Latest News: June 6th 2014

Luckily the rain held off for much of Dragon Boat Festival, and the sun did indeed shine on the MTC dragon boat team, whose mixed team placed 3rd out of 64 teams, women’s team placed 4th out of 12 teams, and men’s team made it to the semi-finals. Perhaps we were even the lucky charm!

This week we posted information on watching the (football/soccer) World Cup in Taiwan. It’s going to be tough with the times, but at least it will be on MOD and the local cable. Fingers crossed the MOD channel will carry English commentary.

Our featured article of the week is a fascinating look at the languages spoken here in Taiwan. It’s not just Chinese, or indeed even just Chinese. Michael “Taffy” Cannings is a cunni… talented, linguist and one of the few foreigners to conquer more than one local language.

Following up from the latest news last week, the ferry service from Bali Port in Danshuei to Pingtan in Fujian (China) is indeed operational and open to foreigners. According to the company, Taiwanese citizens have visa-free entry, but all other foreigners should arrange visas before travelling. They are not publishing any schedule or fees as yet, so if you want to take the ferry you should call 02-2507-1632 (English speaking) for more information.

In fruit news, this is the wonderful time of year when lychee, mango, watermelon and pineapple are bountiful and the prices approaching the lowest. Mangoes and lychee in particular have a very short season here, so you should get some now before it’s too late.

In actual Taiwan news, not a lot going on this last week. The Chairman of Farglory has admitted giving large sums of money to someone he knew to give to someone he didn’t know for something he can’t be sure. Nearly as surprising as the World Cup bid by Qatar being reportedly corrupt. Who’ have seen that coming?

The average salary figures in Taiwan were released and make pretty grim reading for new graduates. Thank heavens then that the best street food in the world is found in Taiwan [so says the Guardian] at great prices.

Computex comes to an end this Saturday amid reports of strippers and watches from Mars. The take on the “showgirls” in the Register’s article is interesting, an yet not really damning. I dread to think what would happen if the Guardian sent a reporter though…

And I leave you this week with a great comparison of Taiwan and China from a foreigners point of view (thanks to BDW for the tip).

As always, if you have any feedback or comments, please get in touch.

Thanks again for reading, have a great week, and we hope to see you back soon.

Taiwan Ho!