What are /r/taiwan's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Everybody needs to reserve judgement until next week when we finally have some 7 day average data to work with since the exponential spike began.

Please remain vigilant and download the official Taiwan Contact Tracing App if you haven't already done so (now with multi language support!)

Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tw.gov.cdc.exposurenotifications

iPhone https://apps.apple.com/tw/app/%E8%87%BA%E7%81%A3%E7%A4%BE%E4%BA%A4%E8%B7%9D%E9%9B%A2/id1554431836

Please remember to:

• Stay home unless for necessary trips (grocery store, medical appointments, exercise, essential work)
• If using a surgical mask, consider using 2 layered on top of each other for better protection against the UK variant.
• Avoid socializing with anyone outside of your household.
• Don't touch your face unless you've washed your hands for 20 seconds.
• Don't touch your mask unless you've washed your hands for 20 seconds.
• Avoid eating indoors at restaurants
• Maintain as much social distance with others as possible.

>heavy losses suffered by the Taiwan dollar

"Heavy" is apparently a loss of 1.8% from the daily high to the daily low, and it closed back within 0.6% of where it was over the weekend.

Just a weeeeee bit of an exaggeration.

The context is working out of China. When latency matters, VPNs are absolutely slow. Plus there's often a bottleneck due to the way China sets up its network. Your set up (which I incidentally have the same exact setup [woohoo we're like tech pals] and have that VPN in Taiwan) has problems in China:

1. You're using a Raspberry Pi which has a max 100 mbps connection. That's going to slow large file transfers.
2. Pihole does far better on a faster device than a Raspberry Pi.
3. NordVPN is notorious for being slow (see here: ) and has been intermittent in China as of late as China has been blocking VPNs all over.
4. Best alternative is ExpressVPN in China but that is actually a HK company with Chinese roots so privacy is in question.

As for games? Try Overwatch on that on US servers. Even without the latency is about 200 to the East Coast on a good day. On NordVPN, even from Taiwan, pretty much unplayable. I did STO and things are jumping all over the place. From China it is pretty much horrific.

VPNs are slow and even NordVPN has been spotty as late and most VPNs are banned and all are considered illegal in China. Software development in China is a drag as a result. You can't even google for what you need without a VPN.

Might be getting a second typhoon as well this weekend. Right now its a tropical depression, but might hit the west coast looking at its current trajectory.

I used to be with Hostelworld before they did this. In fact my old hostel used to be listed on the front page for Taiwan and I was very familiar with the Shanghai office. My old hostel was even featured on some prominent blogs and tourism sites.

Here's a few things you should know:

1. Hostelworld hostel owners can simply blank out the dates if you reserve with them directly, so they actually make more if you book directly. If you're worried about protection or hostel owners are worried about protection, Hostelworld offers nothing in practice anyway.
2. Hostelworld is not actually an ethical company. They have agreements in their details that aren't fair. Your reviews don't mean much because Hostelworld is more than happy to remove them. While we had some weirdo guests that left strange reviews, I was also taken aback by how HostelWorld Shanghai will just delete those reviews on whim when I had prepared a lot of evidence to justify my case - they made it too easy in favor of me and didn't need evidence. I found that disturbing.
3. Hostelworld fucks up bookings occasionally. We were double booked by their system on multiple occasions over the years I had to go out of the way to solve the mess.
4. They argued in the UK that they didn't have a monopoly on hostels which is a total lie by saying their competitors was hotels.com which wasn't true. Anyway, the UK allowed them to become a monopoly. Fuck monopolies.

I think most of the major municipalities have apps that allow you to report violations. Here's New Taipei's and Taipei's. They're all going to require Chinese literacy though.

It is clear that Chinese culture of various eras has had strong influence on the Taiwanese. But Japanese culture has also left a strong imprint on the Taiwanese people: economically, educationally, and culturally. Their culture is also part of Taiwanese culture, to an extent that is rare on the Mainland.

This book teaches you all that you need to know. The protagonist travelled to both China and Japan (during colonial days), and even loved people of both races dearly: yet he was met with suspicion and cultural mismatch from both of them. Thus, he reluctantly accepted that he had a Taiwanese identity distinct and unique, but still holding traditions from its parents.

For despite their links to all these cultures, a Taiwanese does not feel completely at home in Japan, nor do they truly match the culture of the Mainland Chinese: They are the Orphan of Asia.

https://trello.com/c/bhXiwi8r/93-orphan-of-asia

And depending on who your parents are, they might literally be Mainlanders transplanted in Taiwan after 1949, not the ethnic Taiwanese described here with a somewhat different culture. But they too have a right to Taiwanese identity, if as a minority: they are also Orphans of Asia, and this island is a de facto homeland for all of us.

OP, have a look at this NTU study. The main issue is that motorcycles are the most heavily subsidized form of transportation on the island. Stop subsidizing scooter usage is the key solution https://www.slideshare.net/EMBARQNetwork/p3-c-motorcycle-jasonchang130118r?ref=http://wrirosscities.org/media/motorcycle-management-policy-taiwan-dilemma-reality

It's expected to get bad tonight.

