Youbike

Getting around in Taipei is really easy. One can use the extensive subway system, the MRT, or take one of the buses that go all around town to reach his/her destination. 

For those who want to combine their commute with a bit of an exercise, there is another option: The Youbike, a bike-sharing service provided by the city of Taipei. 

Source: youbike.com.tw

Most key locations in the Taipei city center has Youbike stations that provide a cheap, healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transportation.

Getting a bike from a Youbike station is easy and fast. The only thing you need to do is to register your Yo Yo Ka (Taipei mass transit card that works on the MRT, public buses and the Maokong Gondola) at a digital kiosk next to one of the stations. You need to have a mobile phone number in order to register your Yo Yo Ka, so make sure you take care of that first. 

After your card is registered, wave your card on the scanner next to the bike you want to rent and pull the bike away. Once you are done, you put the bike back into the designated slot and re-scan your card. A certain amount of credits will be deduced from your Yo Yo Ka. 

A Youbike mount without the bikes. Scanner is in the middle. Source: youbike.com.tw

The first half hour of Youbike is free. But you cannot pick up another bike from the station you just left your bike for 15 minutes. That is done to prevent free-riding, literally. 

Youbike is really cheap. Renting a bike for an hour costs 10 NT, which is around 30 US cents. You can click here to see my post on Taiwanese money conversion guide. 

Youbike bicycles are manufactured by Giant, a Taiwanese company which also the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world. You bikes come with large baskets on the front and 3 gears to tackle slight slopes you may encounter. They are quite durable and easy to ride, although a little heavy. 

You can check Youbike’s site here to see the exact locations of rental stations.

The best part about Youbike is that you can ride literally anywhere in Taipei. The city is relatively flat, which makes it ideal for biking. Most sidewalks in the city center have bike lanes that provide a safe route for bikers to travel on. And even if you end up in parts of the city where there are no bike lanes on sidewalks, you can easily blend in with the flow of the vehicle traffic on the roads. Having cyclists in traffic is quite natural in Taiwan and drivers are quite careful when it comes to allowing a certain space to bikers. 

As a bonus, Taipei has an extensive network of interconnected riverside bike paths that go on for many kilometers. One can start at the very southern end of Taipei in Xindian and bike all the way up to Danshui in the north, where the river meets the sea.

I hope you find this post helpful. Make sure you make the most of Youbike during your stay in Taipei, it’s fun!

-DS

Maokong Gondola

If you like tea, hiking and spectacular views, then Mount Maokong is the place for you.

Situated in the southeast of Taipei City, Maokong is home to plantations and tea houses that provide visitors with a variety of the hot beverage. 

The mountain is easily accessible by the gondola. Just take the MRT to Taipei Zoo station and from there you can reach the gondola after a 10-minute walk. 

You can use your metro card to take the gondola as well, so make sure you have it with you. Otherwise you would need to buy a ticket and believe me, you wouldn’t want that. The ticketing desk is always overcrowded with tourist groups coming from China. 

As with everything else, Hello Kitty was all over the place at Maokong Gondola.

Once you enter the gondola compound, head to the top floor. If you are not terribly afraid of heights, I advise you to follow the signs that read “Crystal Cabin” rather than regular cabin. Crystal Cabin cars have glass floorings that allow you to see the ground below as the gondola ascends to dizzying heights. It’s a bit scary, but the experience is totally worth the adrenaline. 

Keep in mind that there are fewer Crystal Cabins that regular cabins. So, you will have to wait a little while longer. 

The thrill of riding in glass-floored cabins is worth the wait.

I felt like I was on a slow-motion roller-coaster ride for the entire trip as the car ascended and turned between stations on its way to the mountain. The entire Taipei skyline rose from behind the hills as the car gained altitude, causing breathtaking views. It’s a great opportunity to snap some pictures too. 

There are a total of four stations on the line and taking the gondola all the way to Mount Maokong (last stop) costs 50 NT. 

Once you arrive at Maokong, you can head left or right on the road around the mountain and sample the street food as well as enjoy some relaxing tea at one of the many teahouses that dot the scenery. 

Avoid weekends and mid-day heat

Locals prefer to visit Maokong on the weekends as a get away from the city and to escape the heat in the summer. So, go to Maokong during the week, if you can. But don’t worry if you are unable to do so because Taiwanese people are extremely kind and you might make some new friends during your cable car trip.

Also note that there is no air-conditioning in the cable cars so it can get extremely hot and humid under the midday sun. Try to arrange your trip early in the morning or later in the afternoon. 

Overall, a trip to Maokong is both an exciting and a relaxing experience that every visitor to Taipei should try out.

