China, China... And what about Taiwan?
Travel sites are full of news that mainland China has introduced visa-free entry for many countries, but everyone has forgotten Taiwan.
Everyone but me 😁
Taiwan considers itself the proper, real China, and the one on the mainland is, in its eyes, something temporary.
I visited Taiwan in June, as part of my trip through four Chinas. And I will tell you: the island really is a completely different China.
Here is what strikes you right away in Taiwan:
- Imitation of the Japanese. Mainland China, to put it mildly, does not love the Japanese, while Taiwan seems to want very much to be like them: in urban design (compare the photos, it could be Osaka), in clothing and manners (everyone bows, as in Japan) and even in plain logistics. There are direct flights from Taipei to almost every Japanese city every hour, while from the mainland they only go from big hubs.
- Western services work without any VPN, naturally, so you do not need any workarounds to connect to anything.
- Almost everyone understands English, even at a basic level, so you do not need to switch on the translator on your phone.
Next I wanted to write about a seemingly more cultured society, about politeness, about the fact that nobody burps or farts next to you (sorry).
Oops... I wrote it after all 🙊
Anyway, this contrast hits you immediately and I want to write about it, but it may look as if I am putting the mainland down too much. At first it seemed to me that everything I noticed in Taiwan was a level above the culture of the China I had been to before.
On the other hand, in this comparison I am not taking into account Taiwan's small territory, its relatively small population and the influence of Western culture, which is closer to us, and therefore a more convenient and comfortable stay within a society like that.
As for the mainland, whatever looks "strange", "confusing" or "inconvenient" to a Western visitor has no effect on local life. People are comfortable speaking their own language and not learning English (why would they?), and they are used to their own services and messengers, so they do not need to accept what a Westerner considers "normal".
Even riding mopeds on the sidewalks between pedestrians (not done in Taiwan) is a habit that is the norm for people there, wrong as it may be by traffic rules. And in numbers, one district of a big mainland city has more people than the whole of Taiwan.
And Taiwan, of course, is not about technology compared with the mainland. It is more about calm and comfort, and about the fact that it is simply easier for us to understand it, because people there understand us in a language we know, even if poorly.
So Taiwan is not better than mainland China, just easier to read 😁
That is also why Taiwan has many tourists from Europe and the US, and an adapted cuisine. In short, the whole Western world in a Chinese wrapper, where you need no WeChat, Alipay, VPN or maps downloaded in advance in maps.me.