Right now mainland China hasstrong amounts of pollution, and wind patterns are expected to bring it down this way.

Kind of a bummer....Stay healthy and happy New years!

Chinese keyboard means that it contains the Chinese stuff in addition to your typical Latin keyboard. So you still have qwerty and all that jazz in their proper position, but bopomofo is overlaid in parallel and used when switching IME. Looks like this: image

Near Shilin, there's a block of these shrimp pools where you can fish, cook and drink beer.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293913-d1940810-Reviews-Fishes_The_Shrimp_Field-Taipei.html

Biking on regular roads (in a city) is probably not a good idea. Taiwanese traffic just moves differently, there are motorbikes everywhere, and almost no regular bicycles -- you'll see when you get here.

It's really popular to go on road bike trips through the countryside, however. And the views are stunning. If you're into road biking in the mountains, there are some really challenging but rewarding mountains not far from Taipei by US standards. (Nothing is very far from Taipei by US standards).

If you're looking for a local tourist destination (i.e., you'll find tons of Taiwanese tourists but very few (if any) foreign tourists), go to Green Island (綠島). You can bike around it in about 6 hours, or rent a motorcycle. Lots of small bed and breakfasts, snorkeling, a natural outdoor hotspring, good food, and you'll inevitably meet some really nice folks that live there.

You could also check out Beitou (http://wikitravel.org/en/Taipei/Beitou). There are hotsprings and some nice hiking nearby.

Have a great trip!

I had never seen so many "breastfeeding room" signs in my life while I was in Taipei.

Edit: Apparently there's an app for locating one.

Just for information, if you want to avoid buying Ting Hsin (頂新) products, you can use this Android app: 冰的啦.

You scan the barcode of a product and it will tell you if it's affiliated to Ting Hsin (頂新).

People should stop calling it a night market, or those fucking assholes of residents' association are gonna call the police to report on all the restaurants until they're all closed.

That said, good to see there are still some restaurants in that area. It was so much better 10 years ago, though :( There was a delicious 刀削麵 place that merged with another restaurant a few years later. Unfortunately, last time I went there it was gone.

I don't know about you, but I skimmed over the comments and the user "MingDynasty" has responded on ALMOST ALL of the comments there and held quite long conversations. The amount of time that takes is absurd, this if anything must be wu mao. If you read articles concerning Taiwan on that site, you can usually spot few regulars defending the one china policy and bashing USA and Japan. This one also seems to comment a lot on China articles https://disqus.com/by/mishmael/

For the normal 2pm this has been a good source for me. Community provides real time transcript (in Chinese) and I set my browser (Chrome) to auto translate Chinese to English so it kind of satisfies what you're after:

https://hackmd.io/772RPhHXT2SODvxUZ6nVkg

Intriguing connection. Saw a great article a while back that traced the Chinese "bullying" as a form of international relations to Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Sun Tzu strategized for a world that only involved China - which was huge even then, and isolated from any real foreign threat.

So China uses the same tactics of intimidation and force on the international arena that they'd use on the domestic front- so your analogy is apt.

Let me try extending it. China in the current global environment is like a parent on a playground who uses corporal punishment on their own kids in public, cause its their right as a parent, and threatens to beat children of other people to settle disputes between kids, determine the outcome of kickball games, etc.

Then they don't even fathom the reactions of the other parents.

> Cool, can we crack down on this too?

+1, totally agree that this kind of parking needs to be curtailed.

By the way, it is possible to send these photos to the police, and for the car owner to be fined. There are at least two ways:

• Use the official Taipei City Police app
• Use the 檢舉小幫手 (report a violation little helper) app.

I believe there are also iOS versions available.

The photos need to demonstrate that the car is stationary (not moving). Even better, if you can demonstrate that the owner has left the vehicle, or that the vehicle has been stationary for more than three minutes (they get a larger fine).

There are no monetary rewards for making a report, but the police will notify you if the person has been fined, which gives a small sense of reward (that you have improved society).

One note of caution: be careful when taking photos -- some people can react violently to others taking photos of their cars.

All of these and more is aggregated in my crappy weekend-project news app here

It's free and gathers Taiwan news from everywhere.

I just stayed at Star Hostel last Friday. I don't know what the private rooms are like (I was in a dorm bunk), but I liked it a lot. The facilities were clean, the common areas were gorgeous, and it's convenient to get to (right behind Main Station near exit.... Y13/Y15, I think?).

You can also try the Guang Hua Digital Plaza. I know there are a few shops with games there, and I'm pretty sure they carry stuff in English. It's also a good place to pick up any extra equipment you might need...er....want. Good luck!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guang_Hua_Digital_Plaza

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293913-d1175747-Reviews-Guanghua_Market-Taipei.html

The truth is Panama's president that won in 2009 wanted to switch recognition, but the foreign ministry of China rejected him because they didn't want to upset the foreign policy truce with Taiwan. This came to light in the wikileaks cables.

