taiwan :: taipei :: shopping

[Akura]

Who all is in Taipei right now? I am going back in April we should have a Sufu meetup.

[azn8oi]

April? I might be there. Tentative. Re-bump this thread when you're nearly there, I'll help you out.

[azn8oi]

why'd you del your post fallen?

[fallen angels]

because its unrelated to Taipei shopping and travel, and i didn't want to start any political debates after seeing some reactions in other places.

[Akura]

Yo azn8oi I am in Taipei Mucha district. I know its kind of an older folks area but what Clubs do you recommend going to if I want to listen to Electro/House? I know Luxy's second room plays some but their drinks are over priced and I like the setup of some of the other clubs where its pay a cover fee and you get to drink all you want.

Also, anything you think would be really important to check out in Taipei. Never really gone sight seeing as a child more of the visiting my relatives type deal.

Keep in mind I can't read chinese I gave up on Chinese school when I was a kid.

[azn8oi]

To be honest, I've never gone to those all you can drink deals. What Taipei kids do is hang out around 7-Eleven and Family Mart, cop a bottle of nasty shit or beers, and drink them right outside. It's socially acceptable over there, seeing how not everyone can drop 2000NT on drinks. If you're at Luxy, it's in the back alley right behind it. If you're at Room 18, it's outside of the building around the corner next to the Nike store.

Kaskade is playing at Room 18 next Friday (April 9th). I've seen him live in LA, pretty good.

http://www.room18.com.tw/en/index_1.php?id=139

Check this site: http://www.gigguide.tw/

Well what do you know, Paul Van Dyk is playing live in Taipei? Nothing special if you've seen him before though.

Sightseeing in Taipei is kinda stoops in my opinion... Just do it and get it over with. Go to the National Palace Museum if you think you can appreciate 1000+ year old Chinese antiques. It's the best collection in the world for that kind of stuff. Don't pay to go up Taipei 101, Taipei is a blanket of monotony from above. You can go to CKS Memorial and take a couple of pics. Since you're in Muzha, your relatives might take you to the zoo and look at Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan (the pandas), lol.

Taipei is less about going to see stuff, than about appreciating your time through the consumption of food and local culture (night markets). Don't buy anything in Taipei unless it's at least 50% off. There are so so so many food places to hit up..... can't even be fucked to list them all, you can parade through the threak again, starting from like 10 pages back.

Not knowing Chinese in Taipei won't kill you, but it's annoying because the spelling of road signs changes depending on where you are. Z becomes J, and D becomes T, depending on which part of town you're in. There is no unified way to spell stuff in roman letters in Taiwan, which is the biggest subject of disapproval amongst foreigners. I bet you can at least speak basic mandarin though, so you'll get by, don't worry.

And at least you don't live THAT far away... Muzha is not close to anything, but it shouldn't ever cost you more than 450NT to get home. How long are you staying in Taipei for, just the week for Spring Break?

[azn8oi]

I write about food on and off after about page 25 or so. Watch for pandadenim's old posts too.

[fallen angels]

Yeah I never thought of Taipei as much of a place for sightseeing. if you venture out away from the big city though, you'll see more of what Taiwan culture is all about, imo.

edit: i fully agree with azn8oi's comment about "Taipei is less about going to see stuff, than about appreciating your time through the consumption of food and local culture".

[PandaDenim]

If you want to sight see you ought to visit the more rural areas of Taiwan. Personally I think it's really fun to go there, I have some relatives in Taichong and Gaoshiung and it's great to live with them and appreciate the sights and the good life yknow? Farming, learning, reading, praying(although I'm not religious I have to humor my relatives), eating, cooking, fishing, etc.

I would suggest you go to the south if you can for sight seeing. The Kenting beach is great, and if you want it to be nice you can go to the resort.

As for the all you can drink clubs. I suggest Pasoul. Or maybe it was Pausoul...I think it's Pasoul... Anyway, it's pretty cheap, got in for about 800NT, and we even got a table, I believe it's something like 500 without table fee. Opens till 5. Starting at like 2 they have strip contests till about 5 AM. It's pretty fun. But there weren't a lot of...single girls. Most were with boyfriends or out on a ladies night out. But who knows, maybe my game is just too weak.

