Imagine you sit in the train. A weekend of great adventures and memorable events lies behind you. But all of a sudden something hits your mind: 天阿 (Tian1a)!!!! I forgot it. Too many things held me busy the last few weeks. The deadline of this KMK article, I simply forgot it. I sit in the train! Ok, there is nothing to do about it any more- I guess, I missed it. After the train has arrived in Taipei Main Station I just returned home, put my luggage back and turn the computer on. Ok lets just check it one more time: Unbelievable, the deadline is today…and the fact that I am in Taiwan gives me another 7 hours to write this article. I like Taiwan!
Just taking this aside the last few days were a splendid source of writing this column. I travelled around with visitors from back home. That means that you can look through the eyes of a newly arrived person again. And you have to explain a lot, what makes you think and reflect about the phenomena’s which are already allocated in your brain as being normal. This is actually a pretty refreshing experience, as I figure that you get used to things quite easily.
Taiwan is actually a contrast between modern and traditional, convenient and complex as well as busy and very relaxed.
In Taiwan you can stand in front of the (still) tallest building of the world, the Taipei 101 tower, and think “Taiwan is such an advanced country” and after a trip in the modern, clean and convenient metro system of the city you reach spots where rusty bikes stand next to a pile of garbage. People walk around in dirty clothing a stare at the 外國人 (Wai4guo2ren2) as if some Alien from another galaxy has entered their motherland.
Image you sit in one of the fastest trains of the world. After some complication and the delaying of the starting date for a few times the Taiwan High Speed Rail finally succeded. Taiwan has now another prestigious project that connects the major cities on the island with a maximum train speed of 300 km/h. The trains used are customized versions of the Japanese Shinkansen. The new connection makes it possible to travel from the north to the south on the West coast very fast, travel time is cut down by about half. I took the train from Banqiao (a suburb of Taipei, as the track to Taipei Main station is not finished yet) to Tainan (the old capital of the city, also with some memories of the Dutch colonisation of Taiwan). The trip for about 300 km is only one and a half hours. Yet, they built the brand new and modern train station far off the city itself. Which creates the need to take a bus or taxi to reach Tainan city. That means that the last 20 km take two thirds of the previous travel time. A really complex connection to the convenient train.
Another typical Taiwanese contrast is the difference in lifestyle, according to the place where you are. The capital in the northern part of the island can definitely be called a city of world format. Taipei offers everything you need, a lot that you have dreamed of and more than you will ever be able to discover within your lifetime. There are still a lot of things that need to be done and constructed by as I can see it with my own eyes the city government is pushing forward a lot to efforts to make an even better life possible. Compared to other major Asian cities everything is quite orderly and things run smoothly. On the other hand you have the smaller cities and the countryside. There are some parallels to the pulsing capital but most things differ. You see a lot of mostly elderly people sitting on the side of the streets watching the by-passers. The famous “betel nut” is still widely chewed in the more rural areas (yet also available in every corner of Taipei) and people seem to be kinder hearted. They seem to have not as much pressure as those living in the packed city.
As I said before, you get pretty fast used to life in Taiwan. The convenient and modern things make live really easy and not too hard to adapt. The “downsides” make it interesting, every turn you make leads you towards new and unique experiences. Within Taipei you sometimes get the feeling to walk through “magical gates” which lead to a long forgotten world. But then you see one of the many branches of one of the convenient stores and you know that you still are in your city – Taipei.
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