Job Discussion Forums

[phdinfunk]

Hello,

Thanks everyone for the responses to my posts about dental care. It relieved one of my only nagging concerns. I'm curious if anyone here knows much about the little city of San Hsia (Sanxia) south of Taipei. I'm moving there soon and would appreciate any insight (like, live elsewhere and commute to work -OR- San Hsia is as nice as any other city -OR- whatever)

Thanks,

Jonathan

[englishmaster]

Can't tell you about San Hsia, but, from having traveled around the island, I do know that all Taiwanese smaller towns are identical. Only the major cities have any variation. Therefore, if you've been to any Taiwanese small town, you've already been to San Hsia.

[lizzie_p]

heya -

i am also moving to San Hsia at the very end of August (8/24). from what i understand, San Hsia is a town of about 90,000 people with famous temples and old streets that attract a lot of visitors, as well as a lot of hiking/outdoors activities.

where will you be teaching? perhaps we should exchange notes!

here's a couple of websites with info about the town (although i wish they had more pics)

http://eng.coa.gov.tw/content.php?catid=10068&hot_new=8860

http://www.sanshia.tpc.gov.tw/sanshia_english_1.asp

[yamahuh]

I was just there last weekend funnily enough.
It seems nice enough I suppose, there's a very large temple and an 'old' street which is typically Taiwanese in that it's full of slow moving people, checking out products in overpriced 'boutique' stores.

Not really my cup of tea but there you go, other than that I can't say I saw anything much to either recommend or oppose it.

[yanksrock1]

I used to work in Sansia one day a week. At the time I lived in ximending, taipei and would take the MRT to Banciao and an express bus from there. It was more commuting than teaching (taught 1 2hr class there). I had friends that actually lived in Sansia but they were quite miserable. This one girl i remember would take the train down to Taichung every weekend because that was where her boyfriend lived. Every weekend!

My best advise is to avoid Sansia, unless it has drastically changed in the past 2-3 years since I left Taiwan.

[phdinfunk]

Granted, I've never been to Taiwan before, but I am an experienced traveller, so I can speak from my perspective.

San Hsia is a nice town. It's in the mountains, rent is cheap and the people are pretty nice. I have an absolutely cat apartment for less than what some of the people I trained with are paying for one room lofts in Taipei. I've got two bedrooms, a kitchen, a japanese tearoom, etc... Coupled with a four minute walk to work and that covers a multitude of sins in my experience (I used to live in Atlanta and have had everything from a twenty five minute drive both ways to work to an hour and fifteen minute commute in the Georgia heat... I've also used the trains, up to half an hour both ways.. I never liked long commutes).

I seem to have also lucked out in that the management at my school is pretty good compared to some of the other folks I trained with. That's less a factor of San Hsia but it does make a difference. I've already heard some horror stories from other students about crap mangement, stoned teacher collegues, tiny short shifts, etc, etc, etc. My manager on the other hand seems like an organized and caring lady (yea, yea, yea, the Chinese hide a million things, I know). The foreign relations guy is also a really WONDERFUL helpful guy, helped me negotiate the price down on my apartment, helped show me around, took me to find whatever I wanted, etc, etc. The other teachers seem professional and for the most part, pretty happy with the management.

As for the MRT system, it's in English and it's also color coded (like every metro system in every city in the whole world). If you can't figure it out I don't know how you got the four year college degree most schools require to hire you. To get to the MRT at Jongan just take bus 908... 916 goes to the end of the green line, I can't remember the name of the stop. Pay attention to what stop you're at, go back there and get on the same bus back home. Difficult? Not really.

Some of my coworkers live in JongHe. Rent is about twice as much there (though I did look around, just to be sure of my choice in apartments). Also JongHe is a god-awful urban sprawl, gritty and densely populated as the nine rings of hell. Its only selling point as a plce to live is an Expat Bar. I reckon I can make the commute to and fro Jong He ONLY when I want to drink instead of every day I work... and I can always take a taxi home, they're cheap here, it's a very viable solution for a guy like me that doesn't drink more than once in a week or two.

Yea, there's the touristy crap over on old street, but I think that you can find lots of overpriced crap in Taipei City too. I visited the area around Taipei normal University and I also had a week of training near Chang Kai Sheck memorial hall. Plenty of stuff that didn't seem too authentic at rip-off prices... or even semi-authentic and at rip-off prices... try going into a TCM store and asking for winter worm, summer grass and see what kind of Westerner Mark-up they give you in Taipei City versus San Hsia (I've done this experiment).

My two cents,

Jonathan

PS: Again, I'm an experienced traveller and confident person in general. I've camped out on gator-filled islands in Georgia at 106 degree F weather for several days. I've worked on organic farms in the South of France and I've meandered my way around most of Europe. Taipei could be New York City or Lyon, but in Chinese.. stop three people to ask for directions and one of them speaks enough English to get you where you're going. San Hsia is like Belfast but in Mandarin, which isn't bad at all. I've found enough English speakers and made a few friends to help me out here and there...

[yanksrock1]

Good luck to you out in Sansia. You are only 2 weeks in, so I would not assume to know it all because your thoughts about Sansia may change over time. As the MRT has expanded out a few more stops since I lived in Taiwan, it may be a little easier if you wish to travel to the city.

I first started out in Tucheng, which at the time was a 30 min bus ride from the nearest MRT (they now have a MRT stop, sure enough it opened after I left!) I thought Tucheng was nice because I had a huge apt, with 3 balconies, a bowling alley nearby, great places to eat, a couple cafes and it was not too far from the MRT. That bus ride to the MRT got longer and longer as time went on and I didnt move to Taiwan to live a frugal hermit reclusive lifestyle.

[JZer]

San Hsia, is only a 20 minute train ride to Taipei. Which is about how far I live from most things in Taipei and I actually live in Taipei.

Sanxia should be a 31NT(1 USD) ride to Taipei on the local train.

[wix]

[phdinfunk]

Yea, no train service in Sansia...

Not yet.

It's a fine town though. Nice mountains around, and a pretty little river. TuCheng is very close by, LOL. There are actually a lot of foreigners here that I hang out with on a regular basis. We go out drinking, or watch movies, or sometimes we split cabs into or out of Taipei (that 700NT ride is really cheap split three ways, LOL). Some of them even like Dungeons and Dragons (one of my favourite passtimes). All told I've met or seen around twenty Westerners here.

I have been working on a bunch of projects I have put off for years. For the first time in my life, I have both time and money in abundance, something I've wanted for the last decade.

My next priority is getting a bike.

So that's my feeling about two months in.

I'll keep everyone posted because in the coming years of this forum it might be interesting to track the way my opinion looks for a newbie coming to a little town near Taipei Taiwan.

--Jonathan