Might be worth it to spend one or two days in Kaohsiung. More if you decide to go to Little Ryukyu (Xiaoliuqiu/小琉球) link

Heard Chiayi might be worth it for Alishan.

In Taipei you could go to Beitou as well as Danshui. Or do daytrips to Jiufen/Shifen, Yingge, etc.

Edit: also, don't go to Shilin nightmarket (Taipei) and Liuhe (Kaohsiung). Worth it to see the other ones. I personally recommend Raohe for Taipei and Jinzuan/Kaixuan, or Ruifang for Kaohsiung.

Being in Taiwan, I am unable to see what is or what is not in Google Play in the US region, just as I am unable to find all those Public Domain books that I know are available in the US region for free but are either completely inaccessible or are charged exorbitantly even though the Public Domain law in Taiwan has even shorter term than US... but I digress.

I am unable to find Zihun in Google play in Taiwan region, but 字魂 showed up, though i don't know for sure if it's the same thing, might be: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mdbs.zihunapp

There's plenty of "sightseeing" stuff to do, just look around on wikitravel or something. There isn't really much here that's "off the beaten track" since every track that can be accessed by vehicle is accessed - LOTS. i.e., it will be crowded everywhere if you're going to touristy places, but that also means they're relatively easy to find out about and get to since they're well known.

People here take more pictures than you, so don't worry about taking as many as you want.

If it were my 2 week holiday, you can bet I'd be spending it down at Kenting sipping drinks on the beach, or doing something similar over in Taimali/Taitung area or heading to Green Island for some diving.

If you're just looking for tourist places, check the list on http://wikitravel.org/en/Taiwan#Other_destinations

Have a nice trip, let us know if you stop by Kaohsiung and I'll get you a beer!

Taiwan did have oil under Taiwan. That's the original reason why there is the oil refinery in Taoyuan (you see it east of hwy 1 near the airport exit). But it's mostly gone now.

http://thediplomat.com/2011/04/taiwans-energy-security-battle/

http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/152534/

I am hoping people switch to Telegram. It's quite good and no big brother. When Brazil shut down WhatsApp millions switched to Telegram.

on PC, i use mdbg.net

on android, i use hanping ce

they're both excellent.

edit: both will put Taiwan specific pronunciations in brackets

Yilan is pretty nice, if your with family or SO then you can check out this place

Its very very expensive, but i went there with my family and it was really really nice. Its a hotel up on the side of the mountain, everything up there is very organic and super peaceful. The guy who owns it was a professor at the National Taiwan University, hes really really nice. Everything you eat up there (except for ramen) is taken straight out of his garden next to the hotel.

You've never seen a tourist "dude bro" wearing a Mao bag or a Mao shirt even in Taiwan? I've even seen people have that in HK during this trip and last year in Japan and many times in popular spots in Taiwan. Maybe they were just trying to be edgy.

You must not hang out at Ximending, Fuxing, or Xinyi or other tourist hotspots or simply don't notice the bags people carry. I've witnessed a couple of these over the years.

Your hotel is between two MRT stops so getting around isn't a problem. Buy a day pass and you're good, coming from NYC you shouldn't have any problem navigating the metro system.

Major "must see" sights would be the ones you can find on any "Taipei in a day" type itinerary blog posts. CSK memorial hall, Longshan Temple, Taipei 101, National Palace Museum, etc...

I'd recommend you check out the wikitravel page on Taipei which covers pretty much all the sights and just pick what suits your interest. http://wikitravel.org/en/Taipei

Be aware that the National Palace Museum is huge and you could easily spend a whole day there (depending on how interested you are/easily bored you get looking at antiques and scrolls and whatnot).

FORMOSAT-3, also known as COSMIC in the US, was a joint program between the US and Taiwan. It was launched in 2005, and has been a resounding success since then, with most of the constellation still in oepration. FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 is a follow-on mission to FORMOSAT-3.

First rule of FORMOSAT-4, though, is that we don't talk about FORMOSAT-4.

Google's ITA flight matrix has always served me well. For the smaller airlines that aren't a part of aggregate websites like sky scanner, ITA, and Kayak, I recommend looking at whatever airport's websites you want to fly into/out of and see if there's a common carrier. If so, goto their websites and see what their costs are for the flights. It takes more leg work but I've found flights as much as a couple hundred US dollars cheaper than others.

I second all the folks saying Taroko Gorge. Also, I recently went on a trip of similar duration and had a great time going to Jinguashi/Juifen. http://wikitravel.org/en/Jiufen http://wikitravel.org/en/Jinguashi This area was a gold and copper mining town that was deserted when the veins ran out. It said desolate for many years before being turned into quite a nice park. It can be reached by the buses that run out of Taipei easily. The steep city setup and nice night market are fun and good scenery looking out over the ocean.

To add to this, here is what wikitravel says about the matter. Personally I would take any chance I get to experience the high speed rail, it is totally awesome. But I suppose if you are on a budget the bus would work.

