Taiwanians from a Tourist's Point of View

Finally the Doggy is done with its 8 days recollection. I shall supplement with my findings on the culture (aka the way they behave)there.

(This is gonna look a bit like RR's entry in her blog. But I, being ME, do not do summaries. I'm bad at those. My summaries normally end up looking like an essay.)

Taiwanese (where did I get the word TaiwanIANS anyway) are Very Orderly

I actually dun see much sign boards reminding people to stand at the right side of escalators so that others in a rush can overtake on the left side.


Right side (Can see some ppl overtaking on the left)


Right Side!

Look at Singapore. With all those promotional campaigns abt standing on the left side of escalators to faciliate movement, etc, how do the people in Singapore (I'm not using Singaporeans bcos there's too much "imports" in Singapore already, who noes who're the ones who dun follow the rules) behave??

How many times have u not been able to rush up a flight of escalators bcos someone is standing in the middle/friends are standing side-by-side and chatting away/lovers are hugging/kids are running here n there, etc? Countless times for me, esp when I'm rushing for drum class, up the several flights of escalators. I hate all these inconsiderate people, esp lovers, STOP HUGGING OR KISSING IN THE MIDDLE OF ESCALATORS CAN??

In Taiwan, doesnt matter if they're lovers or kids, most, if not all, follow the right hand rule. And it doesnt only apply to MRT stations. They do it EVERYWHERE. I'm amazed at how considerate/rule-obliging/orderly they are.


Queing for MRT NEATLY

The lines at the platform are drawn in 2 rows, signifying 2 queues. Note how neatly they stand. We have those lines too! How we stand? Crowd crowd crowd behind the line, door open, seize every opportunity to get into the train, blocking those that are alighting.

When their MRT comes, they DO NOT rush in. They patiently wait for passengers to alight b4 boarding even thou the door-closing sound is already beeping. I normally see the "platform master" checking if all commuters are safely in the train b4 whistling to signify all clear. For us, commuters jus RUN and SQUEEZE and overfill the train whilst the train master jus close the doors to hint those that r halfway in (or out) that they shld either stay in (or out). And people in Singapore have a habit of crowding at the door and not moving to the centre of the carriage. Centre got ghost issit?

We all know that Singapore is a world-acclaimed clean country. Roads clean, govt clean, toilet clean (depends where), everywhere clean. But how many campaigns did we run to remind people to throw their barangs into the proper place? How hefty a fine we have to pay for littering? How many rubbish bins we have so that people have no excuse to say that the rubbish bin is too far away so they jus throw on the floor?

In Taiwan, we had to hold the empty cups/empty food carriers/tissues, etc etc for perhaps a few streets b4 we could locate a rubbish bin. Its worse at the nite markets, with maybe only one centralised rubbish bin and u might have to ask the shop assistants if u can throw the rubbish at their place while u shop. They have a rubbish truck (with loud melody to announce its arrival) which patrol the street every now and then, collecting rubbish from the shops. With all these inaccessibilities and inconveniences, their streets can still rival their counterparts in Singapore. A few cigarette butts here and there and some chewed 槟榔 occasionally would be the only objects that could be found on the floor.

Maybe its the effort of all these considerate acts, we din see cockroaches having a party even late at night (they always hold party at my void deck when I return home from sch). But the few that we see are truly huge, big and black. Still we do not need to dance along (avoid stepping on them) with the cockroaches while returning to our hotel.


Underground MRT without protective door

Its kinda scary when the wind jus blows when the train is coming and when its approaching, it comes at fast speed. Wat if it derails? Budden looking at this picture, I'm trying hard not to laff at the way we've been protected and the way we still behave whilst being protected. Is the govt protecting us due to the way we misbehave (play ard on platform) or are we behaving in this manner bcos we're safe from the trains (protected mahh.. so safe.)?

(Some MRT stations along the 木栅 line have protective doors even thou the station is above ground. I'll presume its due to political issues.)

But despite being orderly, one can mark a sharp contrast with the motorists on the road.

In Taiwan, motorbikes seem to be the common transport. They're in abundance everywhere! Most often than not, u'll see mothers riding the scooter with the kid standing or sitting in front of the mum or 3 person on a bike. The helmets there oso come in various colors n designs, going for as cheap as NT100. Safety-wise, I doubt its practicability.