And for food, I would suggest you eat anything everything. I get hungry pretty quick while I walk around in the humid weather so I would eat stuff probably every 4 hours. The stands are great, however most of them move and I don't know if they are still there. But there is a really great baozi stand behind the Green Sogo in Zhongxiao Fuxing. 2 baozis for a dollar. They have them steamed or slightly stir fried. There were 2 other good baozi places in the nearby area but they relocated somewhere...dunno where... Another one of my favorite things to eat in Taiwan is duck blood, can't get that in the US. So I would suggest hitting an all you can eat ma la guo at least once.

Have fun man.

[fallen angels]

If you want to sight see you ought to visit the more rural areas of Taiwan. Personally I think it's really fun to go there, I have some relatives in Taichong and Gaoshiung and it's great to live with them and appreciate the sights and the good life yknow? Farming, learning, reading, praying(although I'm not religious I have to humor my relatives), eating, cooking, fishing, etc.

^This!

man that just made me really miss Taiwan and my childhood summers spent in the Taiwanese countryside.

[chinaman_6]

If you are only gonna stay in Taiwan for a week or so, you better just stay in Taipei. Of course the rest of the country is amazing as well, but it requires some planning + def. more time!

For the clubs Babe18 would be another recommendation. It's 400nt for all you can drink, so compared with European/US prices, after a few drinks, it will feel as if you are making a profit

but as PandaDenim already suggested, Pasoul is also a good place to go, with 2 dance floors.

Just like someone else already said somewhere in this thread: I would not recommend designer shopping, since the mark-up is pretty crazy.

On the other hand, the small stores that sell their own brand, might have something nice, for an even nicer price.

oh, when after clubbing you need some food, you should hit up Citystar dimsum. They have two places in the zhongxiao area + open 24/7

[Akura]

Thanks for all the great info! I am actually going to be here for a couple months and if I find work maybe a little longer.I completely understand where you guys are coming from about eating everything and understanding the culture.

Also, is it just me or does everyone and their mothers play mahjong? I swear there is ALWAYS people wanting to go play mahjong or a game going on.

[KidDynamite]

Yo azn8oi I am in Taipei Mucha district. I know its kind of an older folks area but what Clubs do you recommend going to if I want to listen to Electro/House? I know Luxy's second room plays some but their drinks are over priced and I like the setup of some of the other clubs where its pay a cover fee and you get to drink all you want.

Also, anything you think would be really important to check out in Taipei. Never really gone sight seeing as a child more of the visiting my relatives type deal.

Keep in mind I can't read chinese I gave up on Chinese school when I was a kid.

This weekend's gonna be a ghost town in Taipei. go to Spring Scream in Kending like everyone else in Taiwan.

[azn8oi]

^

Make friends fast, and go to Kending this weekend. Hostels and hotels are probably already booked out, so make friends quick, lol... I had this white classmate who's probably going for sure. Pity I never got his msn or facebook.

2 months? I'll probably meetup with you during that time then.

[prokart]

im going back on april 27th, pretty excited haha.

meet ups?

[Akura]

What is a good mandarin University to go to besides Shi-Da? They got rape prices and all I want to do is learn to read.

[azn8oi]

You aren't going to learn how to read in 2 months.

If I remember right Shida was like 18,000 or something like that.

NTU is something similar.

Don't bother going to a school for Mandarin unless you can commit AT LEAST half a year.

[PandaDenim]

Actually I was in Taipei last summer to study Mandarin at Shi-Da. I'm not sure what rape prices you are talking about...for 2 months of intense learning(600-1000 characters, the class is called the intensive study class) and it only cost me something like 500-600$. But I had a place to stay so that makes it cheaper... Also the class I was in was for people who could speak but could not read or write that much. But I agree with azn8oi, unless you are going to dedicate at least a year, I'd recommend two, I don't think it's worth it to study there. Besides, if you can speak you are more or less fine in Taiwan, they are used to people who can't read that much. I'm looking at you TAS students.