Persian Heaven is one of the worst restaurants I have ever been to!!! I tried to have an exciting fun, alternative food night, invited a large group of friends and everyone hated their food (including the few of us moderately familiar with the cuisine). The meat was skunky tasting and the rice wasn't the special Persian style rice you normally get, it just seemed like regular white rice but was sold differently. The real kicker, after bringing all these people to their restaurant, I got food poisining and spent the next two days running between the bathroom and my bed in the fetal position. Friday night they host a good hip-hop night though!

Sababa is good but I haven't eaten there since they moved from main station

There is a Moroccan restaurant in Xinyi near Tunghua Night Market called "Tajin", haven't tried but wife and friends went and said it was delicious

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293913-d2310151-Reviews-Tajin_Moroccan_Cuisine-Taipei.html

Usually, people visiting don't have access to Internet everywhere they go, so Google Maps become quite useless. In that case I recommend Maps.me, which is an app that uses offline maps based on OpenStreetMap data.

If you can get it started, you could try to run PhotoRec on it.

Good luck with this, and next time, don't forget to backup your data! I'm sure /u/Phos_ can tip you on the best NAS brand to choose ;)

Anyone want to participate in a documentary? We surpassed 100 participants last week, and we're looking for more!

I'm a documentary filmmaker creating a feature length film composed entirely of community video submissions submitted daily as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses. We are looking for people (anyone!) to submit daily or at least frequent short videos documenting and discussing their lives during this pandemic. Everyone is in this together but experiencing so many different things, so we want to use the power of cell phones and the internet to create a global picture of how humans are fighting and coping with COVID-19.

So far we've had a lot of positive feedback about the process and many have found it therapeutic in these times.

More about the film via our sign-up page: https://airtable.com/shrMT5PyLJ8QpDFJR

PLEASE feel free to ask questions, I want to be as transparent as possible. I may not be prompt, but I will answer any questions I can.

My heart goes out to everyone fighting this; we're in this together.

> The lady preparing the food doesn’t even have her mask on properly.

That's because she's wearing something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Ultralight-Mask-Transparent-Hygienic-Foodservice/dp/B08FFCLFQZ

This is common in China and Taiwan, maybe others too.

I'm a fan of Cheng Ch'ing-wen (鄭清文), though some of his stuff can be a bit hard to read (be that a sin of translation or just how he writes I cannot say). A fairly well known collection of his short stories, Three-Legged Horse, can be found on Amazon. I'm a huge fan of the story called Betel Nut Town in the English translation. Though it's about a rich Taipei girl's trip to the South, it reminds me of my own experiences, and I suspect that it would speak to many a foreigner in Taiwan (it's also just a really beautiful story).

• You can use this calendar by hovering over dates to see celebrations: 臺灣民俗月曆

• Here is an Android app in English: Chinsoft Lunar Calendar.

The app has a lite version; I don't know what the lite version doesn't have. This app is only partially translated in English, so you might need to do some searching. There are better Chinese-only apps available.

Ask and ye shall receive, u/dorylinus.

Pretty sure there is an iPhone app people use. You need to register with a computer first, though. I did the registration, and since my machine is setup to English, I had to use Locale-Emulator to avoid the ?!?!?!? symbol problem non-unicode applications have when installed in a non-native language.

You need a .edu e-mail address or something as well. Not sure if it needs to be a specific group of .edu, but definitely requires at least that.

I just did it for a friend, since setting up a telnet client and doing their registration isn't noob friendly.

Looks like this is an Android app.Or this one with more reviews

• Typhoon Tracker is a simple app for tracking typhoons.

• TW Weather Typhoon Earthquake is Taiwan specific, but I've never used it. Seems to just use official Taiwan resources within the app.

I've actually read China's Destiny... it's an interesting window into earlier KMT viewpoints, but I think it's also a bit unclear about whether or not Chiang wrote the whole thing himself. For anyone interested, the book's also available on the public domain via the Internet Archive.

Wistaria Tea House hands down! Amazing tea, amazing food, amazing atmosphere. Don't miss this brother

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g293913-Taipei.html

I think Mayur by Guanghua was my favorite.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293913-d3860509-Reviews-Mayur_Indian_Kitchen_Restaurant_Bar-Taipei.html

Overall, not sure I have ever been to an Indian spot in Taipei that really blew my mind. I have had some good ones but more often than not I have had a few BADDDD Indian meals. One near Zhishan MRT and one in Ximending I remember as being particularly horrible.

You clearly did not read the article. It's not saying there's no films in Taiwan cinema or its dead, but that its transformed a lot since then and even lists those films out. The meat of it is the comparison of commercially driven popular movie genres and film art which used to dominate. As the article says...

>The launch of the post-New Taiwan Cinema is commonly considered to have started in 2008 with Cape No. 7 and carried on with other subsequent popular films such as Lin Shu-yu’s (林舒語) <em>Winds of September</em> (九降風) and Yang Ya-che’s (楊雅喆) <em>Orz Boyz!</em> (囧男孩) released in the same year.

and...

