Have to ask: why do people come to Taiwan to be teachers?

[Super Hans]

You mention three areas as downtown. But my point was Taipei is not a centralized city with a downtown business/shopping/eating area and residential areas everywhere else.

Thank you. I was having a massive argument about Taipei not being centralized the other day - you can't really define Taipei city centre.

[Arteta]

I wouldn't say it doesn't have a downtown, I would say Taipei city in terms of Xinyi, Nanjing and Taipei Main station are downtown, and new Taipei city is the hinterland where most people commute in and out from.

You mention three areas as downtown. But my point was Taipei is not a centralized city with a downtown business/shopping/eating area and residential areas everywhere else. Almost all areas are mixed residential/business. Muzha and parts of Neihu are about as residential as it gets but even there you are a couple minute walk to business streets with restaurants/cafe/shops etc.

I think the OP wants to avoid getting stuck in a western style suburb.

Yes, you're right (although I'm not OP). I want to avoid being in an almost purely residential area. Privacy is great, but I don't want to have to travel to really see any sort of life. Sometimes in the UK I just like to talk around the city centre because it's lively. I pretty much in the centre so it's a few mins walk to all the action, but if I lived back with my parents I would have to walk for 30 mins to get to a similar sort of area (except it's a fraction of the size because it's not a city). The area that they live in is residential and there are many houses around, but essentially it's quite dead and at night it's super quiet. Also there's the convenience of being next to things that you need, such as a gym or a 7/11. If you find yourself hungry at 11pm and you have nothing in the house you don't want to walk 20 mins to find only somewhere that's still open.

[Omniloquacious]

...at night it's super quiet.

Oh, how wonderful! The thought of such a thing is almost enough to make me want to go back.

(The near-impossibility of finding a quiet and peaceful place to live here is by far my biggest cause of dissatisfaction with living in Taiwan.)

[TheGingerMan]

Out here in Gaoyuan, it is so damn quiet that I think I just heard a cricket fart.

[Omniloquacious]

Out here in Gaoyuan, it is so damn quiet that I think I just heard a cricket fart.

You don't have noisy neighbours? Good lord!

Er, you do actually have neighbours, don't you? I mean, it's quite hard to imagine having a full set of neighbours in Taiwan, and none of them being of the standard MIT noise-emitting variety.

Are you up there in Acer Park again, or across with Mr He and MJB in Yangmei?

[Mucha Man]

Out here in Gaoyuan, it is so damn quiet that I think I just heard a cricket fart.

You don't have noisy neighbours? Good lord!

Er, you do actually have neighbours, don't you? I mean, it's quite hard to imagine having a full set of neighbours in Taiwan, and none of them being of the standard MIT noise-emitting variety.

Are you up there in Acer Park again, or across with Mr He and MJB in Yangmei?

Omni, I've never had noisy neighbors. In any of the apartments I've lived in. The loudest it gets here is when the old man upstairs coughs (he's actually quite sick), or when his choir comes to visit (he was the local minister). Never heard my downstairs neighbors, though the new people who across from me, separated by the canal, play the zither some nights.

But the ground floor neighbors do burn ghost paper a fair amount. There's always something.

[headhonchoII]

The cities in Taiwan can be incredibly noisy, and the countryside is better but also can be noisy. Hearingyour neighbors conversations and arguments (and assorted menagerie of animals) is the norm in many places. Then you've got indoor renovation, outdoor construction, garbage trucks, assorted promotional trucks, revving scooters, thin walls and ceilings in the newer places, early morning funerals, 2am fireworks, cockerels, stray dogs and cats, temple processions.

Ah yes, what that thing again called quiet? Quiet is something to be treasured.

Taichung is a lot quieter it has to be said, especially as the place I live in is only 1/3 occupied. Nice.

[Mucha Man]

The cities in Taiwan can be incredibly noisy, and the countryside is better but also can be noisy. Hearingyour neighbors conversations and arguments (and assorted menagerie of animals) is the norm in many places. Then you've got indoor renovation, outdoor construction, garbage trucks, assorted promotional trucks, revving scooters, thin walls and ceilings in the newer places, early morning funerals, 2am fireworks, cockerels, stray dogs and cats, temple processions.

Ah yes, what that thing again called quiet? Quiet is something to be treasured.

Taichung is a lot quieter it has to be said, especially as the place I live in is only 1/3 occupied. Nice.

All true. But I only ever lived in one place that was unbearably noisy, and that was across from an orphanage and high school. But neighbors, no. Never been bothered.

I guess though I always have an air filter or fan on for white noise so the little background noises disappear. I've always done this. All cities are noisy.

[TheGingerMan]

Out here in Gaoyuan, it is so damn quiet that I think I just heard a cricket fart.

You don't have noisy neighbours? Good lord!

Er, you do actually have neighbours, don't you? I mean, it's quite hard to imagine having a full set of neighbours in Taiwan, and none of them being of the standard MIT noise-emitting variety.

Are you up there in Acer Park again, or across with Mr He and MJB in Yangmei?

Crickey, good memory you have!
Back in Acer/Aspire park indeed I be now. Townhouse row, I know.
Sounds carry far here. Mostly piano or violin from me neighbours, though there is a mistreated daxhund that gets under my skin.
I for sure be the biggest noise polluter on my block, at times loud guitar, Monty Python skits or War Movies on me telly, vocal discipling of the younglings, and the odd time when I bring over some of the overseas famished players/dancers from Leofoo or Shao Long Guo for some sandwiches or a fry up.
All that is sporadic, as are my neighbours' karaoke.
We forgive each other, in the interest of our common perimetre.
It's been 4 years since I lived in the shitty, and quite frankly, I can't recall what it was like to sleep in that furnace fuckery.

[headhonchoII]

The cities in Taiwan can be incredibly noisy, and the countryside is better but also can be noisy. Hearingyour neighbors conversations and arguments (and assorted menagerie of animals) is the norm in many places. Then you've got indoor renovation, outdoor construction, garbage trucks, assorted promotional trucks, revving scooters, thin walls and ceilings in the newer places, early morning funerals, 2am fireworks, cockerels, stray dogs and cats, temple processions.

Ah yes, what that thing again called quiet? Quiet is something to be treasured.

Taichung is a lot quieter it has to be said, especially as the place I live in is only 1/3 occupied. Nice.

All true. But I only ever lived in one place that was unbearably noisy, and that was across from an orphanage and high school. But neighbors, no. Never been bothered.

I guess though I always have an air filter or fan on for white noise so the little background noises disappear. I've always done this. All cities are noisy.

All cities are noisy. And all tofu is equally stinky. Eh no.