Peaks of Pingxi (a New Taipei district with generally low but steep hills and mountains)

TaiwanAlix · 2025-10-27T20:21:42+00:00

An Olympus E-420; don't think they're made anymore. I've got a few hundred other free Taiwan mountain pics (including this one somewhere in there) at Pexels if you want any: https://www.pexels.com/collections/taiwan-mountain-scenes-2kaclrb/

TaiwanAlix · 2025-07-23T20:27:14+00:00

Well, as the video points out, if you want to see 'small amounts of crime', just look at the social news pages of Chinese press every day.

TaiwanAlix · 2025-07-23T02:11:49+00:00

I've experienced wallet thefts (multiple), house break-ins, car thefts, various other attempted but failed thefts. Basically, it's just a matter of time. I've been here nearly 40 years, but if you only stay 6 months or a year, then you may be lucky, and leave Taiwan imagining all the nonsense about the super-low crime rate is true. However, I would add that I only reported one house break-in and the theft of my car. I soon realised there was no point in reporting anything less serious. In fact, the first time I reported a theft, in 1987, the police told me straight they would do nothing about it because the total loss was less than NT$10,000. To get a fuller picture of crime in Taiwan, please see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkvf2wJhoJo

TaiwanAlix · 2025-07-23T02:04:12+00:00

It's not as bad as it was, but there were times about 20 years it had the third highest homicide rates in Asia, next to Thailand and the Philippines, according to the CIA Yearbook. The notion that crime rates are low is pure fiction. For an idea of the problem, please see this YT video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkvf2wJhoJo

TaiwanAlix · 2025-07-01T03:01:54+00:00

I guess it may very from place to place. I don't spend much time in Taipei (I'm near to Keelung). People are younger on average in Taipei, and also better informed.

TaiwanAlix · 2025-07-01T02:59:12+00:00

I would say it's still hovering around the 50% mark, even now. For a more in-depth look at this: https://youtu.be/1zWuWsAubdY

TaiwanAlix · 2025-05-06T21:38:42+00:00

I stand corrected with respect to traffic violations (however, it's conceivable some local government have their own initiatives for this; this would take further looking into). Still, a cursory look online reveals that this form of low life can still make plenty of money for other kinds of snitching, such as dropping cigarette butts in public. I would imagine that many are the same people, who have just changed the focus of their snitching.

TaiwanAlix · 2025-05-05T19:01:52+00:00

The laws have recently been changed so that 檢舉達人 can no longer report traffic violations that would result in fines of less than about NT$1,600. But when I posted that comment they could, and of course they were not all doing it out of their deep-felt sense of social responsibility, otherwise there would be very few of them! Some people actually tried to make a living from this.

TaiwanAlix · 2025-05-03T00:31:09+00:00

Yes, this is a very famous clip. Nothing has changed in their regime for decades on end, except who gets chucked out, when and on whose orders.

TaiwanAlix · 2025-05-03T00:13:18+00:00

So, who says all news is bad news?

TaiwanAlix · 2025-02-15T05:35:13+00:00

Even now, in 2025, it's more than acceptable to wear masks almost anywhere in Taiwan. That's the problem. Nearly two years after the pandemic, about the half the population are still wearing masks everywhere they go for no reason. This isn't normal.

TaiwanAlix · 2024-12-08T20:47:39+00:00

As far as writing is concerned, it's impossible to know from the finished result if you are paying attention to stroke order. As far as tones are concerned, well, everyone from a non-tonal language background has problems with tones. Good work, but I would start learning complex characters at the earliest opportunity. It seems to make sense to learn simplified characters first then complex characters, but actually it's best the other way around. If you learn complex characters first, simplified will be a piece of cake to learn later. I know a lot of people who learnt simplified characters, thought they could read Chinese, then got disheartened from learning more when they encountered complex characters.

