Soon after, a stranger started dialing numbers saved in my phone until he figured out who it belonged to. The very first week I was in Taiwan, I forgot my bag, which contained my wallet and mobile, at a public event. Not only will they not keep it, but they will really take the initiative to return it to its original owner. Taiwan is one of the few places in the world where people actively search for an owner of an item they have found. Many buildings are built to rock with the earth to withstand powerful typhoon winds and earthquake tremors, including Taipei 101, Taiwan’s tallest building and once the tallest building in the world. The Central Weather Bureau reports as many as 1,047 earthquakes per year that are perceivable (and over 18,000 per year if we include ones that are not perceivable). Located at the junction of two tectonic plates, Taiwan is one of the most tectonically active regions in the world. What a fancy song for this kind of situation! 05 | There are earthquakes all the time Many people go out earlier to have a chat with their neighbors until they hear the unmistakable song being played loudly by the truck: Beethoven’s Fur Elise. Waiting for the garbage truck is one of Taiwan’s liveliest communal rites. Garbage trucks drive through every neighborhood five times a week and residents carry their bags of trash down and put them into the trucks themselves. The garbage from households should be disposed of in city-approved trash bags. Living in Taiwan, you have to accept that garbage is a big deal. Living in Taipei, I witnessed accidents on nearly a daily basis. A driving license is easy to get and people don’t strictly follow road rules (some of them don’t even know what they are!). In the cities, the fun is spoiled by heavy traffic. If you want to ride scooter in Taiwan, I recommend doing it in the countryside or on small offshore islands. Sometimes you can see a whole family on scooter (I’m talking about 4 to 5 members, including the dog!). Taiwan is the land of scooters, with more motorbikes per capita than anywhere else in the world. It’s not practical, but it simply works! 03 | Literally everyone rides a scooter So apparently, a lack of trash cans is actually a move to a cleaner city. It was disgusting, and there were rats everywhere. One of my teachers told me that when she was younger, she remembers how the sidewalks were covered in rotting garbage. If you decide to get rid of any trash, you will probably have to carry it to the nearest metro station, or even to your home. In order to keep the streets clean and cockroach-free, there are few trash cans placed in the streets. Second, you can leave anytime without the necessity of waiting for the bill to be issued. Once you get used to it, you learn two advantages of this system: First, you know how much the stuff costs from the very beginning. The meals are usually listed in Chinese only, and guests are asked to pay first. Ordering food can be quite confusing when you’ve just started your Taiwan trip. No matter how much I love this tiny country, living in Taiwan is “special” in many ways:) 01| Pay first, eat later It simply needs the time to understand a foreign culture a little bit more. Visiting a country is much different from living in it.
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