Hours of operation

The gondola operates between 9 a.m to 9 p.m Monday-Thursday, and 9 a.m to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday-Sunday. Check the weather report before you head out as they halt the gondola if the winds are particularly strong. 

Currency of Taiwan

The legal currency of Taiwan is the New Taiwan Dollar. It is abbreviated as ‘NT' and sometimes as ‘NT$’. You may see some stores using the ‘$’ sign on its own as well. That still means Taiwanese Dollars, not US Dollars.

As of November 2014, the exchange rate of NT stands at 1 USD = 31 NT. 

Conversion guide

Here’s a quick conversion guide. You can write these numbers down on a small piece of paper when you go shopping in Taiwan, so you don’t get confused by scary looking prices that range in the thousands:

10 NT = 32 US cents

100 NT = 3.20 USD

500 NT = 16 USD

1000 NT = 32 USD

1500 NT = 48 USD

2000 NT = 64 USD

3120 NT = 100 USD

10,000 NT = 320 USD

Coins and bills

There are six different coins and five different bills in circulation. The coins start at 1/2 NT and go up in denominations of 1 NT, 5 NT, 10 NT, 20 NT and 50 NT. I have never seen the 1/2 NT coin and 20 NT coin, though.

Some of the most commonly used coins and bills in Taiwan.

The bills start at 100 NT and increase as 200 NT, 500 NT, 1000 NT and 2000 NT. The 200 and 2000 NT bills are quite rare. 

What can you but with 100 NT?

Even though the Taiwanese Dollar is of less value than the USD, it still commands quite a purchasing power in Taiwan. 

Night markets offer cheap and tasty alternatives to eating at a restaurant.

Here are the prices of some basic items that you can find in Taiwan, although prices may vary depending on where you are shopping:

500 ml bottled water: 15 NT

A can of Coke: 20 NT

Ice cream: 30 NT

A loaf of sliced bread: 37 NT

500 ml local beer: 40 NT

Ready-to-eat microwaveable lunch at Seven-Eleven: 60 NT

10 pack eggs: 60-80 NT

Big Mac Menu: 100 NT

2 kg of rice: 100 NT

If you shop at your local street market, you will see the prices drop dramatically. Food is really tasty and affordable in Taiwan. You can have a hearty meal at a local eatery for around 150 NT per person.

Coins, coins, coins

Once you start spending money in Taiwan, you will end up with a lot of coins really fast. I recommend you to buy a coin purse once you get to Taiwan in order to avoid walking around town jingling like a Christmas sleigh. This goes for men too. Besides, there are some pretty cool designs when it comes to coin purses here in Taiwan.

Pictured: My awesome coin purse.

Happy shopping! :)

-DS 

A 5-step guide to getting student ARC

This post will explain how to get an Alien Residency Certificate (ARC) in Taiwan as a student. 

There are numerous forums and blogs about getting an ARC in Taiwan and the information is a bit scattered and confusing. So, I decided to write a clear guide on how to get an ARC, from my own experience and from digging through Taiwanese government sites.

This is going to be a long one, so bear with me. 

What is an ARC and why do I need it?

ARC is a card given to foreign students and workers by the Taiwanese government, recognizing their student/worker status and granting them the right to stay in Taiwan for a period of time. Anyone willing to continuously stay in Taiwan for more than 6 months will have to apply for an ARC. 

Wait, can’t I stay in Taiwan during my studies?

If you are coming to Taiwan with a student visa to enroll in a Chinese language training program and plan to stay for more than 6 months, then, no. At least not initially. Here’s how it goes:

Taiwan gives out student visas with three different time limits. You either get a 60-day, a 90-day or a 180-day visa. But for the most part, they give out 60-day visas.

3-month long courses on a 2-month visa?

Almost every Chinese language center in Taiwan have 3-month terms. Which means once you enroll, you will need to take classes for at least 3 months. 

This creates a problem for students with 60-day visas as their visas expire after 2 months. I know this sounds silly, and most schools won’t tell their students about this problem until after they arrive in Taiwan.

Bureaucratic mess

In order to get an ARC, first you need to change your visitor visa (Students visas are considered visitor visas in Taiwan. Students visas have the letters "FR" printed in the "Remarks" line) to a resident visa. But here's the catch:

The law requires that after changing your visa into a resident visa, you need to apply for an ARC within 15 DAYS. 

But the law also requires you to be studying in Taiwan for at least 4 MONTHS before you can apply for an ARC.