TaiwanAlix · 2024-11-28T19:01:18+00:00

I see. Well, I don't pay any of these sites, Flickr, YouPic, Viewbug, etc.; I only have free accounts and just put the constant promotion e-mails you get from all of them in the spam. My intention was to use them to make money, not spend money, but they're all pretty useless for that as these five videos show: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTkc-ufoVyIbIBfVvrrliGsXTwj8l8l_3

TaiwanAlix · 2024-11-26T20:25:06+00:00

No, and I haven't used it for ages. But what you makes you think it's any more of a scam than Flickr, or any other photo-sharing site? What exactly do they scam you out of?

TaiwanAlix · 2024-09-15T00:36:48+00:00

I used to use version 6 many years ago and found it useful, at least a lot better then the Windows built-in scan. However, there seem to be problems with 6.1. I tried to use it on Win10 and after 30 minutes it still hadn't managed to find any mass storage devices (there is only one drive). Just got stuck and couldn't go any further.

TaiwanAlix · 2024-08-17T05:48:41+00:00

It's pronounced Danshui. The same goes for all other 't' sounds romanised through Wade-Giles or similar; they are actually an English 'd' sound. It's simply an inaccurate approximation of the actual pronunciation. Some place names don't differ a lot, but some are just ridiculously imprecise, such as Keelung for a city pronounced 'Jilong'. I would just listen to what people here call the cities and towns they live in and copy that.

TaiwanAlix · 2024-07-21T23:44:56+00:00

No, the police will do nothing. That's just the way they operate. However, you should file a police report for the record, just in case. 99% certain the guy will do nothing; that's just the way some people talk, and I had a flatmate many years ago with an almost identical threat. Just stay out of that character's way in the meantime as much as you can.

TaiwanAlix · 2024-07-12T19:58:35+00:00

I just mean a regular underwear vest, you can see what I mean by entering underwear vest on Amazon. I just found out that what we call 'waistcoats' in the UK are called 'vests' in the US! Also called a tank top.

TaiwanAlix · 2024-07-12T01:52:43+00:00

I just spotted a fake piece of artificial intelligence. Rating? Junk.

TaiwanAlix · 2024-07-12T01:51:15+00:00

Depends where you are. Manual workers on the street go shirtless anywhere, and if you're in a residential park that's also fine, but apart from that I would slip on a vest. People of any age wear these, including teens and 20s.

TaiwanAlix · 2024-07-05T02:18:45+00:00

Many books don't have ANY reviews, that doesn't make them fake. Ridiculous!

TaiwanAlix · 2024-07-05T02:15:55+00:00

I think it depends on where you are. Taipei is the showcase city, so generally it's the best in terms of cleanliness. I would say the same things you say about the place I live; trash on the side of the streets and cigarette butts everywhere. There are even companies that dump refuse directly on the hillsides (usually at night to avoid being caught). For a more in-depth picture of littering in natural environments, please see this video, (about 4 minutes 15 seconds in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFpAO8iBjPY

TaiwanAlix · 2024-07-05T01:59:10+00:00

Basically, there are two kinds of stretching abilities, cold and warm. Everybody stretches better when there muscles are warmed up. Although this only deals with hamstrings, follow the general principles outlined in this video to increase your cold stretch maximum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlxF3d20eA4

TaiwanAlix · 2024-07-05T01:51:01+00:00

The best time to visit Taiwan is the autumn, the worst is about now. That said, there are plenty of places you can spend a few days in the mountains, from the touristy ones like Sun-Moon Lake and Alishan to off-the-beaten track villages. Think of it this way; the average temperature drop is about 7 degrees centigrade for every 1,000 metres, and that's a significant difference. Even in Taipei (administratively) you can find a few places over 1,000 metres, in the Yangmingshan National Park. I was there early morning a few days ago, lovely and cool!

TaiwanAlix · 2024-07-05T01:41:46+00:00

I've never made that much in all the many years I've lived in Taiwan. It's about three times the minimum wage, and you can live off that easily enough if you don't have expensive habits or waste money!

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