>The contemporary period of Taiwan cinema is generally called the "post-New Taiwan Cinema" in most scholarly works, or the "Taiwan Cinema Renaissance" (國片復興) by local critics.

So the article is about how Cape No. 7 revolutionized films in Taiwan into another age. The conclusion even says...

>The nomination and the wins of several awards at last year’s Golden Horse Awards can probably be seen as a sign for the future of Taiwan cinema – a promising prospect of striking a perfect balance between commercial success and film art – by playing well not only in the local film market and but also on the film festival circuits.

Geezus. There's a reason why people think your posts are nutty. You didn't read the article, and then jumped to conclusions. You boasted before that you were an NTU graduate yet your attitude and the content of your posts does not reflect well on NTU's admissions process.

MRT only runs in the greater Taipei area. You can take the regular train or high speed rail if you leave Taipei. With 6-7 days I would focus on Taipei and one other city.

Someone had spent a lot of time putting this together. Make sure you read through it. http://wikitravel.org/en/Taiwan

Besides Guanghwa Digital Plaza, there is also Camera Street (Bao-Ai Rd.), in Ximending. There are tons of camera, new and second-hand, stores.

This is the exact study I was looking for. From NTU professor, gives you a good idea of how heavily subsidized motorcycle use currently is https://www.slideshare.net/EMBARQNetwork/p3-c-motorcycle-jasonchang130118r?ref=http://wrirosscities.org/media/motorcycle-management-policy-taiwan-dilemma-reality

The other posters all have good advice. Ditch the waffle and mall scene in the city and go out to Pingxi or Wulai, both can be visited easily on a day trip from Taipei. Send me a private message if you'd like some advice about your neighborhood, or just want to find something specific.

Enjoy Taiwan! It won't be your last time visiting.

What passport do you have? I'm assuming that you're from an English country, so this might be relavent: Citizens from Canada and the UK can have their permitted stay extended from 90 to 180 days for free by applying. I've never done this myself, but here is a link that might help. As for Americans and others, I have no idea if this is an option or not.

Go somewhere close/cheap and and re-enter Taiwan. You might as well make a mini vacation out of it instead of just leaving and coming back really quickly. Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines and mainland China all should be pretty cheap to go to. Japan, South Korea and Thailand are options too.

If you are going to do the exit/re-enter method, you might need proof of that before you enter Taiwan for the first time. I don't think they'll check your flight itinerary, but it's not worth the risk. At least look into it.

There's a pretty legit teahouse on Gongyi and Dadun. Also, the night markets are fun, Yizhong is my favorite.

Art Street by Tunghai is really nice to walk through, and there's a place called Rainbow Village which is cool to see.

If you'll be here for breakfast, check out Lai Lai Doujiang. There's also a restaurant called Big Juicy Goose or something on Chaofu Road, pretty good Taiwanese food.

Maple Garden Park is also nice to walk through if you're going to the department stores nearby (Tiger City, Mitsukoshi, Top City) and at night time on the weekends, there's usually live music there.

I recommend staying at the flip flop hostel. The owner is guy with great experiance and a broad network of friends. The hostel is close to a subway (MRT) station.

http://www.flipflophostel.com/eng/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293913-d2182310-Reviews-Flip_Flop_Hostel_Main_Station-Taipei.html

Been looking for some data.

This website doesn’t answer anything about long term trends, but is very interesting nonetheless: https://weatherspark.com/y/137170/Average-Weather-in-Taipei-Taiwan-Year-Round

I’ll keep looking for long term winter trends graphs.

This page will give you plenty of information about the climate throughout the year. Click around and look up Kaohsiung if you're intending on heading south.

Tropic Storm Haitang is unlikely to achieve winds with speeds high enough to achieve typhoon status.

> Around tau 24 the system will approach Taiwan with land interaction disrupting the LLCC. Gale force winds are expected to persist extending well into the Luzon Strait. During this time TY esat will be overland China to the west of ts Haitang. A combination of the eastern ridge and the low pressure to the west will cause ts Haitang to turn northwestward making landfall over China.

Logistically and quite likely financially, flying is going to be the choice. In this day and age, is there ever a better options than flying, especially when a lot of water is involved? This isn't the 19th century.

Round trip is going to be $300-600 depending on specifics. Click on one-way also though there can be entry issues without a round trip ticket in-hand if you don't have an ARC or extended visa.

https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=NRT;t=TPE;q=flight+from+NRT+to+TPE;d=2015-04-12;r=2015-04-16

A quick google for boats: there used to be a ferry but it went bankrupt in 2008. Just an indication I guess.

> Aside from Taipei are there any other parts of the island we should be sure to not miss?

Make sure you visit Taroko Gorge, one of the most amazing places I've seen in the world let alone Taiwan. There are at least two hotels I know of in the actual Gorge as well as campgrounds I think. I've stayed at the Leader-Hotel (http://www.leaderhotel.com/blw/leadervillage/e-homepage.html) and highly recommend it.

