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Hey folks,
this might be an odd question to ask on a ‘Chengdu-Board’, but i would like some thoughts on this, especially if someone has experience with both places. (If not i will probably at least end up with a teasing list of the advantages and general pro’s of living in Chengdu).
I have the chance to live either in Chengdu or Taipei for 6 Month ( 03.2014-09.2014 ). Both places look very interresting to me and since i haven’t been to any of them, i am kind of undecided on where to go. I want to go there to study mandarin btw.
[Before that, i will be in Henan for 6 Months]
Thanks for your thoughts, sorry for my english 😀
Taipei. Not a question. From someone who has lived in Chengdu for 3 years and been to Taipei quite a few times there is really no comparison. Taipei is an incredibly beautiful city filled with meticulously manicured parks, mom and pop dumpling houses, temples, etc…
Yes, Chengdu has its charm, but you have to be patient and search for it.
Taipei is a great place to learn Mandarin. They speak slow and clear. My husband and I found Taiwanese people to be polite and patient. We had a taxi driver go out of his way to get us the most tasty pineapple on the way to the airport. He did this to show how proud he is of his country with no hidden agenda to get extra money.
Taipei has retained its culture and is a perfect example of how wonderful China could have been. Taiwan is more like Japan than China.
Live in Taipei visit Chengdu.
As a Native Chengdu citizen, here comes my suggestions.
Chengdu is not a place where you can practice Mandarin ideally as we speak dialect that is somewhat like Scotish to RP. However, People in Taipei speak Mandarin indead, yet signicicantly differentiated from that of mainland china’s version in terms of the style, softness with an awful lot of expressions from Minnan dialect we could hardly understand… Anyway, Taiwan accent makes boys sound less masculine and girls more feminine.
Both places have a reputation of great food.
Gor for Taipei..
Travel around Chengdu ..
im from taipei, and for a foreigner… you will fit right in. there are real toilets (whereas in chengdu its all squatting) there are traffic rules (in chengdu u can pretty much drive like anything) and also the food is not spicy where as in chengdu u either need to pay more or search for non spicy food.
also Mandarin is the spoken language in taipei where as in chengdu all the folks speak sichuan hua which is completely different from manderin.
but if you’re adventurous enough and up for a safari adventure chengdu is the place for you!!
if you never lived in a chinese country, go for taipei… then u can make a seamless transition into china with ease. well at least that’s what i did.
attached is a picture of taipei101… hope u like it
Hey Guys and Girls,
thank you all for you kind and detailed replys, i really appreciate it! I am honestly suprised by the big praise of Taipei 🙂 I am kind of relieved to hear this as well, for i just found out there might be some trouble if i would like to get a 6 Month Students-Visa for Chengdu after i have been in Henan for 6 Month, if i don’t fly back to Germany and apply from there (not even HongKong will work out).
Many thanks to all of you!
Yeah I’m making an exploratory trip in November, just as my visa expires.
One thing: a student said that in Taiwan they don’t use pinyin. Is that true? That would make it tough with things like street signs etc….I only hear good stuff about this place.Yeah I’m making an exploratory trip in November, just as my visa expires.
One thing: a student said that in Taiwan they don’t use pinyin. Is that true? That would make it tough with things like street signs etc….I only hear good stuff about this place.It’s true, they have more indigenous Cangjie instead of Pinyin. but to my knowledge they do also have a criteria of transliteration which actually is easier for english speakers to pronounce.
Taiwan uses the Bopomofo system, much closer to the the Japanese Kana system to teach pronunication. I’ve been told that it is much more accurate and pure then pinyin, but is still influenced by the Taiwan accent, which is far more clear then here on the mainland. As for all of the names, it is annoying because they use the Wades-Giles system. It shouldn’t be a problem if you know the characters though.
Since you will only stay for 6 months, go to Taiwan. I’ve been here in Chengdu for about a year, and it was hard to intergrated into the city at first.
Taiwan is China, but a different China. But just because it is historically and culturally China doesn’t mean they should give up their current sovereignty.
Taiwan is an amazing coun…erm…place. Lived there for 3 years before coming to chengdu.
Paul is right about bopomofo, its the way the children learn at school. If you are going to a school or uni to learn chinese they will teach standard pinyin. Paul is also right about how annoying that Wades-Giles system is. For example taipei = taibei in pinyin, kaohsiung = gao xiong.
You’ll find life a lot easier in Taipei than you will in chengdu.
It shouldn’t be a problem if you know the characters though.
They use traditional characters in Taiwan versus simplified here.
Taiwan is China, but a different China. But just because it is historically and culturally China doesn’t mean they should give up their current sovereignty.
I meant their modern society and culture is very different from that of mainland China. Taiwan is as much China as HK is.
I meant their modern society and culture is very different from that of mainland China. Taiwan is as much China as HK is.
