I always wanted to study abroad so I decided to continue my studies in Taipei. I have been living in Taipei since 2008, at first I only think to stay here for my studies. But Taiwan surprised me, after a while I fell in love with Taipei and decided to stay and work in here after graduated. Here are the reasons why Taipei is a great city to live in:
#1 Night market
Taiwan is famous with its night market, I like it because there are many stalls in the night market selling foods, snacks and clothes there and it's quite cheap, sometimes you can get a very good bargain. Every time I went to night market, I'm always in the mood to eating anything and shopping sometimes. I would suggest you start by trying some snacks like fried chicken, potatoes, fried mushroom, grilled sausage, milk tea and etc.
#2 People are friendly & polite
Taiwanese are friendly and nice, I often get lost in the of the streets but they always try to explain the direction even though they can't speak English. Even the taxi and bus driver are very helpful and honest, they would explain the faster way to go to your destination. The people also very polite, if the passengers get off from the bus they will say thank you to the driver. I feel safe and secure being with this kind of people in this country.
#3 National Health Insurance (NHI)
I'm really amaze with Taiwan's healthcare system because all legal residents of Taiwan are eligible for National Health Insurance (NHI) benefits for illness, injury, and childbirth. So basically as long as you got your Alien Resident Card (ARC), you are eligible to apply the NHI card. I started using it when I was a student here. Sometimes I went to clinics or hospital when I'm not feeling well, depending on the issue. If you went to small clinics it will cost around 150-200 NTD (~ 5-7 USD), but hospital it's more expensive around 400-500 NTD (~ 13-16 USD). Each time I went to the dentist, it's only cost me around 150-200 NTD (~ 5-7 USD) for any treatment even for small surgery like molar tooth extraction, can you believe it?
#4 MRT System
Taipei has an amazing MRT system. The MRT runs from 06:00 to midnight every day, the train comes every 2-5 minutes, and it cover most of the city’s main tourist attraction. Every year the government try to improve the facility by opening new more stations to cover another area. The fares are variety depends on distances, you also can get 20% discount for using EASY CARD (悠遊卡; yōuyóu kǎ), nice right?? One more thing, no eating or drinking is allowed inside the station or on the train.
#5 Taipei City Bus
#6 U-bike Service
Taipei City has a bicycle rental program called "U-bike". You just have to register first in this site, then you can just go borrow the bike from the rental station and return it after you finished. In some station they provide the service system so you will be able to check the status of other station, such as how many bike left and parking spot. Checked it out and you will find it to be fun and easy, but the best part is, it's free for the first 30 minutes (^0^)v.
#7 Taipei Free Public Wi-Fi Access
The government has launched a free wireless Internet service that covers much of the MRT system, Taipei city bus, and some buildings office. The bandwidth not that fast but pretty ideal for some of us who just want to check their email, Facebook, etc. Before you can access the service, you'll need to apply for an account on the Taipei Free Public Wi-Fi access website, which is also available in English. Such a nice facility right?
#8 Convenient store
Where ever you go, you could always count on convenient store which open-all-day-everyday such as 7-11, Family Mart, Hi-Life, OK-Mart, etc. Many tasks can be completed by having those store, including:
1. Buy foods & beverages (cold food, hot food, bread, snack, groceries, coffee, tea, etc)
2. Pay bills (such as credit card bill, electrical bill, water bill, etc)
3. Adding EASY CARD value, prepaid phone
4. Buy train & HSR ticket
5. Pick-up and send packages (when you order something from the internet, you can select convenient store as a delivery point for you to pick things)
6. Print documents, photos
7. Use an ATM
8. And many more...
#9 Free entertainment
Taipei have many inexpensive tourist destination, mostly place like the museum, temples, hiking trails and nature parks and some of them are free too. Just outside the Taipei city, you might want to consider to visit the old city like Tamsui and Jiufen. With all those free entertainment you can explore the beauty of Taipei. Click here for more information.
#10 Queuing & Discipline
Taiwanese are discipline and you will be surprised when you see that almost everyone follow the rule even during rush hour. You could see that Taipei MRT have queuing lines drawn on the floor. People are queuing in the line and letting the other passenger to get off first before getting on the train. Also the escalator etiquette, if you didn't want to walk just stand on the right side of the escalator, for those who are in hurry just take the left side.
#11 The City is Clean
You should see the streets in Taipei, they are so clean. The government build many parks around the neighborhood so the citizen get a clean air. I also noticed many people in night market want to throw their rubbish, even though no trash could be found easily, yet nobody litter. The recycling system is good. One more thing, most people bring their own plastic bag for their groceries because it will cost you extra for a plastic bag.
#12 Access to disable people
The government also facilitated those people with disabilities. MRT, trains and Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) are all accessible for people with disabilities. Some buses, office buildings and streets are fully equipped for wheelchair access.
#1 Night market
Taiwan is famous with its night market, I like it because there are many stalls in the night market selling foods, snacks and clothes there and it's quite cheap, sometimes you can get a very good bargain. Every time I went to night market, I'm always in the mood to eating anything and shopping sometimes. I would suggest you start by trying some snacks like fried chicken, potatoes, fried mushroom, grilled sausage, milk tea and etc.
