I’d not known much about Taiwan before traveling there. It was much different than I anticipated.
I hear of Taiwan often in the context of TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing and design company. I ASSuMEd that Taiwan would be high tech, something like Singapore and Hong Kong.
Not so.
I found it backwards. More like China in the 1990s than Singapore.
Taiwan still has multiple dumb, unnecessary rules that are strictly enforced. Government hasn’t modernized. For example, currency exchange at the National Bank is still a time-consuming drama with a dozen pieces of paper, all of which will never be seen again by human eyes.
Banking is digitized now in the modern world. Easy, for example, in the Philippines.
I anticipated a language barrier, of course. But it’s challenging.
English is not used aside from direct tourist facing employees. A bus full of tourists will have a driver who cannot answer even the simplest question in English. It results in frustration for all.
Signage, of course, is mostly in logographs. I couldn’t even guess at what they mean. Restaurants often don’t have an English menu.
I’d heard something of the great hiking and cycling trails. Those are good, well organized, but shorter and less adventurous than expected. Taiwan is smaller than I thought. 394 km long and 144 km at widest.
Next time I’d travel the less developed east side of the island. I followed the high speed rail side this time.
Taiwan still uses cash. Refusing credit cards in many places.
Rick McCharles 