Post: #1

About me

Age: 23
Male
Height: 5'8''
From Northeastern US
Hairy Italian/Spanish looking with beard

Have been living in this spot for the last 9 months.

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Taichung is the third largest city in Taiwan, behind Taipei and Kaohsiung. Although Taiwan is known for a subtropical, rainy climate, this city seems to be the one of the only areas of Taiwan that it doesn't rain often. For most of the year it is sunny, and the winters here are especially pleasant (usually stays around 65-75 degrees F/ 15-20 degrees C).

Taichung has a decent number of foreigners and expats living here. There is a decent sized expat community so as to come across the same people on a regular basis. It's good to make friends with the expats here because many of them own local businesses downtown, although I don't have too much in common with many of them seeing that most of them are overweight white dudes with Taiwanese wives. Therefore, I find myself rolling solo 75 % of the time.

About 3 or 4 years ago the nightlife in Taichung was very solid, from what I've heard. This was before there was a fire at one of the nightclubs, I forget which one, but after a couple of people died in that fire the mayor shut down all of the bars on the main nightlife strip called Canal Street.

I'm not too big on hitting clubs, but its a good option for getting laid in Taiwan, especially if you are a good looking white dude. I'll try to give the best lowdown of what I know from the club scene after being here for about 9 months.

Club Scene


Lobby


In my opinion, definitely the best spot for a night out in Taichung, especially for younger guys. The club is huge, with tons of college chicks. Due to it's location right next to Taichung's biggest University, Fengjia, the chicks here are almost all college students. The guys are of no competition here mostly because they are young, skinny Taiwanese University students who spend most of their time playing video games in their dorm rooms. So with the combo of hot young Taiwanese chicks, and young clueless Taiwanese dudes, this is a prime spot.

There is a huge dance floor, as well as a more loungy type bar area in the back making for a good nightlife spot. Wednesday night is ladies night, and every time I've gone its been fun as hell.
Definitely recommend going here if you are in town.

18 Taichung

This spot plays decent music in my opinion and that is a bit of a rarity in this city.If you are a guy who likes to dance to hip hop, this is a pretty good spot. Girls here are also a bit older, mid twenties type chicks.

Definitely some sexy chicks that roll up here. Some nights here were COMPLETELY whack though, meaning I rolled there and there was maybe three chicks and ten dudes in the whole club at peak hours. This definitely seems like a weekend spot.


Paris

I only have been to Paris once, but it was a good experience. It was a Saturday night, it was kind of packed. Danced and made out with a few chicks, but unfortunately they were with their friends so they made that an excuse to dip out on our little dance floor session.

Also it should be noted I saw tons of Taiwanese gangsters posted up with their sexy, but trashy looking bitches. One should be careful when spitting to these chicks, and should in general be weary of Taiwanese gangsters. I've heard a couple stories about foreigners getting jumped by 5-10 Taiwanese gangsters for being a drunk fool.

Vivo

Vivo has a bit of an older type crowd, and isn't too bad of a spot to pick up. On some nights I was the only white guy in the club and on other nights (usually the weekends) there were many other foreigners, so it just depends on the night.

I think Vivo is better on nights where there are more foreigners, because in turn you'll get more English speaking Taiwanese chicks. The nights which I was the only foreigner in the club were very tough, seeing as there were almost no English speaking chicks.

Bar Scene

The bar scene here seems almost non-existent. Many of the expats hit the "bars" often, but really its no more than a restaurant/bar where they go with a group of friends. Again, the expat scene here is very clicky. Nice people, but don't expect to be slaying tons of pussy by hitting up these expat spots.

That being said there are a few bars that I could mention such as FM bar which is sometimes poppin but half the time I go in there there is no-one.

Also there is a part of downtown referred to as Canal Street by some (Huamei Rd., Meicun Rd. area near Sogo). Down by those parts there are a few spots like a darts bar and other places. You really just have to walk around and find places since the city is usually dead past 12 PM most nights.

Most foreigners drink at a location called Soho Street downtown from around 6 or 7PM to 10PM on weekends, so if you're new in town that is a pretty decent spot to make friends who speak English.

As boring as the bar scene is, I've still pulled from here, seeing that there is almost no competition when it comes to guys.

Other than that I can't say where people go to party when it comes to traditional pubs in Taichung.