Tamsui Night Market
Taiwanese Style Fried Chicken (雞排)
Fried Bun (水煎包)
 Braised Pork Rice (魯肉飯)& Ribs Stewed in medicinal herbs(藥燉排骨) |
#2 People are friendly & polite
Taiwanese are friendly and nice, I often get lost in the of the streets but they always try to explain the direction even though they can't speak English. Even the taxi and bus driver are very helpful and honest, they would explain the faster way to go to your destination. The people also very polite, if the passengers get off from the bus they will say thank you to the driver. I feel safe and secure being with this kind of people in this country.
#3 National Health Insurance (NHI)
I'm really amaze with Taiwan's healthcare system because all legal residents of Taiwan are eligible for National Health Insurance (NHI) benefits for illness, injury, and childbirth. So basically as long as you got your Alien Resident Card (ARC), you are eligible to apply the NHI card. I started using it when I was a student here. Sometimes I went to clinics or hospital when I'm not feeling well, depending on the issue. If you went to small clinics it will cost around 150-200 NTD (~ 5-7 USD), but hospital it's more expensive around 400-500 NTD (~ 13-16 USD). Each time I went to the dentist, it's only cost me around 150-200 NTD (~ 5-7 USD) for any treatment even for small surgery like molar tooth extraction, can you believe it?
National Health Insurance (NHI)
Dentist clinic
#4 MRT System
Taipei has an amazing MRT system. The MRT runs from 06:00 to midnight every day, the train comes every 2-5 minutes, and it cover most of the city’s main tourist attraction. Every year the government try to improve the facility by opening new more stations to cover another area. The fares are variety depends on distances, you also can get 20% discount for using EASY CARD (悠遊卡; yōuyóu kǎ), nice right?? One more thing, no eating or drinking is allowed inside the station or on the train.
Easy Card (悠遊卡)
#5 Taipei City Bus
Although not all of the city area have MRT access but we still can depends on the city bus. It's really convenient because most of the bus come every 5-15 minutes, even my friend from US admitted that. The fares are 15 NTD for most of the routes around the city, some longer routes will cost you double. Yu can use EASY CARD (悠遊卡; yōuyóu kǎ) to pay the fare. In each bus there is a sign when you have to pay the fare, (上車; shàngchē), that means pay when getting on and (下車, xiàchē) means pay when getting off.
Bus station
Bus station sign
#6 U-bike Service
Taipei City has a bicycle rental program called "U-bike". You just have to register first in this site, then you can just go borrow the bike from the rental station and return it after you finished. In some station they provide the service system so you will be able to check the status of other station, such as how many bike left and parking spot. Checked it out and you will find it to be fun and easy, but the best part is, it's free for the first 30 minutes (^0^)v.
U-bike rental station
U-bike rental station
#7 Taipei Free Public Wi-Fi Access
The government has launched a free wireless Internet service that covers much of the MRT system, Taipei city bus, and some buildings office. The bandwidth not that fast but pretty ideal for some of us who just want to check their email, Facebook, etc. Before you can access the service, you'll need to apply for an account on the Taipei Free Public Wi-Fi access website, which is also available in English. Such a nice facility right?
TPE Free Wi-Fi
#8 Convenient store
Where ever you go, you could always count on convenient store which open-all-day-everyday such as 7-11, Family Mart, Hi-Life, OK-Mart, etc. Many tasks can be completed by having those store, including:
1. Buy foods & beverages (cold food, hot food, bread, snack, groceries, coffee, tea, etc)
2. Pay bills (such as credit card bill, electrical bill, water bill, etc)
3. Adding EASY CARD value, prepaid phone
4. Buy train & HSR ticket
5. Pick-up and send packages (when you order something from the internet, you can select convenient store as a delivery point for you to pick things)
6. Print documents, photos
7. Use an ATM
8. And many more...
Convenient Store
#9 Free entertainment
Taipei have many inexpensive tourist destination, mostly place like the museum, temples, hiking trails and nature parks and some of them are free too. Just outside the Taipei city, you might want to consider to visit the old city like Tamsui and Jiufen. With all those free entertainment you can explore the beauty of Taipei. Click here for more information.
Xing Tian Gong Temple (行天宮)
Taipei 101
#10 Queuing & Discipline
Taiwanese are discipline and you will be surprised when you see that almost everyone follow the rule even during rush hour. You could see that Taipei MRT have queuing lines drawn on the floor. People are queuing in the line and letting the other passenger to get off first before getting on the train. Also the escalator etiquette, if you didn't want to walk just stand on the right side of the escalator, for those who are in hurry just take the left side.
MRT Queue
#11 The City is Clean
You should see the streets in Taipei, they are so clean. The government build many parks around the neighborhood so the citizen get a clean air. I also noticed many people in night market want to throw their rubbish, even though no trash could be found easily, yet nobody litter. The recycling system is good. One more thing, most people bring their own plastic bag for their groceries because it will cost you extra for a plastic bag.
Rotary Park
#12 Access to disable people
The government also facilitated those people with disabilities. MRT, trains and Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) are all accessible for people with disabilities. Some buses, office buildings and streets are fully equipped for wheelchair access.
Wheelchair ramp
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