whole island) who is detailed, meticulous, thorough, and manually scales for regular dental cleanings? I've been more than a half dozen providers over the last few decades, and most of the time they do that that barely there ultrasonic scaling in 15 mins or less. I'm happy to pay out of pocket, as long as they are meticulous and thorough in their cleaning. If they're in the northern part of Taiwan, even better, but not a must.

I'm aware that Taiwan doesn't generally differentiate between dentists and hygienists, but the attention in detail really is lacking with cleanings, and very little attention is paid to gum health (dentists are obsessed with f1nDing c4vities and drilling because that seems to be how NHI pays out!) And I'd rather not only wait to fly to the US for thorough cleanings. Halp please!

And, while I have you -- why does it seem like flossing (properly, curved C around the gum pocket, not with those flimsy floss sticks) is not practiced much?

A man in Taiwan who used a robot vacuum cleaner to gather evidence of his wife’s affair won a civil lawsuit but was subsequently sentenced to prison for invading her privacy.

哈嘍！我來自日本的大學生。下週我要去台灣留學了。所以，我打算帶日本的伴手禮。但，我不清楚台灣人喜歡的日本伴手禮。 大家有推薦什麼日本伴手禮嗎？

​我的中文不太好。謝謝你還是讀到了最後！

Hi everyone! I'm a university student moving from Japan to Taiwan next week for my exchange studies.

​I’d love to bring some Japanese souvenirs (omiyage) for my future classmates and local friends, but I'm not entirely sure what is most appreciated in Taiwan. What are your favorite souvenirs, snacks, or gifts from Japan? Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Is there any issue with FET ? For several months now my 4G(+) data connection is so bad ! At the time of writing this, the speedtest shows a download rate ~12Mbps with a signal strength of 4 bars...Sometimes it's even 5 bars but no internet at all (apps say I'm offline!!). As suggested by FET customer service I replaced the sim card 2 weeks ago, but it hasn't improved anything. I don't expect FET to tell me if their 4G network is going bad but I wonder if I'm the only one in this situation ? Or is FET trying to push me to a 5G subscription by degrading the 4G speed ? My phone ? S23 fully up-to-date, brought to Samsung store for them to check, nothing abnormal ! Or should I move to Chungwa...

My sisters and I are American born-Taiwanese. My mom was born in Zhejiang province but moved to Taiwan when she was 2. My maternal grandparents are from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, and my mom’s older brothers grew up in Zhejiang province but her little brother was born and raised in Taipei.

My dad was born and raised in Taipei, 7th generation born on the island.

My fiancé is from Tianjin.

Growing up, we said la ji for 垃圾 because of my mom’s influence instead of lè sè, which would have been my dad’s influence.

We say 瓢羹 for spoon because of the Hangzhou influence from my maternal grandmother and it confuses the hell out of EVERYONE. LOL. My fiancé says 勺子

We use the Taiwanese word for mochi, 麻糍, and my fiancé had noooo idea what I was trying to say because I had no idea I was even using a Taiwanese word. Then tack on the Japanese words that my dad and his family used growing up because my grandparents spoke Japanese and Taiwanese primarily, my grandmother barely spoke Mandarin but my grandfather was fluent. So there are just sprinklings of Nihongo in our vernacular too.

We used 阿公 and 阿嬤** **for my paternal grandparents but 外公 and 外公, with the different tone on the first character, for my maternal grandparents.

My sisters and I all use 塑膠 for plastic but they use the sùjiao pronunciation and I use the Taiwanese Mandarin pronunciation sùojiao for some reason. My fiancé uses the mainland word 塑料.

I also find myself using the r sound when talking to my fiancé and his family and then the zh sound when talking to mine. 肉, 容易, 日本, 軟.

Fast forward to when we have kids and I just imagine them code switching constantly when talking to me and my side of the family and then switching again to talk to their other dad and his side of the family.

Anyone else have similar backgrounds?

What are budget-friendly local Taiwanese perfume/fragrances for men would you recommend?

so i see ppl in cars and scooters doing this and I definitely don’t agree, but my bus driver is watching youtube while driving with his volunteer all the way up… is this normal? Ive been here for a year, ive seen the crazy bus driver maneuvers, attitudes, etc but i haven’t seen this.

If they save my invoices online somewhere, has anyone made an app to auto track my spending in detail? Like, the details I want are all in the e-invoice. Like, the stores, the things I bought, throw in some auto categorizing and you get a really nice spending tracker. (Also add normal input methods if the place doesn't do e-invoices.)

I had an idea and wanted to see if I could build one myself but the official API apparently needs some certificates? Just wanted to know if there was something like that.

Source: https://ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/5555606

There are several widely recognized factors that contribute to a low birth rate such as long working hours, demanding work culture, high housing price-to-income ratio, competitive and costly education etc. But are these conditions especially severe in Taiwan even when compared to its neighbors?

• Work culture: While Taiwan's working environment is generally worse than that of most developed western countries, I've always had the impression (perhaps uneducated) that Japan, Korea and China have even worse working hours and corporate cultures.
• Housing price-to-income ratio: Taiwan's ratio is horrendous, but aren't China, Korea and Singapore just as bad if not worse?
• Cost of raising children: Not sure if Taiwan is uniquely bad in this regard.

Is geopolitical risk also a major factor? Perhaps couples worry about the instability of a potential cross strait conflict? But after talking to friends I didn't get the sense that people really factor this in when deciding whether to have children (at least not as a high priority factor).

I was raised in a traditional Chinese family so it comes as absolutely no surprise that developed Asian countries (Japan, Korea, Singapore and maybe China) have abysmal birth rates. But what makes Taiwan the lowest? Is there a specific reason for that?

Hi all,

I’m hoping that this being Reddit, there might be some crossover between this sub and r/laundry.

I’ve just moved into a new place that uses one of those cylindrical hot water tanks. However, it seems like these tanks only supply hot water to the bathrooms and the kitchen, while the washing machine only has one hose going into it supplying cold water. I’ve read the manual of my washing machine many times and still can’t find anything about water temperature. There are no settings for water temperature either, just rinse cycles and soil level settings, but so far none of them have been able to make the washing machine output hot water.

Searching Taiwanese forums like mobile01 or Facebook have returned similarly disappointing results, or people arguing that just cold water is fine for doing laundry (which the SPA DAY people will easily refute.

In short, anyone have any luck with this?