

Ask HN: Moving to Taiwan - Sared

Hello,<p>I live in a large North American city and I'm in my early 30's. I manage a team of talented web developers. I've worked hard and have achieved a lot of successes. I feel I'm at the top of my game, so to speak. My focus, productivity, creativity and drive are at an all time high.<p>I have a great relationship with my wife. She has never been completely satisfied with the North American lifestyle - she is a traveler at heart. She wants us to travel to Taiwan for a year or two. <p>To be honest, I am scared. This is a major life change involving leaving my job and starting over by bootstrapping a startup in a new land. I recognize that traveling and living abroad is a tremendously rewarding experience, but  I feel all the security, contacts and reputation I have worked hard over the years to build will be lost.<p>Has anyone made a major move like that? I'd appreciate any advise you have to offer.
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friendstock
We moved our startup from Mountain View to Taipei: <http://cardinalblue.com>

Please contact me at john at cardinalblue dot com

There _is_ an active startup community with various activities (e.g. HTML5,
Mobile Monday, Ruby Tuesday, AppWorks mixer).

It will help if you speak Chinese... or are willing to learn... but everyone
in technology can speak English ok. Overall, Taiwan is a very friendly
environment with some interesting technology development located here (e.g.
Asus, Acer, HTC, Yahoo Asia HQ, Google Android).

As for the city, it's very safe, has good restaurants and the MRT (subway) is
very clean and convenient. It's definitely not a bad place to spend a year or
two.

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mc32
As others have said, Taiwan is very foreigner friendly -moreso if you are
willing to Learn Mandarin (it's cheap), albeit with a TW accent. If you move
to the south, then Taiwanese is also important, but you can get by with
Chinese. English does not go far beyond foreign bars and western companies.

Couple of things. In the north the weather can be miserable in winter
--humid/rainy and cold. It hardly drops to freezing, but it's bone chilling.
In the south you have to think about pollution. It's really bad and it's
dreadfully hot in the summer --I mean intolerably hot (most of the time it's
ok b/c you're indoors with AC, but once you step outside you get drenched
within a minute. There's an expression for respiratory problems people might
develop in the industrial south "Kaohsiung Lung" for a kind of cough which
some people develop in response to the pollution.

Some good things, taxes are quite reasonable. People are friendly and most
things are relatively cheap -unless you are looking at Japanese and Western
products, then they are expensive. You can drive w/o a license pretty much
without repercussions, but if you're staying long, go thru the process, it's
worth it. Healthcare, it's taken care of for you when you get a job. Co-pay is
ridiculously low. Procedures are low. The medicine is pretty much up to
standard, but realize most hospitals are privately owned by millionaires. Food
is abundant and available at all hours of the day and night -for cheap. Again,
unless you are looking for excellent Japanese or Western food, then you pay.
Utilities are cheap. While apartments and condos are great, houses are weird.
They are these weird 4 to 6 story very narrow monstrosities with very bad
usability design, in my opinion. Government offices, from my experiences were
very efficient --nothing required hour waits nor return visits (unless you
forget a document). Documents are simple --but you need to understand Chinese
of have someone help you).

Housing is cheap, unless you need to live in a "western compound" then it gets
expensive.

Other bad things: traffic. Unless you can use the MRT (in Kaohsiung or Taipei)
you will have to ride a scooter (or drive a car). Don't get into an accident.
You will most likely have to pay a settlement fee -esp being a foreigner.
There is no "central heating" so get used to cold winters in TPE. You run out
of places to visit quite soon, so you might have to hop over to Japan. Driving
is kind of ruleless. Well, they have rules but most people ignore them so it's
very chaotic. There are no sidewalks. It looks like they exist, but they
don't. What look like sidewalks are actually private property, most of the
time used for scooter parking or for business fronts. The "sidewalk" are the
actual streets --but since they are the street proper, they are dangerous
--which is why people ride scooters for a half block errand (it seemed
ridiculous at first, but it makes sense as you will earn).

Crime exists but for the most part, it's hidden from westerners --just don't
try to pick up or look at a gangster's GF or whatever and you'll be ok
-however, this is unlikely to happen, unless you go to "local
bars"/KTVs/Touch-touch places as opposed to foreigner bars. "Gangsters" sport
tattoos, short hair and some chew betel nut (bing lan). Guns are few, but
knives are plentiful.

Good luck.

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bendmorris
I lived in Taiwan for two years and loved it; we just visited again this
summer. It's a very foreigner-friendly place, and you'll be able to get by
well, even if you don't speak Chinese - although I'd suggest learning,
especially to read menus if you want to eat something other than McDonald's or
TGI Friday's. Also, taxi drivers will love you if you can chat about their
kids in Mandarin during the trip.

If you're looking at Taipei, take a look at Tianmu (which is part of Shilin
district - there's a Tianmu rail station) - it's the North American expat
capital of Taiwan, and you can find just about anything you'd miss elsewhere,
such as Mountain Dew. If you have kids, there's also an excellent "American
school" there, though I understand it's pricey.

If you're not used to humidity and heat, you may have a tough time at first -
the humidity is very intense, especially when it gets hot in the summer.

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bobds
You should first ask to see whether you can keep your job and work remotely.

If you haven't been to Taiwan, don't plan for a year. Go for a month. If it's
good, stay. If not, move to next destination.

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tkcombinator
I agree, Taiwan is an excellent place to move and run a startup. I moved to
Kaohsiung in Southern Taiwan 1 year ago. The cost of living is very low, the
people love Westerners, and it's very safe. Not to mention that the weather is
very good all year around.

Taiwan is also a great place to learn Mandarin as it's cheap, and the accent
is very nice. Hong Kong and Singapore are not bad options, but Taiwan is
cheaper.

I manage a Kaohsiung City Guide; <http://travelkaohsiung.com> which has nice
pictures and guides for people thinking of coming to here.

I do like Taipei, but to draw a comparison, Taipei is bustling like New York,
whereas Kaohsiung is more laid back like LA.