Speaking in political terms Hong Kong is unquestionably China and there is no dispute over that. Taiwan, on the other hand, has been politically independent in almost every respect for more than half a century.
Speaking in political terms Hong Kong is unquestionably China and there is no dispute over that. Taiwan, on the other hand, has been politically independent in almost every respect for more than half a century.
At the risk of turning this to turn into a Hong Kong debate…
There is no doubt that HK “belongs” to China. However, British passport holders can turn up at Hong Kong and get a 180 day visa without question or prior notice. I’ve been told that mainland Chinese don’t have this luxury. This says very much about how Chinese it is politically speaking.
It isn’t hard to switch between the two character systems. If you have a high level, then after a couple of weeks it shouldn’t be a problem since you will be constantly exposed to them and thus forced to recall them far more often. I’m not having a problem learning them on my own here.
At the risk of turning this to turn into a Hong Kong debate… There is no doubt that HK “belongs” to China. However, British passport holders can turn up at Hong Kong and get a 180 day visa without question or prior notice. I’ve been told that mainland Chinese don’t have this luxury. This says very much about how Chinese it is politically speaking.
Oh no doubt, the list of societal differences between the Mainland and Hong Kong is enormous: education, politics, immigration, healthcare, employment, etc. In practical terms, it is like two different countries (like Taiwan) but that will probably come to an end, which is tragic. The rights being upheld (and slowly taken away in the midst of constant protests) in Hong Kong are managed by the Mainland, as Hong Kong is clearly and officially their territory. It’s less clear with Taiwan.
Taiwan’s immigration policy makes perfect sense: they don’t want millions of Mainlanders taking over the island. Hong Kong is in the exact same situation. In Hong Kong they commonly refer to Mainlands as dogs and locusts. The cultural split isn’t as extreme as North Korea and South Korea, but I don’t think it’s totally off base to compare it to that.
What is interesting is that before recent years, both Taiwan and Hong Kong felt loyalty to “China”, but a different China, the old one.
With the rise of the Mainland as political and economic world power, it is increasingly making it that loyalty and love of “China”, be it the vast history and cultural legacy of the thousands of years of dynastic rule or not, also means loyalty to Beijing; Beijing, not Hong Kong or Taiwan, is the sole inheritor of the 5,000 years of cultural history, or in the historical perspective, the 天命。Because of the increasingly closer connection that is being viewed by the world between the two ideas, that is why more Taiwanese and Hong Kongers are refraining from identifying themselves as first Chinese (if they do at all), which wasn’t so in the past.
The difference between Chengdu and Taipei is like that between Spain and Germany. Taipei is more civilized. e.g. Chengdu people drive without any rule, poeple stand randomly on escalator…
I complained the impoliteness of Shanghainess. But actually Shanghai is much better than Chengdu, it’s in the middle of Chengdu and Taipei.
Bu Chengdu does have its own attractive features. Maybe because of it is not well organized, it can creat so may delicious food. And here people enjoy their life better than Shanghai.
As a Native Chengdu citizen, here comes my suggestions.
Chengdu is not a place where you can practice Mandarin ideally as we speak dialect that is somewhat like Scotish to RP. However, People in Taipei speak Mandarin indead, yet signicicantly differentiated from that of mainland china’s version in terms of the style, softness with an awful lot of expressions from Minnan dialect we could hardly understand… Anyway, Taiwan accent makes boys sound less masculine and girls more feminine.
Both places have a reputation of great food.
Gor for Taipei..
Travel around Chengdu ..
Taipei. Not a question. From someone who has lived in Chengdu for 3 years and been to Taipei quite a few times there is really no comparison. Taipei is an incredibly beautiful city filled with meticulously manicured parks, mom and pop dumpling houses, temples, etc…
Yes, Chengdu has its charm, but you have to be patient and search for it.
Taipei is a great place to learn Mandarin. They speak slow and clear. My husband and I found Taiwanese people to be polite and patient. We had a taxi driver go out of his way to get us the most tasty pineapple on the way to the airport. He did this to show how proud he is of his country with no hidden agenda to get extra money.
Taipei has retained its culture and is a perfect example of how wonderful China could have been. Taiwan is more like Japan than China.
Live in Taipei visit Chengdu.
I really do not understand why you still live in Chengdu then, maybe you should just move in Taipei. Sometimes, I feel like if you cannot find the beauty of a city more than really long time, it is you lack of the function of the discovery, I feel sorry for you.
I really do not understand why you still live in Chengdu then, maybe you should just move in Taipei. Sometimes, I feel like if you cannot find the beauty of a city more than really long time, it is you lack of the function of the discovery, I feel sorry for you.
You perfectly define why Chengdu, in some important ways, is so far behind places like Hong Kong and Taiwan. You have been indoctrinated to tow a line of ignorance, intolerance, and rejection of ideas which conflict with your own. Fortunately, for every hopelessly backwards person like yourself I find there are many more upstanding and good-hearted people in Chengdu that I know we have all met.
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