Additionally check out Tainan, the oldest city in Taiwan with lots of historical sites to see.

I live in Kaohsiung which has some cool things to see, including Fo-Guang Shan (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297908-d456238-Reviews-Fo_Guang_Shan_Monastery-Kaohsiung.html)

I personally prefer the east coast when I have time off, including Taroko but also Haulien and Taidong. Some great natural hot springs in and around Taidong and Chiben.

If you're in a rush the HSR (High Speed Rail) can get you from Taipei to Kaohsiung in a little over an hour and a half. If you want to get to the east coast the normal trains from Kaohsiung takes about 4-5 hours to Hualien, from Taipei I think it's about 1-2 hours.

Oh and in the very north make sure you check out Jiu-Fen.

Taizhong area especially up in the mountains is beautiful also.

I wholeheartedly second Mo0k & rocen. However, a trip to kaohsiung would be a shame without a visit to the Fo guang shan monastery, which is just... almost indescribably. Hundreds of painted golden buddhas, a gift shop, more monks than you can shake a stick at, and a Small World-esque walk-in diorama. That last part, the walk-in diorama is the biggest trip. I'm trying to produce a video about this place, but I just don't even know where to begin.

Taoyuan is fucking far from Taipei. I guess you have been looking on the internet and think that it too expensive to stay in Taipei. Taipei/Taiwan is not set up for western tourist or the internet (strange considering they make half the computers in the world.) I say rock up to the airport catch a bus ( cheap and just as fast as a taxi) to taipei main station look for a hotel from there, they are going to be relatively cheap. Even if you spend alot on a hotel every other cost is going to be so cheap here.

Sights:

Spend a day in danshui aka tamsui its the end of the line of a mrt.

This hotel is so worth it in hualien gorge http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g297907-d306391-Reviews-Silks_Place_Taroko-Hualien.html

jiufen is pretty cool

i would maybe hire a bike from bikefarm.com if you can ride a motorbike its about $200/month to rent a scooter/motorbike.

chang kei sheik memorial hall is pretty good

shilin night markets is pretty good. So is Shida night market.

I forgot the makong gondalas best $5 you will ever spend.

it's not a fancy place or anything but this place is known to have very fresh sushi for low price (well everything is kinda low price in Taiwan...) omg their uni is to die for!!! so fresh so sweet!

it's called 橋壽司 (ciao sou shi)

address：台北縣永和市永和路二段292號

google map

here you go

Also, you could invest in a smartphone and use skype or viber(if u have an iphone) on it if you'd like. Unlimited data plans are around USD$30/month. I would say this is a smart idea since you can also use it as a GPS to get around.

The most simple option is to buy Skype credit for yourself and us it to call your Mom/Grandma's land line. You can get rates as low as 1.2 cents per minute on a 400 minute per month plan (US$5 per month). Calling cell phones is more expensive.

http://www.skype.com/en/rates/

For the cost of an iPad, you can talk for a very, very long time.

Thanks. I did not hear that said in the conference that way, and the transcript of it also does not reflect it:

https://hackmd.io/772RPhHXT2SODvxUZ6nVkg?fbclid=IwAR1ieOwl_qxmtFij1tg6gqiuhFkRHSNSwy_eQWYgUi_HGA0GPCRXBn1GZY4

Specifically he stated they would arrive in batches (COVID-19 疫苗分批到貨，六月將到貨200萬劑，至8月底可達1000萬劑) which wouldn't make sense for something locally manufactured.

and that:

>Taiwan has signed contracts to purchase 5.05 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, 10 million doses of AstraZeneca and 4.76 million doses of unspecified brands through the COVAX program for a population of more than 23 million.

He did say that domestic was on schedule to be approved by end of July and start distribution in August, but it was a separate statement.

Chinese is not my first language so I could certainly have misinterpreted.

Regardless the distinction, the short of it is that we have more COVAX coming in the upcoming weeks and we also have domestic hopefully coming online end of July, both of which is great news.

You'll probably get more answers on a UK subreddit, but if you know of any local Chinese markets, they should have them.

The dry kinds look like this.

https://www.amazon.com/Wu-Mu-Dry-Noodle-Med/dp/B00824QRWG/

https://www.amazon.com/CHUNSI-Chinese-Noodles-noodles-Sichuan/dp/B0863WC1B9/

They're good, but if you can find somewhere that makes it fresh, then it's even better.

You'll be fine, but why purchase from Amazon for $124 when you can just get it directly from MS for $120?

A New Illustrated History of Taiwan. It is pretty easy and fairly comprehensive. Not perfect (from what I hear), but certainly a good place to start. Sorry the best link was Amazon.

I like to use their app (search T express in the app store) or here are the links: Apple app store / Google Play

It's quite easy to check the available trains and buy the tickets online (they accept credit card or convenience store payment). With mobile ticketing, the ticket will be stored on the app via QR code and you won't even need to go pick up the ticket at a convenience store or the station.