In Closing

Overall Taichung is a solid city, but not very good for single guys. Also, another good thing about the city is that other foreign, white guys dress like shit and have no game, so if you have some style and have some social intelligence you shouldn't have a problem meeting girls. I think the biggest obstacles in a city like this would be gangsters, and the language barrier. If you're not careful, you could come across some rough gangster Taichung dudes, and if you don't speak Chinese, you'll have to find ways to communicate with chicks who speak broken English, spend much time learning Chinese, and or persist through failed approaches and interactions until you find English speaking girls.

Also Girls here are a bit different than Taipei. If you like sluts go to Taipei, but down here you'll find much more family oriented Taiwanese chicks. For guys who want to raise a family or find a wife, this is a pretty good spot, but when it comes to the nightlife, it is really no comparison to Taipei, and from what I have heard Kaohsiung also has way more nightlife options too.

So, all in all, if you're coming to Taiwan go to Taipei to live. Might seem obvious by now. Everyone here complains how expensive Taipei is, but in my opinion its well worth the upgrade in quality of life.

Hope this helps fellas, feel free to shoot any questions.

Post: #2

Good guide.

Learn Mandarin.

Post: #3

(09-30-2014 08:46 PM)Dagnasty Wrote:  Good guide.

Learn Mandarin.

Of course man, on it.

It's a cool language, and my passion for it has grown a ton since starting back in January. I think its super important if you're living in these small Chinese cities.

Post: #4

Thank you for a very nice datasheet

Post: #5

Hey, we are of similar age. I'm in a city near Taichung.

PM me if you wanna meet up. Been chatting with some RVFers in Taiwan, gonna try to meet all of them asap.

Post: #6

(10-01-2014 10:53 AM)FretDancer Wrote:  Hey, we are of similar age. I'm in a city near Taichung.

PM me if you wanna meet up. Been chatting with some RVFers in Taiwan, gonna try to meet all of them asap.

Just got at you on PM. Any other RVFers out and about these parts?

Post: #7

Great datasheet!

I only stayed in Taipei and Taoyuan City, but from my experience, I would say that Taiwan in general is a very underrated place for gaming women!

I found that English is very extensively spoken in Taipei, but I would say that you should have at least some Mandarin ability if you plan on staying anywhere else.

Post: #8

(10-01-2014 11:37 AM)oldirtybachelor Wrote:  

(10-01-2014 10:53 AM)FretDancer Wrote:  Hey, we are of similar age. I'm in a city near Taichung.

PM me if you wanna meet up. Been chatting with some RVFers in Taiwan, gonna try to meet all of them asap.

Just got at you on PM. Any other RVFers out and about these parts?

I'm in Taipei. Have been chatting with Fret on Line but we haven't had the chance to meet up yet. We should all do that at some point. Feel free to PM me your Line ID as well (maybe we should do a Line chatroom for RVFers in Taiwan?). I've never been to Taichung but wanna check it out sometime.

Post: #9

Great stuff man! Have you solely spent most of your time in Taiwan in Taichung? How are you finding cost of living in Taichung? and in terms of livability, how is it like without speaking the local language?

(10-01-2014 11:37 AM)oldirtybachelor Wrote:  

(10-01-2014 10:53 AM)FretDancer Wrote:  Hey, we are of similar age. I'm in a city near Taichung.

PM me if you wanna meet up. Been chatting with some RVFers in Taiwan, gonna try to meet all of them asap.

Just got at you on PM. Any other RVFers out and about these parts?

I'm moving to Taiwan in November, so I'll probably spend some time in Taichung at some stage.

I'll get in touch with other RVFers once I land. Only 5 weeks away now!

Post: #10

(10-02-2014 12:00 AM)UnW Wrote:  Great stuff man! Have you solely spent most of your time in Taiwan in Taichung? How are you finding cost of living in Taichung? and in terms of livability, how is it like without speaking the local language?

I'm moving to Taiwan in November, so I'll probably spend some time in Taichung at some stage.

I'll get in touch with other RVFers once I land. Only 5 weeks away now!

Nice man ya get at me when you're on the island. My Mandarin is alright now but for the first 4 or 5 months when it really sucked it wasn't even that bad. People are friendly enough that they'll help you get shit done. Anything I really truly needed a native speaker for I just asked the school I work at to help me out.

I've visited other cities like Kaoshiung for a night and Taipei a handful of times. In terms of living, its mad cheap. My spot is about $160 US a month and I live alone. My apartment is ok, no kitchen real small with a balcony, but its pretty common way to live. Meals are dirt cheap and decent quality
in terms of taste and health. I've lost almost 10 kg since coming out here, which is also due to jiu jitsu but I'm sure if I was back in the States it'd be 10x harder to keep the diet I keep here.

