Friday, February 27, 2015

So now I am back home. These are just a few things I learned about Taiwan during my visit:


  • Every you do is on camera! Everything. You don't see a lot of police,  but you don't need to because the law is enforced on camera. If you speed, your license plate is recorded and a ticket is mailed. If you par in a parking spot, you don't feed a meter. Someone comes around and stamps a ticket on your window, and a photo is taken of your plate. If they come around again, they stamp the next time slot. When you leave you take the ticket to 7-11 and pay for your parking. If they don't come around to that street while you are there, then you just parked for free.
  • When you buy something, the price marked, is the price you pay. When you go to a restaurant and pay for a meal, it includes everything. Food, taxes, and servers wage. No tipping is required for anything. This has been a huge issue for me here in the US. I've always felt the establishment should pay the servers wage instead of the patron. 
  • Garbage is a huge problem with all those people. Napkins, paper towels, and toilet paper are not always provided. When they are, they are provided very cautiously. A great example of this is toilet paper. Public restrooms are everywhere. Toilet paper is generally on a roll outside the stalls. One roll for all the stalls. You take what you need in with you because you won't get any inside. 
  • Bags work the same way. If you go to the 7-11 and don't take your own bag, you will pay $1 for a small bag and $2 for a larger bag. A lot of places do the same thing.
  • There are no soda refills. The soda in a restaurant comes covered with a sealed plastic lid. There is no place to refill it even if you could get the old off. 
  • Every where you go people are genuinely grateful that you used their service or purchased what they were selling. They are very attentive and helpful. I always heard thank you, and people bow to you. They don't bow heavily, but they bow and thank you. Everyone from the food vendor on the street, to the taxi driver, to the hotel worker, to the clothing sales clerk, to the government employee handling your affair. They are all very respectful, and always bow and thank you. 
  • They don't cook eggs very well, and they don't have traditional bacon. It really is the only thing I missed while I was gone, and the first meal I ate today. 

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