T'ai-chung Travel Guide

Be sure, when handing over important documents or money to someone, you use both hands.

Ah, Taichung (pronounced Tai-jong) is supposedly a city in the country (because you can see the odd rice paddy between sky-scrapers =). The night markets are a wonderful place to look for anything from food to clothes and you can get almost anything at the 10NT stall! Keep in mind that each night market has its own time slots i.e. they are only to be found on certain days of the week. Bingshas (fruit + ice + milk) are fabulous in general, although mangua bingsha (mango) are my favourite! Traffic in Taiwan is CRAZY!!! Be sure to look both ways when crossing a one-way street. ALWAYS look both ways before crossing a green traffic light and be prepared to make way for busses, taxis, etc trying to push into the scooter lane... Mostly, as a foreigner, you will have people staring at you or running up to you and trying the only English sentence they know: "How are you?". If you are black, be prepared for extreme reactions from adults and children alike (in Taoism, ghosts are presumed to be black and seeing as they almost never see a black person, they will automatically asume you are a ghost). There are a couple of English churches in Taichung and you might find both foreigners and Chinese people, who want to practice their English. If you are going as an English teacher, you should know that the principal is most likely going to be a woman - she usually hates her authority or orders being questioned. If you know anything about teaching, you might as well chuck it out the window because you do what they say, full stop. Also, if you can speak in an American accent, you're golden (even if you're British - to the Taiwanese being American is the closest thing to perfection =).

A city full of nice surprises if you're prepared to walk around, especially after dark. Very safe and very easy to select a good meal without wondering what you've actually ordered (which, compared to the rest of Taiwan outside Taipei, and after a nationwide 3-week tour, was a very welcome thing indeed...)