Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cfedora]

Hey everybody, just wondering if anyone has any information on visiting Taiwan. I am going over during Chusok and I am wondering where the best beach is and what other fun stuff there is to do around the country. Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer.

[Marlboro]

Hello.

How long you planning on staying there? Well taipei is always a good start, I would recommend Hsinchu, for shopping, and great eating places, including indian, mexican food etc.Ilan has some amazing beaches, be sure to check them out! I would also say to visit Toroko Gorge, great views, and by far the best place has to be Alishan, Wow wonderful mountain resort, oh and the sunrise, oh my god its orgasmic if your into that, oh and Hsinchu the city i mentioned above? sometimes it has folk dances/russian/malay/turkish/hindi, near the train station

[Roch]

[Zark]

The best beach(es) are on the southern tip of the island (Kenting (sp?) is one of them). But - there are many hidden-away completely-deserted beaches along the east coast as well.

A basically unknown wonder of Taiwan is the entire east coast where steep cliffs drop into the sea - seperated by small beaches with no one on them - often with dramatic waterfalls. To the north of the east side is the Toroko Gorge - as mentioned earlier - very worth seeing.

It is not expensive to rent a car - and it is fairly easy to drive all the way around the island. I did it in three days and had a GREAT time.

It is a very nice break from Korea.

[Nowhere Man]

As a first-timer, I'd definitely go to Kenting for an easy beach. Not sure about good digs down there, though. I only went for Spring Scream.

[kimchi_pizza]

I'd have to back up Zark as far as finding the best beaches in Taiwan.

Sadly, their best beaches aren't all that. If you're going to Taiwan, I'd recommend visiting the mountains that go right down the center, especially Toroko National Park and surrounding area.
Or maybe get ahold of a scooter and traverse the east coast/kending. There are also plenty of personal hot spas in the mountains with awesome, open-air views for a resonable price.

AVOID the big cities! Taipei, Taichung, Kaoshiung (spelling, sorry). They're cesspools of pollution, traffic, betel nut stains (you'll see what I mean when ya get there). I lived in Taichung for 3 years so that's just my experience.

[cfedora]

This is all awesome advice guys, thanks a lot. My girlfriend and I are looking forward to a pretty relaxing trip so we won't be visiting too many places, but we're deffinitely interested in seeing a nice beach to relax on and possibly a hot spring and deffinitely Taipei. Any foods we should be trying while we're there?

[ekim]

Try nightmarket food. There're lots of nightmarkets, but Shihlin, Shida, and Tonghua jie are the best. Shihlin's the biggest and more shopping, but they have a huge eating place beside it. Shida has lots of food, and Tonghua jie has decent shopping with great food.

Try danbin.

[ekim]

I agree with the advice to check out the mountains and east coast. If you want beaches though, just go to Thailand or Boracay (Philippines). Still, Kending ain't half bad.

[Lizara]

I thought Hsinchu was okay, but nothing too exciting. If you do decide to go there, Guqifeng is pretty cool; lots of weird random statues and carvings and a big jade pirate ship. Hsinchu has an okay zoo as well.

Taipei has lots of temples, and the National Palace Museum if you're into old Chinese vases and a cabbage carved out of jade and other such things. The area around Chiang Kai Shek Hall is kinda cool. There's not that much in the hall itself but the plaza and surrounding buildings are nice. Definitely check out the Huaxi St. night market, aka the Snake Market, unless you're really squeamish about such things. You can see people play with snakes and feed them and kill them and stuff.

[tzechuk]

We've just been to Taipei a couple of weeks ago. The shopping was great but not a lot of sightseeing to do.

Best to join a tour - half a day will take you to the major sights. Cost is about 800 NT$ per person, which is about 27,000 won for 3 hours or so. I am glad we did that because it freed up all our other time when I could do my shopping

[ekim]

forgot to mention.... definitely do the taipei 101 tour. Tallest building in the world, and not to expensive. Also has the fastest elevator in the world. It's pretty amazing.

Tienmu's great for good restaurants of all varieties, though pricier. It's also a nice part of town with big streets, very clean, and nice lookin' houses and buildings.

Ximending, downtown, is where all the young TW go to hang out and shop. You can find hip hop stuff if you're into that, or if not, there're still lots of bargains and discount bins.

The Living Mall is the biggest mall in Taiwan, and the middle of it is shaped like a huge globe. It's pretty wicked and has a few good nightclubs up on the 12th floor.

And finally, Miramar shopping mall - near Neihu - is only two years old now, and has a gigantic faris wheel, good shopping, and nice restaurants.

All of these places have movie theatres.

Hsinchu's a great place if you have friends there to show you around. If not, probably better off avoiding it.

[ekim]

Tainan is the historical and cultural capital of Taiwan, so they have all the coolest temples. A lot of them are 300~500 years old. They're awesome for pics.

[TECO]

[ekim]

Tienmu's hardly a ghetto. It's one of the cleanest wealthiest places in taiwan. Not a lot of english teachers can afford to live there.

I agree about xinyi and zhongxiao east road, and the manila's mall "glorietta"?. But those malls are pretty nice, especially the Living Mall. Ximending is pretty ghetto, but they got bargains.