One trait that Taiwanese people seem to desire a lot is convenience. When I tell people I live near Guting MRT station but my university is near Jiantan MRT station they’ll tell me how horrible that is because “it’s not very convenient.” I explain that it’s because Emily goes to a university near Guting. In reality though the distance is still only about 20 minutes by scooter when it’s not rush-hour which, to me, is still pretty good.
The desire for convenience by her residents gives Taipei some wonderful features. Lets take me and Emily for example. Our house is right in the middle of the city. We are three blocks from the MRT: Taipei’s ‘subway.’ On our block we have multiple convenience stores, bus stops, our preferred scooter shop, a dry-cleaners, not too mention a bicycle store which has proven to be very useful as the air in my tires is always running low. Three blocks away are electronic stores, a grocery, Starbucks, McDonald’s, and a lot, lot more. 5 blocks away you hit Emily’s school and two more past that brings you to the Shida Night Market and some of the best restaurants in the city! I haven’t even mentioned that we are just a few blocks from several parks including the River Park system that goes on for miles following Taipei’s various riverbanks.
You know how in American cities you have to drive out to the suburbs to go to Wal-Mart or Home Depot or any of those big box stores? Here in Taipei we are about 10 minutes by scooter from Carrefour (a French version of Wal-Mart), 20 minutes from B&Q (basically Home Depot with a different name), and while we have never gone 20 minutes would also bring us to Costco.
One of the uniquenesses of Taipei is how small, geographically speaking, it is. It’s actually one of the most densely populated places on earth in terms of per-square-inch with a population of 8 million (I think). While dense population does present some down-sides I really like how “convenient” my city is!
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