If you are super frugal getting by on $600 is doable. I met this dude that told me he works 10 teaching hours a week and his social life consists of playing Dungeons and Dragons board game and thats his life getting by on that. Sounds like fucking hell to me but shit, he's doing his thing. Not an expensive place to live by any means.

Honestly I'm most likely moving up to Taipei come Chinese New Years. Taichung is just too boring. Taipei is a tight city, haven't found a spot in Taiwan that really comes close to TPE.

Post: #11

Do they speak Mandarin in Taiwan? Is it much different from that in mainland China? I am thinking about doing a language course at some stage. Not sure what to choose - China or Taiwan.

Post: #12

(10-02-2014 08:39 PM)Northern Wrote:  Do they speak Mandarin in Taiwan? Is it much different from that in mainland China? I am thinking about doing a language course at some stage. Not sure what to choose - China or Taiwan.

The mandarin in Taiwan is more "neutral" sounding and easier to understand in my opinion. If you learn it in Taiwan it will be understood anywhere in the world there are mandarin speakers. Another benefit is that in Taiwan they still use traditional characters and not that simplified chinese commie shit.

There's also the Taiwanese dialect but you won't need to learn that unless you plan on running for the green party or gaming uneducated farm girls that don't even speak mandarin.

Taiwan is cleaner and way more civilized because it's developed.

The downside is that the women in Taiwan are definitely colder and more difficult to get to know than the mainland in general.

Post: #13

(10-03-2014 05:50 AM)El Chinito loco Wrote:  

(10-02-2014 08:39 PM)Northern Wrote:  Do they speak Mandarin in Taiwan? Is it much different from that in mainland China? I am thinking about doing a language course at some stage. Not sure what to choose - China or Taiwan.

The mandarin in Taiwan is more "neutral" sounding and easier to understand in my opinion. If you learn it in Taiwan it will be understood anywhere in the world there are mandarin speakers. Another benefit is that in Taiwan they still use traditional characters and not that simplified chinese commie shit.

There's also the Taiwanese dialect but you won't need to learn that unless you plan on running for the green party or gaming uneducated farm girls that don't even speak mandarin.

Taiwan is cleaner and way more civilized because it's developed.

The downside is that the women in Taiwan are definitely colder and more difficult to get to know than the mainland in general.

I like the Mandarin here too as opposed to a lot of the Mandarin that's spoken in China, as well as the traditional Characters. When I look at Simplified Chinese I think just that, commie watered down bullshit.

Also this French chick told me that she studied simplified characters in China for a year, and now is switching to traditional and said she wishes she learned the other way around, so maybe its best to start with traditional if you're not sure.

Post: #14

(10-03-2014 09:05 AM)oldirtybachelor Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 05:50 AM)El Chinito loco Wrote:  

(10-02-2014 08:39 PM)Northern Wrote:  Do they speak Mandarin in Taiwan? Is it much different from that in mainland China? I am thinking about doing a language course at some stage. Not sure what to choose - China or Taiwan.

The mandarin in Taiwan is more "neutral" sounding and easier to understand in my opinion. If you learn it in Taiwan it will be understood anywhere in the world there are mandarin speakers. Another benefit is that in Taiwan they still use traditional characters and not that simplified chinese commie shit.

There's also the Taiwanese dialect but you won't need to learn that unless you plan on running for the green party or gaming uneducated farm girls that don't even speak mandarin.

Taiwan is cleaner and way more civilized because it's developed.

The downside is that the women in Taiwan are definitely colder and more difficult to get to know than the mainland in general.

I like the Mandarin here too as opposed to a lot of the Mandarin that's spoken in China, as well as the traditional Characters. When I look at Simplified Chinese I think just that, commie watered down bullshit.

Not to defend communism, but the Simplified Characters was a great implementation by the Chinese in my opinion. True, Traditional Characters have their charm, but when it's writing time, they can be a real pain in the ass. Try remembering how to write salt (鹽) and make it look good.

Quote:Also this French chick told me that she studied simplified characters in China for a year, and now is switching to traditional and said she wishes she learned the other way around, so maybe its best to start with traditional if you're not sure.

Shouldn't be the case. I started learning with Simplified Characters and did so for over 2 years. I have been in Taiwan for 1 year now and I can read both types without any problems.