Btw, not sure if you are aware, there are two kinds of standard tickets, assigned seats and non-assigned seats For non-assigned seats, you will need try to find an empty seat in the designated cars for non-assigned seats. There is a slight price difference, I think the assigned seats are about NT$30 (?) more expensive. When reserving online or on the app, you will be buying assigned seats with a specific car and seat number.

Yep. Apps like Favor Runner or Favor Delivered is what I'm looking for.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neighbfav.neighborfavor.runner&amp;hl=en

&#x200B;

Gonna echo meimei on this one. We stream Netflix thru a VPN Service (StrongVPN, found them after doing a good bit of research, they seemed to have the best reviews on customer service) It cost about $60 for the whole year, and we stream it all thru the computer. It's legit & helps me sleep better, since we're paying for Netflix, and the VPN serivce.*

We do have a pretty fast connection, and I think that may make a difference. Also, not sure your reasons for coming to Taiwan, but if you want to learn Chinese, many people have said that watching Chinese tv helps!

*I used to work in the entertainment industry, so I try to stay off the torrent bus as much as possible. ;)

Also worth mentioning is the free ubike stations that are all over town (free within a certain time, forgot how long but I use them weekly and have never been charged).

Also get the free Bus Tracker Taichung app to find bus maps, get directions, and know exactly when the bus will arrive.

Not many people ask about Taichung, so feel free to pm or post here and we would love to help you!

If you don't want to hustle all those problem try these apps

蝦皮 which have free shipping

and

carousell

The Son of Taiwan by Chen Shui-bian

The Road to Democracy by Lee Teng-hui

With a decent following...

May I interest you in some Athletic Greens, NordVPN, Skillshare, or Shopify?

... They can peddle stuff to their audience.

Oh, and here's my new line of merch. A cap and a t-shirt with a logo someone on Fiverr drew up.

I stayed at an AirBnB in Taipei 2016. Did not encounter any problems. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6299925?wl_source=list&amp;wl_id=62902538&amp;role=wishlist_public&amp;adults=1&amp;children=0&amp;infants=0 I highly recommend her place if you don't mind being outside the city center. The area was nice and quiet during the night, and there was a night market ~10min walk. Maokong village and Jiufen were amazing. You can check the hot springs at Beitou as well, it was a bit hard to get there even with a person who spoke Chinese but it's worth it. If you have any trouble just ask the people in the area, and they will most likely help you. If you want more info feel free to ask

Actually the article wasn't even about London. London was 60%, the other place was 50%. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jul/16/tenants-in-england-spend-half-their-pay-on-rent

rent should be even higher by now

You're right on the credit card usage based on website's payment option. (steam product for example). However, people's concern is "Why not use debit / check card?" As long as there is "VISA" "Master Card" label on it, you can still shopping online worldwide. Always remember, a credit card IS a debt extension. When you use that, it's the same as you're asking for a loan.

By the way, about credit score history, it has to depend on which nation's card he's holding. See this

1. Moving abroad? Your credit history might not follow

2. How to Report to Credit When Living Abroad

Peter's got it, but also I think people mostly play on their phones. These two are most popular:

神來也麻將

明星3缺1

>which idiots at the US is saying this??

The guy who wrote this: https://www.amazon.com/Chip-War-Worlds-Critical-Technology/dp/1982172002

Apparently he's regarded as the leading US think tank analyst on China, Taiwan, and chips

From TPE to Taipei, take the bus instead of HSR.

You might also enjoy 永樂市場 textile market with fabric, ribbons, and crafty things.

And make sure you go to a hotpot/BBQ AYCE (or just a buffet in general). It's one of my favorite things in Taiwan.

Someone wrote on TripAdvisor that they went first week of Oct last year, and most of the daylilies were harvested. But not sure if that changes with 2015 being an el nino year.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297907-d6486311-Reviews-Sixty_Rock_Mountain-Hualien.html

https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Grass-Green-Superfood-servings/dp/B004LWCARY?pd_rd_w=esDmb&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.deffa092-2e99-4e9f-b814-0d71c40b24af&amp;pf_rd_p=deffa092-2e99-4e9f-b814-0d71c40b24af&amp;pf_rd_r=FX37Z5QEKHAN8AMR93T2&amp;pd_rd_wg=lXrjv&amp;pd_rd_r=9334de9a-a2ee-4baf-8370-a5bfef4b9c46&amp;pd_rd_i=B004LWCARY&amp;psc=1&amp;ref_=pd_bap_d_rp_1_t

i take this... it fixed everything and is super healthy!

I use app for taxi called FindTaxi: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sleepnova.android.taxi&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=US

I prefer it over Uber, as the local taxi drivers can be interesting characters.

Most should take credit card, Easycard, or Line... but that doesn't mean there aren't drivers that will ask for cash only.

I use an app called FindTaxi, they have an option to sort by credit card and it allows you to read your drivers profile before contacting them. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sleepnova.android.taxi

Our software engineers make 70K-150K NTD per month, with our CTO making much more. We also have a phantom plan (sort of like stock options), but we're a unique situation - a new venture-backed company targeting the USA market from Taiwan.

