Now that we have moved to another country I have a feeling that every new place we visit Jake and I will talk about if we think we could move there. We had that conversation in Taipei and Beijing and I'm guessing we will have it again in Amsterdam. Taipei was a maybe. It felt really safe, the weather was nice but the 13 hour time difference was hard. Beijing was a no. It was very busy and the smog really bothered me. Plus you can't access Facebook while in China. I realize that sounds really silly but Facebook has really helped me keep in touch with friends and family since we moved. I use Facebook chat daily to talk with friends. I'm glad we visited Beijing but I can't imagine living there.
Here are some of the similarities and differences between Taipei, Beijing and Stockholm.
Public Transportation
In Taipei the metro was very easy to use. It was actually easier to use than Stockholm for a couple of reasons. They had lots of information in English and thee exits for the metro were very easy to
figure out. There were maps and signs
telling you what exit you should take to get to different things.
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| This tells you what you can find at each exit. |
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| This map shows you the metro stop and then what is around the stop. I don't know why all cities with metros don't do this. It is so helpful! |
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| Another map with the metro centered on the map showing you what surrounds the metro station. The exits are also numbered on the map so you know which one to take and be on the correct part of the street. |
There were more exits our of metro stations in Taipei than in
Stockholm but the exits were easier to use.
I really wish Stockholm had maps or signs labeling which exit to use. There
was more security in Taipei at the metro stops than there is in Stockholm. In the bigger stations they usually had a
guard or two working making sure you followed the rules getting on and off the
metro. They had whistles that they would
blow when the doors were closing.
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| There were lines on the floor showing you where to line up to wait for the train. |
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| There were screens as you waited for the trains that told you how many minutes until the next train, the weather forecast, announcements, etc. |
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| They had priority seating on the metro if you are elderly, pregnant, with a child or disabled. You could even get a sticker to wear just so everyone knows that you get to sit in those seats :). I didn't see anyone wearing a sticker while we were there. |
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| The metros in Stockholm and Taipei were really quiet. Hardly anyone talks to each other and if they do it is usually pretty quiet. I haven't been on many metros in the US but I'm guessing they aren't as quiet. Maybe they should get a sign like this one. |
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| This isn't a great picture but inside each train was a map that lit up telling you which way the train was going and what station the train was heading towards. |
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| This picture is a little blurry but on the wall next to me is a flying squirrel :). |
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| One of the metro stations in Taipei. |
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| There are 17 metro lines in Beijing. There were only 2 metro lines before 2002. All of the rest have been added in the last 11 years. 10 Million people use it on average during the week. Riding the metro in Beijing was really stressful. There were times when people couldn't get on or off when they wanted too and they got split up from their group. After Jake and I saw that we decided to come up with a plan in case that happened to us. |
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| Beijing also had nice maps to show the exits. |
Every metro had public bathrooms you could use. I felt like there were bathrooms everywhere in Taipei. Some bathrooms even had a real time electronic board outside the restroom telling you which stalls were available and which ones were occupied. That seemed like a little much to me but I guess it is helpful. Stockholm is a different story. It is very hard to find a public bathroom in Stockholm and there are no signs telling you if they are available :). There were also breast feeding rooms at most metros in Taipei.
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| Women's restroom real time display. Seems like a little too much info but maybe some people find it helpful. |
The bathrooms in Taipei and Beijing were different. After seeing them I remembered hearing about
squatty potties at some time in my life but I didn't know they would be in Taipei That took a
little while to get used to. In Taipei
there were usually a few regular toilets in the public bathrooms but there weren't as many regular toilets in Beijing. If the public
toilet in Beijing was near a popular tourist destination then they might have
one or two but most of the time those weren't an option.
*I’m about to go into more detail than some might want to
read about toilets so skip the next two paragraphs if you don’t want to read about that :).
The stalls are really small for squatty
toilets and they tend to be really dirty, in my opinion. It could be that there are lots of people
using them who don’t know how to and therefore the floor is dirtier than normal
but I can’t figure out how the floor wouldn't get dirty even if you are used to
using them. By dirty I mean, it is covered in pee, either because someone missed or because it splashed out since
there really aren't any walls on the toilet.
The toilet is in the middle of the stall so you have to be careful when
you walk in that you don’t step into it.
I was always carrying a backpack so I had to go into the stall and turn
around carefully, without stepping in the toilet, and then hang up my backpack before
attempting to go to the bathroom. There
are places to put your feet on either side of the toilet but for a while I wasn't sure which way to face. I
eventually figured it out but even knowing which way to face didn't help much
since the toilet is directly in the middle of the stall and you don’t have much
room. Some stalls had a hand rail to
help you squat but most did not. I can’t
figure out how you are supposed to go to the bathroom without getting pee on
your shoes from the pee on the floor or if pee splatters out of the toilet.
(TMI, but I warned you.)
In Taipei and Beijing you don’t put your toilet paper in the
toilet. I have done that before when
traveling to Mexico but I didn't realize other countries did that too. There are trashcans
for toilet paper right next to the toilet.
In Taipei you were supplied with toilet paper but in Beijing you had to
bring your own. I didn't realize that and it took me a few times to realize that they don’t give you toilet paper; I
thought they were just always out.
Thankfully I always carry Kleenex with me. In Beijing and sometimes Taipei they usually
don’t have paper towels or anything to dry your hands after you use the
restroom which means the floors by the sink are usually really wet and that
bothered me. To sum up the bathroom situation, I liked how
available they were in Taipei and the ones there were typically really
clean. The ones in Beijing weren't very
clean and I definitely wished I was a boy a few times.
