Taiwan Travellers' tips

Useful Links

MAP: Useful electronic map if you can understand, and the computer can type Chinese. (Useless if you can't) http://www.urmap.com/

GENERAL: http://wikitravel.org/en/Taiwan

ENTERTAINMENT: http://www.taiwanfun.com/

Trains

There are two types of trains you can get in Taiwan. The normal one run by the TRA (Taiwan Railway Administration) or the high speed train, HSR (Taiwan High Speed Rail).

TRA - There are three types of trains. By high quality/speed/cost order they are: tze chiang (自強 zi jiang), chu kuang (莒光 ？guang), fu hsing (復興 fu xing). tze chiang is the faster nicer train with less stops. It goes down from there. The chu kuang trains were of average quality and quite fine to use. I never tried the fu hsing trains. 

For the non Chinese speaker, purchasing from the new touch screen kiosks was relatively easy as the names were in Pin Yin. The hardest part was knowing which train type was which. http://www.railway.gov.tw/e_index.htm

HSR - The HSR runs along the west coast. I did not have the opportunity to ride the HSR but on the day I was in Hualien (on the east coast), they celebrated (or was it a rehersal) the opening of  the HSR to Hualien. So it should be operational by the end of 2007 but don't quote me. http://www.thsrc.com.tw/en/

Phrases I used a lot

You'll notice that the Chinese is in traditional Chinese. This is bcause this is what they use in Taiwan. A lot of the Taiwanese I encountered could not read simplified Chinese.

• Can you please tell me when we get to (Toufen)？

  到了（頭份）情叫我，好嗎？

  daole (Toufen) qing jiao wo, haoma?

• Two tickets to (Hualien)

  兩個票去華蓮

  liang ge piao qu hua-lien

• where do I buy the tickets?

  哪裏買票？

  nali mai piao

• where do i buy bus tickets to the airport?

  那裏買公車票去飛機場？

  nali mai gongche piao chu feiji chang

• What do you call this?

  這個叫什麽？

  zhege jiao shenme?

• How much (money)?

  多少錢

  duo shao qian?

• What time does it leave?

  幾點鈡出發？

  jidianzhong chufa？

• How long is the trip to (Chiayi)?

  幾個小時到嘉義

  jige xiaoshi dao (jiayi)

• Neck

  脖子

  bózi

• Shoulders

  肩頭

  jiāntóu

• Back

  後背

  hòubèi