cleanliness (of the ground). the streets are clear of litter, the corners clear of beggars, and even the public transit stations seem to repel dirt.
dirtiness (of the exterior of the buildings). the windows have muck, the walls have grime, and everything just looks… bad. even fairly upscale places, like hotels or restaurants, have exteriors matching some of the worst parts of american cities.
nobody brings their trash out to the curb for a garbage truck to clear. instead, the garbage truck stops at a designated places and time, plays a jingle — sort of like an american ice cream truck, loudly enough for the whole neighborhood to hear — and the residents of the block will stream out of their homes with all of their trash and dump it into the back of the truck themselves.
[ sound on ]
a video of a trash truck on a beach in kaohsiung
a video of a trash truck on a beach in kaohsiung
residents must be home when the trash truck rolls around, which is annoying — but you never see bags of trash on the side of the streets (see e.g. NYC). it also causes neighbors to repeatedly see each other, wait in line for a minute or two, and chat: good for social cohesion. (h/t josh wilkes for commentary here)
again on trash. surprisingly, especially given the lack of litter, there are almost no public trash cans — anywhere, not even at convenience stores or restaurants. often, i would need to explicitly ask a store clerk to throw something out for me. everyone is just expected to “keep track of their own trash.”
this caused me to reflect on how powerful norms are causing outcomes, rather than e.g. good public policy. it’s actually quite difficult to get rid of trash on the street in a trash can, and yet peoples’ response is to hold onto it instead of littering. very surprising to me!
(others have pointed out that the cultural norms around trash have caused the lack of trash cans; this makes sense to me.)
the convenience stores are excellent. clean, neat, clearly-but-not-harshly lit, mostly open 24/7, with surprisingly wide options — fresh fruit, good sandwiches, tea, etc. you can get rain coats, or t-shirts, or a fan for the heat. you can pay your bills, get packages delivered, or get cash at their ATMs. there’s one on almost every block, typically the chains 7/11 or Family Mart.
a woman paying her bills at a Family Mart
the milk is fake.
see this carton, below? the one with a “PROTEIN” label on the front, and the number 5 on the top, half-covered by a sticker that sorta looks like it could be indicating 5%/whole milk? see how at the bottom it even says “I ♥︎ MILK”?
oh, you thought this was milk?
not milk! in fact, the majority of items in convenience or grocery stores that look quite a bit like milk are in fact made of cardboard some material that’s never seen the inside of a cow’s udder.
it commonly felt like there were ways that one could ‘get ahead’ by being a dick. the US has systems with more antibodies to dicks-trying-to-get-ahead, so i wasn’t used to noticing how easy it would’ve been to litter, or hop the fences at the MRT, or cut in lines, or even just straightforwardly steal. the decorum of the common man was impressive.
- (…which caused me to reflect on ways that the US might lack useful social tech because any system that operates at scale needs to have robustness to people willing to break social norms.)
- (…and also caused me to realize that my own decorum had commensurately risen. where i might have casually jaywalked in the US, here i waited for the ligh. where i might have jumped a fence, i walked the long way.)
the public transit is just so good. the main train system in taipei is a mostly-above-ground set of lines called the MRT:
- trains arrive every couple minutes, so if you miss your train, you don’t have to wait longer than 5 minutes for the next one. that ends up reducing much more stress than i expected, because you’re just never rushing to make your train.
- they’re never late.
- the stations aren’t just kept clean, but also are just generally a joy to use: there are maps in exactly the places there need to be maps; the turnstyles make a joyful little ding when you use them, and burst open quickly when you swipe a card; there are small markings on the ground where the doors of the subway cars will open, indicating where people waiting in the station ought to stand in order to let those on the cars out, and people actually stand in neat little lines following the markings on the ground instead of crowding the openings. the UX is incredible, and obviously built for a people who care about maintaining social fabric.
an MRT station entrance (pic not taken by me)
- the only thing i found lacking was the signage in the stations. in the US, if you peek from a subway car into the “Main St” station, you’ll see “MAIN ST MAIN ST MAIN ST” plastered everywhere in huge font. in taiwan, there might be one or two small “main st” signs demurely hidden behind a wall. this seems obviously bad to me — riders want to be able to glance outside and instantly know at what stop they are.
- Alethios has a great essay that goes into more depth on the MRT & its design choices.
the high-speed rail is exactly what you expect.
in some countries — germany, france, mexico — practically everyone speaks english. not in taiwan: the majority won’t speak to you in english. although some know how to speak, they seem embarrassed/uneasy relative to mandarin.
the language change causes some funny confusions. sometimes there will be english writing on store signs, or sweaters, that’s strange (”College Summer”), nonsensical (”Have Beautiful Mind”), or even just total gibberish (”Arshikjh”).
