And this is the second set of things that stuck out to me as we travelled throughout the island. The first post was mainly about what I had seen in Taipei whereas this post is more island-wide. You can find the first post here.
Transportation
The buses beep constantly. Whether it’s turning left or right, the majority of the buses on the streets (both inter and intra city) produce a loud beeping sound. Some buses were are quieter than others, but the majority of them make it clear that the bus is turning.
Lots of motorbikes. Although Taiwan encourages people to cycle throughout the island, motorbikes are pretty common all over the place. Whereas cars are to the mainland, motor bikes are to the island. Though, unlike other southeast Asian countries, there were rarely more than three or four people on the bike, meaning, at most, two adults and two small kids. After that, it seems that the family bought a car or possibly a second bike.
And on that note, not many luxury cars. We saw a few Mercedes and BMWs, but not many porches, only one sports car. To be fair, we were travelling in the monied crowd or parts of the cities and, moreover, there aren’t many parking spots on streets, so if these cars were there, they were probably stowed away unseen in a garage under the building in which the owner worked.
Freezing subway cars! Despite it being “shoulder season” for Taiwan, it was still hot and humid outside which meant that inside public spaces were frozen with full-blast air-con. I’m sure the people acclimatized to the weather handled this exposure to the cold better than I did but at times it seemed excessive.
Finally, although there was lots of advertising as is usual these days, I didn’t see any TV advertising in the subways in between stations, something that has become commonplace in other countries.
Overall, the island is well-connected throughout. Looking at a map of Taiwan island will tell you that the Western coast is mostly city while the Eastern coast is mostly forest, though still with developed cities spotted throughout. Connecting all of this is a well-run network of buses and trains and a well-maintained highway system that allows people to use even a scooter to get between destinations. Not only a scooter, one of the big draws to Taiwan is its ease of cycling across, which we saw a lot of along the Eastern coast.
Ease of Travel
It’s easier to travel now than it was ten years ago, just in general, so it seems to me anyway. In my previous post I included a picture of me nine years ago in one of the hostels in Taipei City. In front of me was a huge laptop with a power cord sticking out the side of it while reading the Lonely Planet edition of Taiwan.
These days, however, the laptop is gone (or left behind), and so too the book, both basically being replaced by a cell phone. I didn’t bring a big DSLR camera either, opting to use my phone’s camera instead. I did bring a GoPro but it seems something has gone wrong with it so it didn’t work. Most people were using their cell phones as cameras, though there were still a few who were lugging around larger DLSR cameras.
The other noticeable difference in ease of travel is the type of money that can be used. Although we mostly used cash, there were times we could use Alipay or WeChat from the mainland, or even Samung/Apple/Google Pay, in addition to the regular Mastercard an Visa options and the new comer from China, Unionpay.
But technology is one thing.
Hostels are cleaner and more accommodating than they were years ago, trains have gotten faster, so too the internet which makes asking others question slow in comparison an avoids the at-times embarrassing language barrier. Taiwan also issued transport cards which made travelling around the whole island much easier than depending on getting tickets or even carrying money to the convenience store.
All that being said, we were travelling through Taiwan so, in that sense, Taiwan has made it easy to travel.
Travellers
Lots of Korean and Japanese. I was told that the recent ban by Beijing of mainlanders travelling solo to the island hasn’t really affected the island too much because most of the travellers to Taiwan are from Korea and Japanese. This is most noticeable in the public announcements, which were done in Mandarin and Cantonese, and then usually Japanese and sometimes Korean. Most of the street stall vendors knew a few words in Japanese and Korean languages as well as Mandarin.
Speaking of travellers, it seemed that there were a lot of pretty girls all over the place. And it makes sense since a lot of them were South Koreans. Why do I say that? Because, of all countries I’ve travelled too, it seems the Korean ladies like to keep their makeup and hair done right and proper regardless of where they are.
Most pleasantly, it seemed that not everyone was on their cell phone all the time, despite all of the above things changing in regard to technology. I might be the only one guilty of this! But even on the bus or walking around or even at a cafe, there were people actually looking out the window or talking with each other rather than “playing” with their cell phones. That’s not to say that there weren’t people playing games or texting or looking things up, but it seems that the people here, traveller or local, could actually put their phone(s) down for more than a moment.
Development
Not much by way of construction, a little bit here and there but nothing major. Much of Taiwan is covered by forest and a couple of national parks occupy the central strip of the island, Further, Taiwan has quite a few active ports, especially on the West side, and I’m not sure how much upgrading they need or how often. Either the ports are built to capacity, or that they’re not growing any more.
Even in the cities, however, especially some of the smaller ones, there wasn’t much construction but we did come across a few buildings, residential and office, that look to have been abandoned. There certainly isn’t the same break-neck construction speed and density as on the mainland.
Overall, the buildings seem to be aging but aren’t undergoing any obvious maintenance. They might appear “old” to some, but they more seemed to have been lived in for years rather than dilapidated.
The sidewalks are ‘sticky’, or at least not slippery. This was most noticeable since we landed in Taiwan right before Typhoon Mitag hit the island. On the mainland, practically everywhere you go, they use a type of sidewalk stone that gets slippery when wet. In Taiwan, however, the walkways keep their grip. It’s not dust, it’s the finish on the stone itself… which I couldn’t asses better than any other layman.
There are misspelled signs, but certainly not as bad as some other places. Overall, most signs were in Traditional Chinese and English which made travelling very easy.
Others
Fapiao lottery system in which you can win up to 2,000,000 TWD, but many places have areas you can donate your receipts so the proceeds can go to a good cause. This was an interesting aspect of buying anything in Taiwan no matter the city. Every place immediately offered a receipt to you. When I asked the store clerks about it they simply responded that it was a fapiao, a receipt. It was finally explained to me that the fapiao number acts as your “ticket” to a lottery that takes place every couple of months. I received various reasons for the system, ranging from the idea that the government wanted people to be more aware of their spending or budgets, to it being simply a game (playing the sports lottery is common throughout Taiwan). I didn’t get where the money came from, maybe a portion of the taxes collected from each sale?
A selection of print newspapers, though Hualien didn’t have the English Taipei Times. And it was noticeable that in most 7-11’s the stack of papers decreased over the day so someone is reading them, usually older people. I didn’t see any other travellers looking at the papers or reading anything like a newspaper in my entire time there.
Lots of temples and shrines throughout the cities and you could often find them simply by the smell of incense. Buddhist, Confucist, Taoist, and even churches were open and available for the public and worshippers alike. Taking pictures or videos? No problem.
Universities were open for all to walk in and see, no security aside from the regular cameras on most campuses these days. But I say this from afar and from passing vehicles, I did not go into any universities. Schools, however, had massive front gates with security personnel.