So coming to Taiwan and changing your visa to resident visa right away to apply for an ARC is out of the question. You will need to be in Taiwan for at least 4 months. And you know what, Taiwan does not generally issue visas any longer than 2 months! You will need to extend your visa in order to be staying in Taiwan that long.

Therefore, steps leading to getting an ARC goes as follows:

1 - Getting a visa extension

2 - Getting a second visa extension

3 - Getting a health report from a public hospital

4 - Applying for a resident visa

5 - Applying for an ARC


1- EXTEND YOUR VISA

Getting a student visa extension for the first time is (relatively) easy. 

Simply go to the National Immigration Agency 2 weeks prior to your visa expiry date and apply for an extension. Your visa expiry date starts from the next day of your entry date that is stamped on your passport.

You will need the following for the first extension:

- A completed visa extension form

- Enrollment certificate from your school

- Valid passport

Last I checked, the National Immigration Agency was located on the corner of Yanping South Rd and Guangzhou St. But I advise you to confirm the location of the immigration office with your school before you go. The current building looks like this:

How to fill out the form?

Once you enter the immigration office, you will see people wearing pink vests with the word ‘Volunteer’ written on them. They are there to help you and they can speak English to a certain extent. 

Walk up to one of the volunteers and say that you are a student and ask for a visa extension form. She/he will provide you one. 

The form is printed in Chinese and English and is more or less easy to fill out. A couple of points to consider, though.

First, they will ask you to fill out the address where you are residing while you are in Taiwan. This part needs to filled out with Chinese characters. So you’d better write or print your address on a piece of paper beforehand and bring it to the immigration office. If you have difficulty copying the characters to the form, just ask one of the volunteers to help you out.  

And secondly, you will need to provide the name, address and phone number of the person or the institution who is your ‘contact person’ during your stay in Taiwan. So, you should also write that information on a piece of paper beforehand as well. They ask for either a person or an institution so don’t freak out if you don’t know any locals. Your school is your 'contact person.’

After filling out the form get a number from the queue machine and hand over your documents to the official behind the desk. They will stamp an extension on the blank page next to your current visa. And that’s pretty much it! Hurrah!!! You extended your visa and can stay in Taiwan… until you need to extend it for a SECOND TIME!

2- GET A SECOND EXTENSION

Your visa will be extended for a duration of your original limit. So, if you have a 60-day visa, you will get a 60-day extension. Once that expires, and you still want to continue your studies in Taiwan, you will need to get a second extension.

The second extension is trickier, though. The first time, you were just starting out as a fresh student eager to learn Chinese and they were happy to accept you into Taiwan. The second time, they will make sure you are attending your classes properly. 

No attendance, no extension

To extend your visa a second time, you will need to get an attendance sheet and grade record from your school. 

If you are missing more than 15 hours of classes in a month or your grade average is lower than 60 out of 100, they may not extend your visa. Also, you will have to be taking at least 15 hours of Chinese courses each week. This is a must.

In order to prove all these, you will need to get the necessary papers from your school and present them to the visa immigration office again, along with your passport and enrollment certificates of course. Do this 2 weeks before the extension on your visa runs out. Don't go to the immigration office earlier than 2 weeks because they will tell you that you are applying too early and send you back. 

How does ARC come in?

So you extended your visa a second time and well on your way to learning Chinese and you might think why you would need an ARC if you can keep extending your visa like so. The thing is, you cannot.

180 days, you are out!

In Taiwan, student visas can only be extended up to 180 days. So, if you arrived on a 60-day visa, you can extend your visa twice. If you have a 90-day visa you can get an extension once. After 180 days, there are no more extensions and you will need to go to another country in order to re-enter Taiwan. Unless you get an ARC. 

Do not assume that you can extend your 2-month visa once, and apply for an ARC at the end of that 4-month period, because issuing of the ARC will take time and your visa will expire during that time! Never let your visa run out or you will have to exit Taiwan, come back and start the process all over again. Be on the safe side, get a second extension on your visa.


3- GET A HEALTH REPORT

This is a bit nasty. You will need to go to a public hospital and get a health record before you can apply for an ARC. They will take an X-ray and take blood and stool samples from you. Yes, you will need to poop on command. I told you it was nasty. Luckily, they have little enema bottles at the hospital. 

Go to the hospital at least 2 weeks before applying for the ARC as it takes 2 weeks for the record to come out. Better yet, apply for the health record before you apply to get the resident visa. 

For the health report you will need:

- Valid passport and one passport photocopy 

- Three passport-sized photos

- 2000 NT fee


4- SWITCH TO RESIDENT VISA

After you have extended your visa for a second time, and went to the hospital to get a health report, you will need to switch your visitor visa to a resident visa.