True, people in Singapore and Taiwanese honk whenever they have the chance. People in Singapore honk at every single opportunity when the traffic is slow, when someone cuts into their lane, when someone is blocking, while they're mouthing the F word, etc etc. The main reason I see Taiwanese honk for, is to announce to commuters from blind spots, turning out from small alleys, etc that they're passing thru. Its more of a signal of safety than a show of frustration.

But apart from the safety honks, motorists are rather irritating there. It gets on our nerves when we have to make way consistently for motorbikes or scooters or cars or even trucks to squeeze thru in the nite markets. They make things worse with their exhaust splurting out carbon monoxide into the already not-well-ventilated space.

The drivers get worse on the roads. Although they're not speeding like the dashdevils in Singapore, motorists on Taiwan road are typically too efficient. They DO NOT wait for the green man to change to red nor even for the pedestrains to finish crossing before they turn into the road. They could be squeezing in the gap btwn u and the person in front, or wheezing past ur butt, so much so that u have to either wait in the middle of the road for them to pass by in front of u or walk faster to prevent ur butt from being scratched.

But they cant really be blamed totally, since the traffic lights we see does not have standardized timing for pedestrains to cross. Some could have as little as 15 sec while others have as much as 90 sec, with not a big difference between the length of the road to be crossed.

I recall seeing an instance where the lights are red, the lights for the other side change to green, one of the motorist on the side where the lights r still red move forward and out of the line. Abt 3 bikes follow behind. Then they hesitated as the vehicles on the other side starting moving. Then.. THEY JUS DASH ACROSS, past the red lights, past the on-coming vehicles on their right.

With all these road hazards terrorizing the streets, its nice to see people VOLUNTEER (well, the volunteer word is printed at the back of their vests) to control the traffic at some junctions and help school kids or elderly cross the road.

Taiwanese are Very Environmental Friendly

So much so that convenience stores requires u to purchase plastic bags from them even thou u could be buying heaps of purchases, or that pharmacy which only provide plastic bags if u're buying sanitary pads. Or the bookshop at C.K.S. Airport, which wraps ur purchases in nice little recycled paper packages that makes u feel like u're going to post the parcel instead of reading it urself, althou the rest of the bookstores uses plastic bags. I wonder how many natural habitats they saved from being polluted with plastic bags? No wonder their streams and rivers are so clean.

The public toilets there, normally would not be affixed with a toilet roll holder, meaning most public toilets there do not have toilet paper provided. And the tissues sold at vending machines outside the toilets costs NT10 each. Its SGD$0.50 each! Only those toilets in big shopping centres provide toilet papers but they oso do their part in energy conservation. The one in Miramar had 2 different flush settings. They actually have a tea table inside (dunno for wat) and their wash basins are sensor kind (waste less water as it stops once the hand is out of the sensor).

If I didnt see wrongly, I came across an escalator in one of those MRT malls which is not operating in the afternoon. There was a sign which wrote something like "Escalator not in operation due to energy conservation". Service downtime were 10am to 4pm and 10 pm to 4am if I din remember wrongly. If it were to happen in Singapore, people will be cursing and swearing and complaining to the media in hope dat threatening bad word-of-mouth and bringing down their reputation will get a favourable response.

Most places we see in Taiwan have rubbish bins that comes in pairs, one for recyclable trash (althou I cant define wat is recyclable), the other for normal trash. That's their enthusiastic attitude towards environment protection.

We may be green physically but we're not green mentally. I sometimes wonder how many trees have I wasted unwillingly due to all the permits and documents that I print for compliance sake and throw them away after 7 yrs. I tried to recycle them until I was told not supposed to bcos of confidentiality. Thats dunno how many trees wasted (cos print on one side) due to some stupid compliance law lor. I'm so gonna propose to change my printer to a duplex one. Save paper, save storage space, save me from stapling the permits, save the trees, save the earth!

Taiwanese are Very Friendly/Helpful/Approachable

Either they have lost tourist radar installed in their input processing system or we simply look like we're helplessly lost, they always appear to help us find back our bearings. Very initiative I'll say. There's even an instance where we're on the bus looking at the map to see where the bus will lead us along which route and the guy sitting across the aisle asked us in the best english he can summon (still broken) to ask us where we're going. We noe perfectly well where we're heading to and we definitely dun look like we're lost. Taiwanese always noe where is where.

