How Much is a Good Location Worth?
January 15th, 2006 by MarkI’ve written a bit about how much I’ve been enjoying my new job. My ideas are respected, I’m happy with the progress of my students, and I can see that I’m clearly improving the lives of many young people. But what about the downsides? Well, the biggest downside by far, is that I live in 龜山. It’s actually got a bigger population than the town where I grew up, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. Since it’s a suburb and it’s only about 40 minutes away from 台北, all of the interesting people, activities and businesses go there. Here are the problems:
- There aren’t any Chinese schools for foreigners.
- There aren’t any movie theaters.
- There aren’t any gyms.
- There aren’t any 大賣場s.
- The public transportaion here is worse than where I used to live in the states. And that’s pretty bad.
- Tortillas, cheese (excluding processed and pre-wrapped), and hearty wheat breads are not for sale here.
- A friend from out of town was actually able to find out where I live by asking people on the street if they knew of a white guy with a goatee.
Now, I’m not saying I’d love to live in a HUGE city like 上海, or 北京. But, they would definitely be preferable to this. Ideally, I think I’d prefer a medium-sized city. Some place like 台中, 哈爾濱, 杭州.
All in all things, are better for me here in Guīshān than they were in Táibĕi, due to my job. But if I could have exactly the same job in one of those cities above, I’d do it for 15% less money.
What makes the perfect city to live in, and how much is it worth to you?
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January 15th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
HAHAAHH! When I first came to Japan, I lived in a school controlled apartment. It wasn’t really a dorm, but an apartment the school rented and then we paid the rent to the school. There where 4 other Americans (3 white guys and 1 Korean girl) living in the same building. Since we came at the same time we hung out quite a bit the first few weeks until we all got ourselves established.
The three other guys all lived in one apartment and I was in the place next door and the girl was another door down, so we pretty much all gathered at the guys’ room from about 5 o’clock in the morning (for some reason when you go to Japan, there is no jet lag, but there is no desire to sleep either). We pretty much ate 3 meals a day at 7-Eleven. One morning I got up and went next door, and no one was home. I went to girls room, and she was gone too. Not knowing what to do, I went to 7-Eleven and asked if they’d seen the ‘gaijin’. After confirming with the other staff, she said no, not since dinner last night.
I didn’t find them until later in the day, they had gone to school for some lame reason. But I always thought it was funny how I could just go to the store and ask for the gaijin, and everyone knew who I was talking about.
January 16th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
“But if I could have exactly the same job in one of those cities above, I’d do it for 15% less money.”
But I think will be faced with a new problem: how to live decently in those big & expensive cities with 15% less money?
January 16th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
With a 15% cut I’d still be making double what I did in Táibĕi. I live where I do because there’s a job here that is very rewarding financially and personally.
January 17th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
I like Taipei a lot. Taichung seemed really nice, the area around the people’s park especially, but it had a expat holiday camp feel, various parts at least. Taipei has a lot going on, a lot of options. It’s easy to build the kind of life you want, selecting neighbourhoods and friendships - plus having lots of cafes to escape into.
Taipei feels fairly small to me, coming from London. I am constantly ambivalent about the true big city. Always money and energy run out before you can experience everything the city has to offer, and somehow I always feel I’ve failed.
PS The live preview really slows down typing, at least for me.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Guishan, eh. Well, Gene is applying for atleast one job in Jungli, which is also supposed to be somewhat lacking in the things to do department. I’m really hoping that is doesn’t come to that though.
And yes. I hate the live preview.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
Really? Wow. I’ve never had any bad experiences with live preview and I’ve used if from a lot of computers. Is it causing my page to freeze or something? Is it a bandwidth issue? Can you give me a some more details?
Zhongli (assuming that’s where you mean) city isn’t nearly as bad as Guishan, but it’s not the easiest for new foreigners. I’d recommend either Tainan or Taizhong. There, you can get a big apartment, things are cheap, traffic’s not too bad, but you can still go to movies, gyms, Chinese schools, western restaurants, etc…
January 17th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
It makes the words appear verrry slowly. No freezing, just like you’re typing at half speed. Not sure about bandwidth, I’m on wireless in a cafe.
January 18th, 2006 at 3:04 am
Yep. No freezing. But if you are a fast typer you will notice a tiny but noticable lag. Unless it is just the psychological effect of waiting to process the live preview before one feels like one can keep typing.
Tainan and Taizhong are not an option for me because my mom is in Taipei and it will make her too sad if I move to Taiwan but still can’t be closer to her. Ideally, I would like to be about 40min to an hour away — close enough to be there for her when she needs me and not so close that I would feel obliged to go dinner all the time.
January 18th, 2006 at 5:10 am
Ok. I’m not too worried, then. I out-type the preview, too. Lot’s of people like it, since they can make sure their links work before they submit and they don’t have to wait for previews to load. I got the suggestion of using it from TCC readers. I had been afraid that it was taking you guys a minute per sentence or something like that because of some horrible lag.
Hmm, that’s tough. If I could live anywhere within a one hour radius of Taibei, I’d just live in the city itself. If Danshui’s far enough for your tastes, it would be great since you’d have MRT access. Barring that, I’d say your best bet is Taoyuan city. If you can’t do that, then go near the train station in “downtown” Zhongli. Otherwise… well, your boyfriend just may go bonkers.
January 18th, 2006 at 11:02 am
I got over the preview problem by scrolling the window so that the preview is not visible as I type. The lag is still there, but it’s a lot less annoying.
My boyfriend might even get more bonkers if we have to see my mom all the time…
Seriously though. At this point I think it’s all to do with where he can get the best job.