But yo I'm gonna try to head out to Taipei this summer, SuFu meet up for drinks and chillin?

[fallen angels]

daaaaamnnnn i wish i was at the Spring Scream

[chinaman_6]

azn8oi is talking about the price in NT

[PandaDenim]

Yeah I know, I just translated it to US dollars for the sake of simplicity.

[Akura]

I can commit 6 months to it. The thing with the 2 months is that is my visitors visa length so I am hoping I can get a student visa and then just keep chillin in Taiwan on that.

I am not sure if any of you guys have parents that are Taiwanese but I heard that if I try to get a work permit I will have to go join the mandatory army!?? But I was also told that since I was born in 1986 I won't have to cause I am too old or something. Anyone know about this?

[PandaDenim]

I'm not sure how old you are. But if you are still a college student you can show them your ID and they'll let you go. But in some rare cases you may need more than that...one of my friends got detained for a month despite having a college ID, had to send them some official papers or some bullshit.

You can get a student visa if you plan on studying Mandarin there and that should be enough.

[Akura]

I am 23, i've graduated so I can't apply to Sh-da through my school I have to apply on my own so its a different situation but I think like any business they will take my money.

[azn8oi]

Here's what I did last year:

I did study abroad through UC at NTU. I was able to take intensive Chinese courses at ICLP (4th floor, rape prices) as well as take any course I wanted in NTU. After that semester I decided I wanted a different kind of feeling to compare classes and stuff, so I took an official break from UC and went to Shida on my own.

I did intensive courses at Shida too, and I think it cost me like 24,000 or something like that. Regular courses were 18,000 if I remember correctly.

When I transferred from NTU to Shida, I had to get a a brand new student visa. Taiwan is country where bureaucracy is a fucking shit-stained mess, so you can't activate your new visa from within the country. You basically have to go to Hong Kong or Manila (the two closest and cheapest places) to get your new visa authenticated. You bring your passport, letter of acceptance, and like 150 bucks or something and they'll give you a processing note. You bring that note back to Taoyuan Airport and they'll stick on your new visa in an empty page of your passport. Ha, because of that fiasco, I actually had to go to the American Consulate in Taipei to get pages added to my passport, only had like 4 empty pages left.

It will cost you a bit over a grand to go study at Shida: $600-700 tuition + $200 flight to HK + $150 Visa + books. It's not too bad to be honest. Comparing to tuition of shit back at home, can you really complain?

Oh btw, your next question will be: which is better NTU or Shida?

At your level, Shida is better. They specialize in beginner's mandarin and ABCs and shit. You will also have a better time at Shida because people are fucking slackers and love to party and shit. Girls at Shida are much much better looking too. NTU is a better school if you are serious about learning though.

Ugh, my fuckin visa run fiasco, lol. I ended up stopping by Lane Crawford in HK and copping MMM cus it was 50% off. Also stopped by Alain Mikli and made trouble there. Fun times.

[schmallo15]

I am not sure if any of you guys have parents that are Taiwanese but I heard that if I try to get a work permit I will have to go join the mandatory army!?? But I was also told that since I was born in 1986 I won't have to cause I am too old or something. Anyone know about this?

I'm 90% certain mandatory military service has nothing to do with getting a work permit. It has to do with entering Taiwan with a Taiwan passport and the amount of time you stay.

For people A) born BEFORE 1984 dual citizens and C) in Taiwan on their Taiwan passport, you have to leave the country every 4 months or else you have to do mandatory military service until your 36th birthday.

The website (https://nas.immigration.gov.tw/ - Click item #3) makes it sound like if you're born after 1985, you can't spend more than 183 days a year in Taiwan on your Taiwan passport or else you have to do mandatory military service (until your 36th birthday).

However, if you come in on your US passport and get a student visa, you should be fine. If you want a work visa, a company would have to sponsor you.

