桃園 TaoYuan trip

garfaldo
 July 25, 2008, 12:01 PM posted in General Discussion

I'll be traveling to TaoYuan in September this year and staying there for quite some time.  I'm embarassed to say this will actually be my first time there.  Does anyone have some good advice on places to go and things to do?  I'm not really sure what to expect but am looking forward to it!

Thanks!

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lostinasia
 July 25, 2008, 02:28 PM

If you're here for quite some time, you'll want to pick up a guidebook - Rough Guide seems the best. It's got way more pages than the Lonely Planet. The Insight Guides are also OK - lovely and with good cultural background, but not so much use when you're actually moving around. I suppose Insight is good for building enthusiasm.

Most of the west coast of Taiwan is one big city sprawl. Don't expect great things there, although the temples and festivals can be cool. I'll be blunt - expect some ugliness from the towns. Physical ugliness, I mean; the people are lovely.

Further east, in the inland part of Taoyuan County, the mountains start. They're truly impressive.

My favourite places in Taiwan are probably Taroko Gorge, Green Island, and PengHu. Oh, and the various cross-island highways are fantastic. Don't be shy about hopping on a scooter.

For your studying in ChinesePod, work with traditional characters. You'll almost never see simplified in Taiwan, except occasionally in handwriting.

September will still be hot, and you'll be ashamed of how much time you spend in Starbucks or McDonald's - but you see, those are the places with air conditioning! In the north the weather will become more livable around late October or November.

 

(Why be embarrassed that it's your first time here?! LOTS of people have never been to Taiwan. Some of my cousins still don't quite understand that I'm in TaiWAN, not ThaiLAND.)

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garfaldo
 July 25, 2008, 08:45 PM

Hi Lost,

Thanks for the reply.  I am actually embrassed because I lived in Taiwan for 2 years and never made it down there! ;)

I loved Taroko Gorge too!  That was my favorite.  I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the terrain.

I kind of had a sneaking suspicion that TaoYuan might be as you described it, but I have no choice so I'll have to make the best of it.  I guess I'll be forced to do there what I couldn't in Taipei, which is fully immerse myself without resorting to English.