Post: #15

(10-03-2014 09:09 AM)FretDancer Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 09:05 AM)oldirtybachelor Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 05:50 AM)El Chinito loco Wrote:  

(10-02-2014 08:39 PM)Northern Wrote:  Do they speak Mandarin in Taiwan? Is it much different from that in mainland China? I am thinking about doing a language course at some stage. Not sure what to choose - China or Taiwan.

The mandarin in Taiwan is more "neutral" sounding and easier to understand in my opinion. If you learn it in Taiwan it will be understood anywhere in the world there are mandarin speakers. Another benefit is that in Taiwan they still use traditional characters and not that simplified chinese commie shit.

There's also the Taiwanese dialect but you won't need to learn that unless you plan on running for the green party or gaming uneducated farm girls that don't even speak mandarin.

Taiwan is cleaner and way more civilized because it's developed.

The downside is that the women in Taiwan are definitely colder and more difficult to get to know than the mainland in general.

I like the Mandarin here too as opposed to a lot of the Mandarin that's spoken in China, as well as the traditional Characters. When I look at Simplified Chinese I think just that, commie watered down bullshit.

Not to defend communism, but the Simplified Characters was a great implementation by the Chinese in my opinion. True, Traditional Characters have their charm, but when it's writing time, they can be a real pain in the ass. Try remembering how to write salt (鹽) and make it look good.

Quote:Also this French chick told me that she studied simplified characters in China for a year, and now is switching to traditional and said she wishes she learned the other way around, so maybe its best to start with traditional if you're not sure.

Shouldn't be the case. I started learning with Simplified Characters and did so for over 2 years. I have been in Taiwan for 1 year now and I can read both types without any problems.

No doubt that some can be a pain in the ass. How was memorizing and learning to write simplified? Do you find that you're learning to write traditional characters comes a whole lot slower than simplified or that there is not a huge difference in difficulty of picking them up?

Post: #16

Memorizing simplified was difficult at first, but this was part of the natural process, since I had never learned a written language that uses ideograms before.

Learning to write traditional is definitely slower, even when you can write characters, sometimes you find yourself unable to complete some because of memory failure.

In my opinion though, it does not matter much if you go from Simplified to Traditional or vice-versa. The key in both reading and writing is Radicals. Once you can notice how common and simple radicals differ between Simplified and Traditional, you will begin to see patterns, memorizing these patterns is what will help you memorize the character(s) in their entirety.

However, the Simplification of characters does not follow a 100% radical pattern transformation. In other words, there are exceptions, but few.

Also, when you begin to understand the patterns, you will begin to see that character Simplification was done not just by changing each radical parts, but also by the character's/radical's pronunciations.

Post: #17

(10-03-2014 11:29 AM)FretDancer Wrote:  Memorizing simplified was difficult at first, but this was part of the natural process, since I had never learned a written language that uses ideograms before.

Learning to write traditional is definitely slower, even when you can write characters, sometimes you find yourself unable to complete some because of memory failure.

In my opinion though, it does not matter much if you go from Simplified to Traditional or vice-versa. The key in both reading and writing is Radicals. Once you can notice how common and simple radicals differ between Simplified and Traditional, you will begin to see patterns, memorizing these patterns is what will help you memorize the character(s) in their entirety.

However, the Simplification of characters does not follow a 100% radical pattern transformation. In other words, there are exceptions, but few.

Also, when you begin to understand the patterns, you will begin to see that character Simplification was done not just by changing each radical parts, but also by the character's/radical's pronunciations.

Definitely Radicals are super important. Back when I started learning how to write I made radicals a high priority in my studies. It has for sure been well worth it.

Post: #18

Writing is a huge time sink, especially for traditional characters. I'm skeptical if it's worth the investment vs conversation practice.

Post: #19

(10-06-2014 04:08 AM)ao85 Wrote:  Writing is a huge time sink, especially for traditional characters. I'm skeptical if it's worth the investment vs conversation practice.

Having studied writing for a few months, I can confidently say that the next time I do it - my goal is reading a restaurant menu 小心 signs and nothing beyond that.

I use pinyin to text and just pick the first suggested characters. It's right 80% of the time and even when it's wrong, locals can read it and understand what I mean. The sounds are the same but the characters are wrong - it's like a misspelled word.

Post: #20

(10-06-2014 01:51 PM)Dagnasty Wrote:  

(10-06-2014 04:08 AM)ao85 Wrote:  Writing is a huge time sink, especially for traditional characters. I'm skeptical if it's worth the investment vs conversation practice.

Having studied writing for a few months, I can confidently say that the next time I do it - my goal is reading a restaurant menu 小心 signs and nothing beyond that.

