FCU Chinese Language Division

"Devoted to Language Learning"

Transportation

Introduction

Generally speaking, one can safely say that Taiwan traffic has to be among the worst in the world. It is not just that roads are choked with too many cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks all competing for minuscule advantage. It is not just that there are not enough traffic police and they do not seem to give out tickets for anything but highway speeding (at least during those few hours every night one isn't gridlocked in the huge traffic jam called Highway around here). On top of all this, there is the Taiwanese – Confucian sense of responsibility to one's family and to hell with others. Traffic lights are reduced to mere points of personal reference, blinkers only have a decorative function on cars and motorcycles, the highway emergency shoulder becomes the fastest lane and if the traffic rules don't suit the circumstance of the person driving, they can be ignored. Be prepared for the worst, because travel within Taichung is no exception and it can be a dirty and frustrating business until you get the hang of it and develop the necessary attitude. Transportation for most students is limited to scooters, motorcycles and bicycles, buses and taxis (trains only run between cities).

Taichung City may be a confusing place at first; you may feel completely lost due to your initial illiteracy; you can only orient yourself using landmarks and it may seem to take forever before you get familiar with the city streets.

One way to overcome your disorientation is to frequently travel into areas new to you. Make creative use of the first few days after your arrival. You will have some time to go exploring the city, because you will probably arrive a few days earlier to register. Go downtown and hop on a strange bus on a weekday (Sundays after 12:00 is the worst) and just explore, or buy a map and take section by section tours by motorcycle or bicycle. Early Sunday mornings are excellent times to tour because the streets are relatively empty. City maps published by the Golden Apple Enterprise Co. Ltd. cost NT$ 60 (available at stationery stores and bookstores) and have a list of the bus routes, though in Chinese of course. Free maps and documentation are also available from the Tourism Bureau at 95 Gan-chen Street, Nantun (2254-0809/0800-422022). Maps of the bus routes are available at the bus terminals on Lu-chuan Road.

Some students prefer to get their own wheels as soon as possible, others prove that it is also perfectly possible to get around Taichung sans scooter. Quite a few people feel that scooters are an essential part of city life in Taichung because they are the fastest means of transportation, especially during rush hour.

That being said, all drivers must be very careful, continually looking in all directions, because the flow of traffic here simply flows in all directions. It will take a good amount of time to get adjusted to the occasional hectic or stressful traffic conditions.

There are some cases of road rage making headlines, so it may be additionally cautious to simply go with the flow as best as possible. It is very likely, however, that you'll have to use the bus at least the first few weeks.

Finding a place by an address can be difficult, unless you are familiar with the way the Chinese in Taiwan number roads and buildings. All buildings, though, have their complete address marked on the blue house number sign, so you don't have to walk to the next intersection to find out the street name as in most western countries. Addresses written in Chinese come in declining order of magnitude, roughly like this: country – city – district – road or street – road section – lane – alley – house number – floor – door number – company or person.

Roads are Lu, Streets are Jie. Many streets/roads are intersected by lanes – Xiang – and these may be intersected by smaller alleys – Nong. The streets/roads can be further divided into Sections – Duan. Buildings are numbered, typically, with odd-numbered buildings on one side of the road and even-numbered ones on the other. If a lane intersects the road between two buildings, the lane will be numbered as if it were a building. Likewise, small roads intersecting a lane will be numbered similarly. Sometimes, though, lanes are named by the road they intersect.