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The best mix of price and quality of life I've found is Taipei, Taiwan. You can live very cheaply - cheap rent, the street food and convenience store food is re

The best mix of price and quality of life I've found is Taipei, Taiwan. You can live very cheaply - cheap rent, the street food and convenience store food is remarkably good, cheap transit, lots of cheap access to technology, nature, art in the city and surroundings. I was really blown away with the quality/price mix. I figure the government must be artificially keeping the Taiwan dollar down - I literally couldn't figure out any other explanation for why it'd be so cheap. The place is absolutely wonderful and I think has something to offer most people. I like Japan a lot, but Taiwan has 90% of the quality of the life, cleanliness, and conveniences at less than half the price. Worth checking out for anyone in the area, it's a city I could live in. They're also pretty liberal about giving living/working permits, long term touring visas if you can prove you have funds, or letting you visa run as much as you want. Only downside is that visa waiver is only 30 days, but there's short hops to lots of interesting places nearby if you want another 30 days. Taiwanese people are generally pretty welcoming and it's easy to make friends there, too - highly recommended.

mrtron 17y ago
Are you still there? I am going to be there later this year.
eugenejen 17y ago
Yes, the government tries to keep price down for exporters. The BigMac index shows the BigBac exchange rate of the New Taiwan Dollar is around 23 NTDs = 1 USD, but the official exchange rate for the moment is around 32 NTDs = 1 USD. The house price in Taipei can be as high as New York City in Xin Yi, DaAn districts. But generally the rent of an apartments in DaAn district for a 2000 sq ft doorman elevator building is around $1,600 to $2,000 USDs. There drawbacks to live in Taipe. Although English is taught in schools, people still have problems to communicate in English. To be able to live like locals, you need to be able to speak Mandarin or Taiwanese dialect well enough, and be able to read signs in Engrish and guess what authors meant.
etherael 17y ago
is Taipei behind the Great Firewall? What kind of price is normal for middle of the road livable apartment in a central location with a stable net connection and food / incidentals per month in your experience? For the record, Sydney figure in my experience is about 2.5k AUD per month, Tallinn figure in my experience is about 900 AUD.
- eugenejen 17y ago
  Taiwan is NOT RULED by China. There is no restriction to access Internet in Taiwan. But the bandwidth to U.S., Europe is limited due to number of undersea optical cables available. Once in a while the cable between Taiwan and Hong Kong or Japan was cut off by fishing fleet by accident, it usually takes weeks for bandwidth to resume to previous level.

mrtron 17y ago

Are you still there? I am going to be there later this year.

eugenejen 17y ago

Yes, the government tries to keep price down for exporters. The BigMac index shows the BigBac exchange rate of the New Taiwan Dollar is around 23 NTDs = 1 USD, but the official exchange rate for the moment is around 32 NTDs = 1 USD. The house price in Taipei can be as high as New York City in Xin Yi, DaAn districts. But generally the rent of an apartments in DaAn district for a 2000 sq ft doorman elevator building is around $1,600 to $2,000 USDs. There drawbacks to live in Taipe. Although English is taught in schools, people still have problems to communicate in English. To be able to live like locals, you need to be able to speak Mandarin or Taiwanese dialect well enough, and be able to read signs in Engrish and guess what authors meant.

etherael 17y ago

is Taipei behind the Great Firewall? What kind of price is normal for middle of the road livable apartment in a central location with a stable net connection and food / incidentals per month in your experience? For the record, Sydney figure in my experience is about 2.5k AUD per month, Tallinn figure in my experience is about 900 AUD.

eugenejen 17y ago
Taiwan is NOT RULED by China. There is no restriction to access Internet in Taiwan. But the bandwidth to U.S., Europe is limited due to number of undersea optical cables available. Once in a while the cable between Taiwan and Hong Kong or Japan was cut off by fishing fleet by accident, it usually takes weeks for bandwidth to resume to previous level.