I use pinyin to text and just pick the first suggested characters. It's right 80% of the time and even when it's wrong, locals can read it and understand what I mean. The sounds are the same but the characters are wrong - it's like a misspelled word.

I agree that handwriting is a waste of time but not bothering to learn to read at all takes it a bit too far in my opinion. Especially because being able to associate words and meanings with visually unique characters and not just abstract sounds/pinyin romanizations that will just pile up exponentially as you keep learning is a huge help for learning the language in general. It gives you a giant leap of understanding and helps your memory immensely when you realize that 計程車 (taxi in Taiwan) literally means "calculated journey car" and isn't just a random collection of sounds, or that 結賬 and 結婚 have a character in common (and why), or notice how there's 意 in同意，意思，意見，意義，but not in 建議 - things like that. As Fret said this then extends to the radicals which will help you see patterns in individual characters, are a help in memorization and sometimes imply meaning as well.

Post: #21

(10-06-2014 04:08 AM)ao85 Wrote:  Writing is a huge time sink, especially for traditional characters. I'm skeptical if it's worth the investment vs conversation practice.

Maybe so, but writing can bring many benefits to your other skills in the language, specially reading and pronunciation.

Why pronunciation? Because every time you are practicing writing (assuming you are) you should write the character, the pinyin/BPMF and then it's meaning. Your brain will associate the tonal/sound aspect of the character along with it's written pinyin/BPMF. This is what I believe is gonna make you speak the tones correctly.

When you get to really speak your tones correctly, no matter what character or what word, that is when you enter a whole new level. A level that will separate you from the rest of foreigners who are learning Chinese.

On the other hand, I am a strong believer on the paper, pen and mind connection. And this is something I will write about soon.


Also, it is very interesting how your brain works when you are in "reading mode". This also applies with Simplified & Traditional forms, Radicals, and Character Components.

For example, take a look at the character 讓 (rang4), which means to let/make/yield.

If see what this character is composed of:


Now, assuming you do not write characters at all. Your mind can perfectly read and recognize this character even between sentences. However your mind does not perceives how the character is exactly like. And I am talking specifically for the right part of the character, which can be considered a little complex due to the amount of strokes it contains. If you are asked what the right component contains as sub-components, it would be impossible to remember and tell, unless you are able to write it.

This has advantages (like reading faster, makes reading easier, speeds up the process, etc.) and disadvantages (like not really knowing how the character is like or formed).

Simplified characters tries to eliminate this on most instances:

Post: #22

My favorite way to study is learning through texts, reading and writing so for me that's the deal breaker. Learning characters is a must.

Also, I feel as though every component of language is interconnected and if you learn to read and write Chinese it can only help your speaking and pronunciation , as FretDancer pointed out. If you're aiming for true fluency you may hit a huge wall if you neglect character learning. I have yet to meet a truly fluent foreigner here who doesn't know how to read Chinese.

Post: #23

I'm not saying reading isn't important, it is esp at higher levels when you need to develope a deep vocabulary. My point is that if you have two hours to play with is it worth writing 20 characters 20 times, or memorizing vocabulary and getting conversation practice? I quit writing a couple months after I started learning and have had no problem absorbing new vocabulary in the past year+.

Then again everyone's learning style is different. Just that I would be hesitant to recommend a beginner to spend that much time early on writing instead of using the language.

Post: #24

(10-07-2014 03:28 AM)ao85 Wrote:  Then again everyone's learning style is different. Just that I would be hesitant to recommend a beginner to spend that much time early on writing instead of using the language.

True, I didn't start writing until about 3 months into learning. Then I realized that its more important than I figured it to be. Originally my thinking was more in line with,"I want to be conversational first and foremost." for the most part to meet more chicks. Only until afterwards did I gravitate towards reading and writing.

Post: #25

For a decent compromise between "handwriting" and actual "vocab learning" I recommend Skritter (available on iOS at least, not sure what's the situation on Android). It gives you a bit off leeway in writing since you get immediate feedback after each stroke (though you can also turn that off if you're hardcore), but it still reinforces the stroke order of characters and makes you remember them by their radicals and components. It's also much more convenient than messing with pen and paper - though if you really want to be able to handwrite, you'll also need that part of the practice. In any case, you will learn a lot of if you just use Skritter for 30 minutes a day.

I also had the experience of learning a Chinese language with zero reading/writing before, when I learned Cantonese for a while. It became extremely tough to remember vocab just by their romanization and without all other mental association. But yes, everyone is different.