People in Singapore, on the other hand, will definitely not approach people even if they look desperately lost. Ok, most I mean. There'll still be some minorities who would do dat. N with our funny road names and thousand of street names within such a small country, I'll guess 5 out of 10 people being asked to give directions will have totally no idea where the street is. Some might even lead the tourist on a wild goose chase, going round n round without finding the destination and have to ask another person.

Somehow, I was often asked to give directions. Not sure why, even thou some people will still ask to ascertain if I'm a Singaporean. Do I have an accent in my speech? I dunno. Back to the direction giving. I'm not as street-wise as I look ok. I can still mix up Jalan Bahar/Jalan Besar/Bras Besar, nor do I noe where Prinsep Road is. I can walk from Far East to Chinatown but I'm not able to tell u wat bus to take. So most of the time, I'll reply in the negative. But if they have a map, I'll try to locate n bring them to the place. Or if I'm walking in the direction oso, I'll get them to follow me. But still I might point tourists to the wrong direction and find out only later (opps!).

Taiwanese are Bad at Guessing the Hometown of Tourists

For the 8 days we're there, we've became Hongkies, Taiwanese, Japanese, Malaysians. Only once when the shopkeeper at 五分埔 guessed correctly that we're from Singapore (but that is after we conversed to each other with English cham Mandarin). When did our accents sound like Hongkies anyway?

N I think for most of them, they do not noe what kind of a place Singapore is, except those who had been there for holidays. Some of them have a concept that Singaporeans dunno how to speak Mandarin. So when I started replying them in Mandarin, they'll be amazed at how "pronounciation-perfect" (their standard not very high. I is far from perfect) we were. They were stunned further when we conversed with them using our Hokkien cham Teochew against their 闽南语. We were very comfortable (language-wise) in Taiwan. Mandarin we understand, dialect we understand, english oso no sweat!

Taiwanese are Very Charitable

On the 1st day, we met someone raising money for stray cats and dogs on the streets. She went on continuously asking people to donate, then thank them even they dun donate, politely, and CONTINUOUSLY!! Rather suspicious bcos we dunno where the money would go to in the end and the woman's thank yous are very exaggerated, but still, people donate, thou not much.

Most receipts in Taiwan are standardised. From pharmacies, bakeries, bookstores, etc etc, they all use receipts from a common manufacturer, which was running a lottery printed behind the receipts. Results are released every 2 months and I'll guess u claim the prize with the winning serial of the receipt.

Receipts being receipts, for 2 months, its gonna be a heap of receipts to check thru for any winning ones. Not a lot of people will keep receipts for dat long. We actually noticed boxes located in shopping centres for people to donate the receipts and the proceeds will go to charity. The boxes were rather full, and there's a notice pasted outside the box indicating the accumulated amount of money that was won and donated from that box. The one at the airport was abt NT300k donated. For ONE box. Wow.

Other Points of Notes

Despite how flavor-enhanced their food were, I did not notice any hint of garlic appearing in the veggies or meat. Now who was the one who says garlic can bring out the fragrance of the food? It still tastes jus as good WITHOUT garlic! *Drools on thought of the cabbage at Alisan*

Taiwan society (and media) is rather open. They have quite a few religious channels with monks or nuns reading scriptures. They even have porn on their tv channels! Wat? Encouraging birth rates?

Generally people in Taiwan are well-groomed and figure-conscious. Our stay in XiMenDing brought us sights of many fashion-chasing school girls and punkish/celebrity-looking hunks. Although their food can be rather oily, there aint much obese people around. Might be due to the cold temperatures they have or they're jus plain weight-conscious.

Ok thats it for my Taiwan essay. I wanna go again!!

Taiwan Trip in details
Taiwan Expedition Day 1
Taiwan Expedition Day 2
Taiwan Expedition Day 3
Taiwan Expedition Day 4
Taiwan Expedition Day 5
Taiwan Expedition Day 6
Taiwan Expedition Day 7
Taiwan Expedition Day 8