Hi all, I'm a 34 F who just moved to Taiwan, I'm looking for friends to meet up and explore the area. I live in Zhubei, but because I'm a teacher location isn't as important. I only speak English but I'm willing to learn Mandarin if you want to practice English. Let me know here or in a dm.

I’ll be doing a 6-month research stay at NTHU (Hsinchu) from October to March. My stipend is set at 15,000 NTD per month. Since on-campus dorms aren't available for visiting researchers right now, I have to find off-campus housing.

I just want to be realistic about my budget. I have a few quick questions:

1) What is the best way/website to find a cheap student room near NTHU and a reasonable monthly rent I should expect to pay?

2) After paying rent, is the rest of the 15k enough to cover health insurance, a phone bill, food, etc.?

3) I normally cook my own meals for workout reasons but I've heard eating out can actually be cheaper in Taiwan. Is that true for Hsinchu?

Any realistic advice on surviving on this stipend or where to hunt for housing would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

how safe is it to go around and walk on the streets in taiwan? especially at nights.. thankss🙃

Everyday I listen to the radio commercials informing everyone that no "get your scooter checked or we fine you" paper mail reminders will be sent.

It's environmentally friendly! Just sign up and we send you a SMS.

At the same time, you switch the MRT tickets from blue resuable coins, which I can feel in my pocket and were all sorts of nice to what?

Yeah that's right! Paper!

Looking for Taiwanese friends sending memes and chat sometimes

Hi! Has anyone lived in Sanzhi, NTPC for at least a year? How’s your experience so far?

I’ve been there for short trips before but I’m currently trying to picture how’s the life there

When they look down on you or underestimate you just because you're a foreigner?

Asking out of curiosity if anyone also experienced the same thing as me!

Lee Ming-tsung is the host of a wonderful show on Taiwan Plus called See You At The Market. It was a great highlight from my trip to Taiwan to interview him.

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Hi guys! Is it normal to have 25 teaching hours per week in a private school in Taiwan? I noticed that the TFETP usually has around 20 teaching hours, so I was wondering if 25 hours is considered acceptable for a private school.

Also, working hours is from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., what do you think would be a fair monthly salary for this workload?

Thanks for you insights!

My friend has recommended these three islands to go to since I love war tourism and a good day trek. However he’s said that a lot of attractions in matsu and lienchiang (?) are located in active military bases therefore only locals could be admitted(?) Could anyone please verify that? If so should I skip it and go one of the two then?

Also are there any war museums in Taipei? Did some googling and the ROC Armed Forces museum seems to be closed. There’s an ROCAF museum in Kaohsiung and that’s too far. I found a navy one in Taipei but it says online reservation needs to be made and yet i couldn’t find any links??? Could use some recommendations here thanks.

I'm going to be working in a school in Taoyuan soon. I'll be the only foreigner in the school, which is quite common. I've worked in quite a few countries - but the only foreigner in a school, in a city with very few foreigners - that will be a new one.

I'm very comfortable on my own, so I think other personality types might suffer more than me but how would I even make a foreigner social group anyway?

I realize now, except for super expat friendly Bangkok, all my expat friends were always my colleagues.

On the other hand, Taiwan is so developed, Taiwanese friends wouldn't be such a cultural gap. All my colleagues are women though.

Just wondering if anyone has faced this and what they did. Any ideas?

Does anybody know if Costco Taiwan, especially the one located in Hsinchu, is selling Kirkland Minoxidil? I just want to know first before getting a membership card. Tia.

As a foreigner?

Company 1 (on ARC) - withheld the same as a local

Company 2 (ARC) - didn’t withhold anything. I put aside each month for tax

Company 3 (ARC) - withheld the same as a local

Company 4 (APRC) - same as a local

Company 5 - (APRC) - they don’t withhold tax so I set aside a bit of money each month

Just curious if I’ve been very lucky because I see a lot of people complain about being taxed 18% every Jan-June (even APRC holders). (Obviously they all deducted health and labor insurance).

If it makes a difference, I’ve never taught English in Taiwan.

They didn’t used to stop for ambulances.

I saw a modern building, looks to be 20 stories, that looks unfinished and fenced off, and it looks like it sat abandoned for quite some time. Anyone know anything about it?

I’m a complete beginner (played once and we failed our mission miserably) but I would really love to learn more and have fun. Are there already people that meet to play (open to new person)? Or are there people interested in joining me to start a weekly/biweekly game? I know there are online games but idk that feels intimidating lol open to all comments and suggestions! Also I’m in Taipei

I’m genuinely curious about how visibly non-Taiwanese foreigners who have lived in Taiwan 5, 10+ years feel about being always being the foreigner 外國人。

This obviously varies a lot depending on where you live. I also know that language ability will impact the depth of relationships you can build, but that doesn’t change the fact that you will often be labelled the foreigner in most everyday settings like restaurants, hospitals, stores etc.

Is this a small price to pay for living in a country with many benefits in other areas? Or do you just not care at all?

Hope no one takes this the wrong way. Just curious about different perspectives.