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| A Squatty Potty |
Taipei
I really enjoyed our time in Taipei. I felt very safe there. It was easy for me to walk around and explore
on my own. I never felt unsafe even at
night walking to meet Jake and his coworkers for dinner. It helped that one of his coworkers that
lives there reassured me that it was a really safe city to walk around in, even
at night by myself. We also bought a SIM
card for me for the week. It was about
$10 and I had a local phone number so I could text or call Jake at the Taiwan
office or on the cell phone they had for the week. Plus I also had internet on my phone which
really helped me to figure out what metro to take and where to meet Jake for
dinner. I don’t know what I would do
without technology sometimes.
I enjoyed most of the food we had in Taipei. In general, I am a very boring eater. I like to find my one favorite dish at each
restaurant and then I get that every time.
I like things to be predictable.
I like knowing what it is going to taste like before I get it, it helps me enjoy the food more. Jake couldn't be
more opposite of me when it comes to food. He hardly ever orders the same thing at a restaurant even if he loves it because there could be something else on the menu that is even better and he has to find it.
Before coming on this trip Jake mentioned that he was
worried for me about what food I would be eating. Jake is NOT a worrier. I can’t think of a time in the last almost 12
years of being together, that he has ever told me to worry about
something. One of his favorites sayings
when I tell him I am worried about something is, “Don’t worry about that, worry
about something else.” In fact, I thought he was joking when he told me to worry about the food and I just brushed it off. But as we were on the plane headed to Taipei
he mentioned it again. That is when it
really sank in with me, maybe I should be worried. I thought he was joking but it turns out he wasn't. Then I started to freak
out. I knew I liked Chinese food and I
thought I would be fine. Since it was a little too late to do anything about it I was just hoping I had packed enough granola bars, dried fruit and crackers to make it through the trip.
For most of the trip I was fine with the food we had. I started to struggle towards the end. When we were in Taipei Jake’s coworkers who
live in Taipei arranged our dinners every night. They picked a restaurant and made
reservations. They also took care of all
of the ordering. Sometimes they would
ask us what we would like to eat but most of the time they ordered before we even
realized it. I did let them know that I
don’t like fish or seafood. They were very kind and told me what each thing
was before I tried it so I didn't eat any fish.
We had lots of
different kinds of Taiwanese, Chinese, and Japanese food during our trip. For me, most of those types of food all get
lumped together as “Chinese food.” His
coworkers also enjoyed getting really traditional dishes, that even most
Taiwanese people don’t eat, just to have us try it and to see our
reactions. I got pretty tired of that
and didn't try most of it. Jake tried
pretty much everything we were offered during the trip. Towards the end of our week in Taipei I was
getting pretty worn out eating the same kind of food.
I felt like I was having the same thing every day for lunch and dinner for 10 days in a row.
When we went to Beijing we were on our own for picking the restaurants and ordering the food. Thankfully Tim, Jake’s coworker from Stockholm, who is half Chinese and half Swedish can speak and read the language. Some of the menus had English and were easy to order from but some didn't have any English at all. Tim would sometimes order for us or he would
ask what we wanted and then order it for us.
By the end of the trip I was done with Chinese food. I had more fried rice than I thought
possible in one week.
One of the things I really had a hard time understanding was
stinky tofu. It was really popular in
Taiwan but they also had it in Beijing.
It is tofu with the worst smell possible! Apparently, it tastes like regular tofu but
just smells awful. Lots of people sell
food along the street in both Taiwan and Beijing and you can always tell if
stinky tofu is available. It made me
lose my appetite so quickly. Tim had it a couple of times and Jake had it once. I tried to stay upwind when they were eating that.
In Beijing kids wear diapers until they are one and then they wear
pants with a split in the middle so they can squat to go to the bathroom whenever they need to. While we were eating dinner one night a kid squatted on the sidewalk and just started peeing. I'm not sure how common that is but I did see several kids with splits in their pants. I realize the split pants must be normal for their culture but it took me by surprise seeing little kids with their private parts hanging out of their pants.
One not so pleasant habit we noticed in Beijing was how much they spit. You could be walking down the street and someone would just hock a loogie. We heard this multiple times a day. At least 15 times in a day you would hear that while walking around. I did not handle that well.
Stores
In Taipei and Beijing stores were open so much later than they are in Stockholm. In Stockholm stores close anywhere between 4 pm and some are open until 8 pm. On the weekends they close even earlier. When Jake and I first moved to Stockholm we had a really hard time getting things done after Jake got home from work since store close so early. In Taipei and Beijing stores were open all hours of the day and night. I'm not sure some of them even close. In Taipei stores typically open at 10 or 11 am and then close at 10 or 11 pm. In Beijing it looked like most people who owned stores also lived in their store, or maybe behind their store. Tim told us that people will stay there all day and night and just sleep when they don't have customers and then wake up when someone walks in. We saw people getting haircuts at 7 am and 11:30 pm. On our last night in Beijing we tried to get a foot massage after dinner. We started walking around to different spas around 9:30 pm on a Sunday night. We found a place we liked but we couldn't get a massage until 10:30 pm because they were booked until then.
I did a blog post after moving about people speaking English in Stockholm. Even though pretty much everyone speaks English there isn't much written in English. Menus, signs, and metro information is almost always in Swedish. In Taipei and Beijing they have English on most menus, signs and in metro stops however very few people speak English there. That was really confusing. Since I was reading so much English I would forget they didn't speak the language and I would go up to people and start asking questions before I realized they couldn't understand anything I was saying. I think I prefer traveling with people who can speak English over having it in writing. Thankfully Tim was with us and he could help translate things that would couldn't figure out on our own.
Hope you enjoyed reading all about our time in Taipei and Beijing. We are heading to Amsterdam next!