As for which program, if you want to really improve your Chinese, go to ICLP for a year. If you want to dick around and learn a little Chinese which you'll probably forget 6 months after you get back to the US, go to Shida. Not saying you won't learn much at Shida but the regular classes there are much less intense than ICLP. It requires more effort on your part. At least that was my experience.

[azn8oi]

schmallo is 100% correct. I actually hated my teacher at Shida and started dicking around. I learned a lot less than I would've learned had I just stayed at ICLP in NTU.

[super]

Damn i'm kinda tempted to learn better Chinese in Taiwan now.

Anyway, to get back on subject, I'll confirm that sightseeing in the eastern and southern parts of Taiwan are awesome. My internship co-worker took us around Taiwan during a weeklong break, visiting Tainan, Kaoshiung, Taidong, and Hualien. I didn't like Tainan as much; the city itself was kinda old.

Now I did enjoy sightseeing in Taidong. We went bike riding in a small town called Guanshan which is filled with bike rental shops. The town is encircled by a 12 kilometer scenic bike path. This was an amazing experience; we enjoyed a very relaxing bike ride surrounded by beautiful scenery, verdant rice fields, friendly people, and great weather. I highly recommend it you check it out if you're going to be sightseeing around Taiwan:

http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/cycling/page-04.htm

I particularly enjoyed our stay in Hualien. Hualien city had great food, amazing blue skies, clean streets, and interesting shops to visit. It's surrounded by great scenic spots, namely Toroko Gorge. The beaches are also worth a visit; the rockiness of the beach makes great chilling time relaxing on the beach. Driving along the coastal roads surrounding Hualien was also a great experience.

Bottom line is I highly recommend visiting Southern and Eastern Taiwan if you're looking to sightsee and visit beautiful places.

[PandaDenim]

Yo list of shit to eat while you traveling the southern parts of Taiwan:

蔥油餅 (cong you bing) - the green onion pancakes, there is a famous street vendor in hualian(If I remember correctly) that sells this. You can just go there and provided you aren't white or something you can ask the locals and they'll hook it up.

Oajian - the oyster omlettes. Personally, not a big fan. But if you ever do go to Chiayi they have some of the world's freshest oysters and it's probably the best oajian I've had. You can also get fried oysters...which you should eat till you die...cheapest and most delicious oysters I've ever had, so plump and juicy. However, do look out, there are many places to buy oysters...so it's not my fault if you don't observe which carts/vendors/etc are better. Go to the pier to insure freshness.

雞腿飯(Chicken Leg Rice) - Famous in Chiayi. Eat it. It's good. If you are not a fan of this dish you are probably not Taiwanese. Just kidding. Sort of.

I'm not sure what other places you will be visiting if you are going sightseeing, but most people hit Chiayi and Hualian and Gaohsiung, so most can eat some of the stuff I posted...If anyone has particular locations in mind I can suggest other eats.

[prokart]

Yo list of shit to eat while you traveling the southern parts of Taiwan:

蔥油餅 (cong you bing) - the green onion pancakes, there is a famous street vendor in hualian(If I remember correctly) that sells this. You can just go there and provided you aren't white or something you can ask the locals and they'll hook it up.

Oajian - the oyster omlettes. Personally, not a big fan. But if you ever do go to Chiayi they have some of the world's freshest oysters and it's probably the best oajian I've had. You can also get fried oysters...which you should eat till you die...cheapest and most delicious oysters I've ever had, so plump and juicy. However, do look out, there are many places to buy oysters...so it's not my fault if you don't observe which carts/vendors/etc are better. Go to the pier to insure freshness.

雞腿飯(Chicken Leg Rice) - Famous in Chiayi. Eat it. It's good. If you are not a fan of this dish you are probably not Taiwanese. Just kidding. Sort of.

I'm not sure what other places you will be visiting if you are going sightseeing, but most people hit Chiayi and Hualian and Gaohsiung, so most can eat some of the stuff I posted...If anyone has particular locations in mind I can suggest other eats.

shit this list is killing me...i miss taiwanese food so bad and the legit bubble tea. mtl blows

btw is anyone going to the Jack Beats gig at The Loft on April 30th?