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| *Travel Tips>>>Taiwan Travel Tips |
How does the cost of living in Taiwan generally compare with that of the United States? |
Travel Info How does the cost of living in Taiwan generally compare with that of the United States? Travel Tips In general, Taiwan living is so much cheaper. You can get a really good meal (average size= box of rice with meat, veggies) for roughly one US dollar (30 NTD) I'm not sure about housing and things like that, because I've never dealt with that, but food is 10x better and sooooooo much cheaper. Clothes are made really beautifully, and a prom-material dress cost like $80 for me, whereas in the US it would probably cost around $300. Source(s): Previous experience Other Travel Tips It depends on your lifestyle and specific city you are comparing. Big differences for Taipei vs Pingtung. Big differences for New York City vs Little Rock, Arkansas Big differences if you enjoy reading, going to movies and vegetarian vs karaoke every other night, going to pubs and must have meat in your diet. In general, cost of living in Taipei vs New York City, Taipei is cheaper in terms of housing, transporation and food. If you are comparing living expenses for company executives, then they are probably about the same. If you are a worker bee, student or just an extended tourist, then Taipei is cheaper. Personal experience. In comparison to Canada (which I hear some Americans find cheaper than USA (?), I find it sooo much cheaper living here. Food is cheap. Some decent apartments with security and garbage/recycle pickup can be found for 9000 NT/month and above (including the security fee) in Taichung at least. (if you hunt around a lot) Most people I know pay about 12000 NT/month for a good quality apartment or house rental. It all depends on how much your personal lifestyle costs. If you drink and eat lots of meat and go out partying every night your costs will be quite high. If you are a vegetarian and just go out for movies and hike, costs can be much lower than in USA. Cigarettes are (unfortunately to the non-smoking majority of the population) crazily cheap here. 20 NT is what I hear is the going rate for a pack. Most things here have yet to develop the amount of sin tax that you get back in North America. Which is both a blessing and a curse. High rates of drunk driving fatalities and higher rates of lung/mouth cancer are the longer term payment to the reaper Taiwanese society receives. sorry to be all preachy. Sometimes I get annoyed sitting at the lights with some pig lighting up like a chimney next to me and some idiot drunk worker falling off his scooter on the other side. (it actually happened that way 1 night for me a couple years ago. Scary stuff.) -On the brighter side of things clothes are much cheaper too. And they look really cool, usually. If you are plus sized you will have more difficulty finding anything for yourself out here however. If you focus on native produce, and you like to get up early in the morning to buy lots of green leafy vegetables or fruits, drinking only teas or fruit juices, than Taiwan is very cheap healthy living. But, no meal goes for as low as 30 NT, though much better meals have set me back only 70-80 NT. (More like $2.) I'm talking Turkey and Rice, or Mutton stews and soups, as well interesting Veggie dishes that they go all out with. As well, really quality clothing like real Levi's, or luxuries like milk, cheese, bread and wine are actually pretty expensive here, let alone harder to come by, if not already snatched up by the time you get to them. Anything Japanese is way out of reach. Choya plum wine costs twice here what it does in Japan. A 32 oz jar of Horseradish cost me around U.S. 8 dollars, probably four times what it would cost back home. (if you want to be popular or make money, bring some of that with you) Thus, in the same way, U.S. fast food franchises and chain supermarkets selling all the imported packaged goods are all the rage with the middle class. But, they rip people off, charging top membership fees for the privilege of joining. I avoid all that anyway, because I want to make the most out of living here, and can do all that other stuff back home. Still, I miss organic peanut butter, and a good ethnic deli other than Subway.. Each place ultimately is what you make of it, the whole world in its entirety vast and fantastic. I miss Canadian Maple Syrup and Black Walnuts, and co-ops and delis like we have back home. Taiwan is way behind in such things, and may never get there... plus the traffic sucks.( And that's a big plus by the way. Think hospital stay, or worse, just for trying to go out and doing your errands, it gets tiresome).. |
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