In order to switch your visa, you will need to apply to the Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) located at Jinan Road, Section 1, No. 2-2. Here's the building:

You will need to provide the following documents in order to get a resident visa:

- A completed resident visa form

- Valid passport

- Two photos

- A copy of student ID card 

- NT$2,200 application fee 

5- APPLY FOR AN ARC

You switched your visa to a resident visa, you have your health report. 

Here’s the part you’ve been waiting for. ARC application. You will be needing these to apply for an ARC: 

1. A completed ARC application form.
2. Attendance sheet and your grade record. You cannot be missing more than 15 hours a month, you will need to be taking 15 hours of classes a week and your grade average should not be lower than 60. 
3. School enrollment papers. Just bring all the enrollment papers starting from your first term.
4. Valid passport. Original and a copy. 
5. Two passport-sized photos. But I always bring extra ones to be safe.
6. School ID card. 
7. Health report. 
8. Cash. And cash only. My 1-year ARC cost me 3200 NT, even though the website says the fee was 1000 NT. The immigration bureau can change the fees for ARC without prior notice. So, always bring extra cash with you. They will give you a receipt. Don’t lose it!

Remember that you will not get your ARC card right away. 

When your ARC is issued, they will give you a call to come pick it up. When going to pick up your ARC card, do not get in a queue and directly ask the volunteers for the pick up desk. You will need to hand them the receipt from earlier in order to get your card. And that’s it.

When applying for your ARC, go to the immigration office a good month before your visa expires. It takes time for them to process your papers. And you wouldn’t want the stress of cutting too close to your visa expiration date. Add to that the two weeks you need for the health record, and that means you will need to begin the paperwork to get an ARC approximately 6 weeks before your visa expiration date. 

That’s all there’s to it. I hope this helps and if you have any questions or want to add anything I might have missed, let me know in the comments.

Cheers!

-DS

How to get from Taoyuan International Airport to Taipei city center?

You made it! You have just arrived in Taoyuan International Airport  to start your grand adventure in Taiwan. One problem though, you need to get to the city center first.

There are several transportation options you can choose from in order to go to Taipei from Taoyuan International Airport. You can take the bus, hail a cab, rent a car or arrange for a limo company to pick you up. 

Take the bus

If you are arriving at Terminal 1, you need to go to pickup zone B1 in the arrivals section. Zones are clearly marked by sign posts so don’t worry about finding them. 

Once there, you need to get on the bus numbered 1819. This will take you straight to Taipei Main Station in city center. The bus fare is 125 New Taiwan Dollars (4 USD) and the trip takes around 1 hour. 

You can buy tickets at bus counters in the terminal. For that, you will need to buy some local currency at one of the exchange offices in the terminal first. 

If you are arriving at Terminal 2, you can take the bus at bus pickup zone at the northeast arcade of the 1st floor arrivals lobby.


Hail a cab

You can hail a taxi once you exit the terminal, don’t fret about finding one, the cab drivers come to you asking if you need a ride when they see you come out of the arrivals building. 

Taiwanese taxi drivers are quite trustworthy, they would not drive you around the city for a few extra bucks. The trip from Taoyuan Airport to Taipei city center costs about 1200 New Taiwan Dollars (40 USD approx.).

Important notice: If you don't speak Chinese, make sure you have the address of the place you are going to written/printed on a piece of paper in Chinese characters, so you can show it to the driver. 

Most drivers do not speak English and they cannot read Latin characters, so pinyin is out of the question. Make sure you will be able to communicate with them. 


(Don't) Rent a car

Car rental offices are located on the entrance floors (entrance floor is called 1st floor in Taiwan) of both terminals. I do not recommend renting a car as traffic is somewhat chaotic in Taipei and all traffic signs are printed in Chinese characters. So newcomers should steer clear from driving until they are accustomed to the layout of the city and the flow of traffic, in my opinion. 


Arrange for a chauffeur

Lastly, you can arrange for a driver to come pick you up at the airport. Limo companies offer a variety of cars to choose from and prices vary accordingly. As of November 2014, prices start at 1300 New Taiwan Dollars (42 USD). 

Easy Rent is one of the companies that provide limo services. You can find their rates here.


Not going to Taipei?

If you are going to a city other than Taipei, you can take a shuttle bus to the nearest high-speed railway station and catch a train there. You will need to go to UBUS service counters at arrival terminals. The fare is 30 New Taiwan Dollars (90 US cents).


I hope you find this post helpful, if you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments section or send me an e-mail at everythingtaiwan@gmail.com 

Enjoy you trip!

-DS