What's Taiwan like?

[Guest]

Hello Winston!

I have enjoyed reading many of your articles about your travels.

What part of Taiwan are you originally from?

What is the culture like over there?

[Winston]

Hello Winston!

I have enjoyed reading many of your articles about your travels.

What part of Taiwan are you originally from?

What is the culture like over there?

W: I was born in Taipei, Taiwan. Went to the states when I was 3. You can see some of my baby pictures in Taiwan here: http://www.happierabroad.com/Childhood_photos.htm

The culture? Well there are many things to be said about it. Like any, it has good things and shortcomings.

My analysis of the mentality and life of Taiwanese people is here, entitled "A Freespirit's Observations of Taiwanese/Oriental Life/Mentality"

http://www.happierabroad.com/Asian_Mentality.htm

There are several new chapters at the beginning, which I will post here soon.

Any more specific questions?

Winston

[momopi]

A plug for Taiwan tourism:
http://www.youtube.com/v/gRu2oK0Kqc4

[Jackal]

I've always admired the Taiwanese for having the balls to stand up to the communist mainland and for preserving lots of ancient Chinese traditions that were lost under the communists. And the Taiwanese use the traditional Chinese characters which are prettier but have a lot more strokes than the simplified characters used by the mainland.

[Evergreen]

Winston, did you went back recently this year to vote in the Taiwan elections? If so, who did you vote for? KMT or DPP?

[Winston]

Winston, did you went back recently this year to vote in the Taiwan elections? If so, who did you vote for? KMT or DPP?

No I didn't go back to vote. I'm not that patriotic to fly back to a country just to vote. It's too bad Taiwan doesn't let overseas citizens vote by mail like they do in the US.

If I voted, it wouldn't be for KMT, but for the Ming Jin Dan party, which my family is for.

Why do you ask? Who did you vote for?

Who are you though? Care to introduce yourself in the member introduction section?

[Evergreen]

I'm not Taiwanese so I cannot vote. I was just curious thats all as Taiwan and Philippines is kinda close with regular ferry service between Kaohsiung and Laoag. Also I have a Taiwanese girlfriend from Taipei County who likes to talk about Taiwan elections often and she voted KMT even though some of her friends voted DPP and KMT. She also told me lots of Overseas Taiwanese did went back to Taiwan to vote like celebrities and business people.I did introduce myself in the introduction section in my first post in this forum and I'll add more details of myself as I'll get move involved with your forum.

[Winston]

Evergreen, yes I saw your introduction post. Thanks. How did you find out about this site by the way?

You know of a ferry service between Kaoshiung and the Philippines? I've been asking around about that, but no one knows anything. Can you give me more info about it? Such as prices and all?

[Evergreen]

I think that ferry service company who provides that service is out of business or no longer providing that service anymore as I've been doing searches lately. I got that info from an old edition(maybe 1998 edition) of a travel book of Taiwan from Lonely Planet written by Robert Storey and I found that book was useful when I travelled to Taiwan(went to Taipei and nearby areas) in 1999. That book mentioned there was two ways to get off Taiwan by regular ferry service. One route is between Keelung to Okinawa which I did saw that ferry service in Keelung harbour. The other was Kaoshiung and Laoag.

I'll look for that old book in a local library and if I find that ferry service info again, I'll do the research on that company to see if it still exists and post here.

I found your site from the Niceguy forum as someone posted about your old Geocities site a few years ago and found your articles about your trip to Russia very interesting and insightful to read. Your site is great and infomative.

[momopi]

The largest concentration of ROC citizens outside of Taiwan is in Mainland China (>1 million). It'd be a funny irony if ROC government extends its future Presidential elections to citizens residing in China via absentee ballots. I can just imagine what the CCP leadership are thinking, LoL.

With KMT in office, I think they'd probably push for direct flights with China. This could better facilitate Taiwanese returning to TW to vote. Right now you have to transit via HK and it's a pain in the butt.

One thing I like about Taiwan's elections is that the people actually have a choice of candidates with opposing agenda. No matter which side you're on, we can still agree that the political divisions are clear, and you're not choosing between 2 shrimps.