If anyone's interested, we're currently looking for product/market/entrepreneur types.

https://www.notion.so/elmntri/Looking-for-Elmntri-People-6515266c5d7a418f89d8d3dab1e726bb

Your link is broken, I would like to recommend BikesHere for Android users:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jarvislin.youbike&amp;referrer=utm\_source%3Dreddit%26utm\_medium%3Dtaiwan

Okay you got your timeline mixed up. Japan didn't surrender until after the twin blows of the second atomic bomb and the invasion by Soviet forces into Manchuria. This book has a great insight into the Japanese thinking at the time. Before then at the time Japan had been hoping that by negotiating with the Soviets they could have peace without surrendering. The US was aware of all this of course since they already broke the Japanese diplomatic codes and knew the Japanese weren't considering unconditional surrender.

The first atomic bomb was on August 6th (Hiroshima). It was not until a cabinet meeting on August 9th, which was after the Soviet invasion and the Nagasaki atomic bombing, when surrender was fully on the agenda. The Japanese emperor had to personally intervene to order the cabinet into surrendering (since there was a deadlock with the war faction) and even then there was an attempted military coup on August 14th trying to halt the surrender and seize the recording of the emperor announcing it.

Novels: Chung Wenyin, DecayedLust; Decayed Land (the first two books in a trilogy with lots of history in it, currently free with Audible Trial)

Non-fiction: The Concise History of Taiwan

I'll add titles if I can think of others.

You might want to re-save it... I got the instructions for OdoBan incorrect by a factor of 4 initially, so I edited the post. It was tested against coronavirus at a concentration of 5 ounces concentrate to 1 gallon (4 liters) water, so we mix it 8 ounces per gallon.

I also added the directions for HTH (High Test Hypochlorite) pool shock for a standard 1 liter home spray bottle, as most places are showing directions for very large volumes of disinfectant. The US CDC recommends 1000ppm FAC, but the International Red Cross recommends 5000ppm. We use the higher strength as it deactivates faster. Note: there's a brand name of pool shock called HTH that's low quality, only 50% chlorine. 65 to 70% is preferred.

No worries tho, even last year I had droves of journalists going "Nah, ExpressVPN is fine, my brother/sister knows some of those people." You're paranoid. "

Okay, Their practices are shady, there's no accountability, they share offices and have the same recruitment offices as a PRC company. But okay, let's trust them.

Blackhats also say its sketchy as fuck.

ExpressVPN works in China.

Its former controversy was waved off by being from Hong Kong, sharing a close office with a PRC company. There's tons of journalists using Zoom and ExpressVPN thinking that the VPN magically makes them safe from Zoom (it doesn't, that's not what VPNs do) and that ExpressVPN should be fine.

But I have my own sources, and I do not trust ExpressVPN.

Anybody have experience with a VPN that can access Taiwanese Netflix?

I'm in Canada and there are at least two shows that are only on Taiwanese Netflix that I'd love to watch. Unfortunately, the two VPNs I have tried (ExpressVPN and SurfShark) both failed to get around the region restrictions. Thanks in advance!

Looking to buy a fermentation jar similar to this one in Taipei : https://www.amazon.com/Home-Brew-Ohio-Mouth-Econolock/dp/B01AK8GPIW

Anyone know of a place? I can only find much too large brewing ones online.

The Redmi isn't bad. The other one is the Pocophone (also by Xiaomi).

https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_pocophone_f1-9293.php

There will be Xiaomi retail stores in Taipei so you can browse there and play around with them.

Guess we will have a long debate (even though I support ractpork)...

1. By "untrustworthy" I mean that "DPP assured before that they will not allow any Ractopamine products to come in Taiwan but they are now doing the opposite". Yes I understand that this is a food safety problem in its core, but now it is now a complete political problem. And as you live in Taiwan I think we can also agree that government is lacking manpower on actually checking the food safety, or those food safety problem will never be exposed to public: that's the part most people are worried about.
2. I understand that after cooking Ractopamine there is little residue, but there is no clear evidence on whether they will accumulate in body and cause long-term damage. That is the question that no one answers. I don't think the remaining 100+ countries that bans Ractopamine are just straight-up idiots.

>Taiwan's local pork conditions fails global standards due to lack of sanitation and refrigeration.

That I can agree.

>E-Coli and Salmonella has been shown to be far worse.

You don't eat uncooked pork, and heat is effective to get rid of them. Completely. You will only get rid of at most half of Ractopamine by cooking via any method.

A friend of mine stayed at this place

http://i.imgur.com/zzLPI.png

It's at 八德路四段624巷2號, i.e. Bade lu section 4, lane 624, number 2.

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&amp;tl=en&amp;js=n&amp;prev=_t&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;layout=2&amp;eotf=1&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Femmm.tw%2FL3_content.php%3FL3_id%3D30847

I think he negotiated about 1000 TWD a night, maybe a bit less. It's perfectly clean.