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Pictured above: Puli Town, our new home. Behind those clouds are 4,000m mountains!
Sixteen years on the streets, living and working with the people of China, Jeff
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Hello, everybody. This is Jeff J. Brown, China Rising Radio Sinoland, Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, the China Writers’ Group, and the Bioweapon Truth Commission.
We moved to Taiwan Province, China two weeks ago. I want to give you all some of my first impressions. This, after our first visit in May, where we spent a week visiting Taipei, the provincial capital, the nearby county seat where we’re living, which is Nantou and then Puli Town, which is our new home.
The first thing that really strikes you at least for me, is that there’s not a lot of people compared to Mainland China. Taipei, the capital has eight million people, which is more than a third of the entire population of the island. Yet eight million people in Mainland China is a third-tier city. The biggest city closest to us is Taichung (台中), which is on the West Coast, just 40km away. It has a million people. Nantou, our county seat, has 105,000, and Puli has 86,000. It’s hard to find someplace in China that only has a million people. Then, 86,000 for our town of Puli and 105,000 for Nantou, my gosh, those are practically hamlets in Mainland China.
Here’s an interesting corollary. Taiwan Province’s total population of 23 million (not counting 1 million Taiwanese living and working on the Mainland) is the same size or smaller than the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or Chongqing.
The other thing is it’s small. It’s only 36,000km², which in the USA is the size of Connecticut and New Jersey combined. In Europe, it’s a little bit bigger than Belgium, which is one of the smallest countries in the Old World. On the Mainland, it’s about the size of its sister island Hainan. You can see it is not big.
Yet, it’s fabulously beautiful. Running down the center of it, from north to south is Xueshan (Snow) Range and Yushan (Jade) Range. Together, they make the Central Mountain Range, over 100 peaks. The tallest one is 3,950m, four kilometers above sea level, which is almost as tall as the French Alps and the Rocky Mountains. What little we have seen of it really impresses us.
Infrastructure is world class. While somewhat dated compared to Mainland China, the roads and bridges are well maintained. Plenty of 4-lane highways, paved secondary roads and tunnels. We were shocked to see them re-asphalt a back alley in front of our hotel in Puli, which is pedestrian! We see them keeping the streets in good condition, updating sewage and water pipes. This kind of high-quality maintenance was stopped in the USA in the 1980s and is being more and more deferred in France.
The island is ringed by a rail system, with the West Coast (facing the Mainland), having high-speed rail (HSR) north to south. For inland communities like ours, there are privately-owned bus companies that ply the backwoods and cost very little.
Why is there no HSR on the East Coast? It is almost deserted because it regularly gets pummeled with typhoon after typhoon for about half the year. The Central Mountain Range blocks them, leaving us on the west side with lots of rain, but not much wind. Here is a population density map of Taiwan Province. Almost everyone lives on the West Coast. See that green circle? That’s where we live, with Nantou about 25km from Puli.
At first, we were a little bit confused trying to figure out the food. It seemed like a sort of “meat and potatoes” diet. Lots of noodles, rice, ravioli and meat – beef, chicken and pork, with not a lot of vegetables and fruit. This is ironic, because the open markets are packed with all kinds of fruit and vegetables. As we have spent more time checking out a lot of different restaurants, we have found that some have more veggies than others, and there are a number of vegetarian eateries. We now ask when we order if they can stir fry some veggies for us. Thus, we can satisfy our veggie cravings and the longer we’re here, we’re really starting to enjoy the food a lot. In any case, like the Mainland, food here is very inexpensive. We can both eat a nice meal, with big beers and the total cost is only USD7.00-9.00! Once we find a place to live, we’ll save even more money buying all our ingredients in the local markets and cooking at home.
Housing is tight, especially here in Puli. A lot of people want to live here, because it’s 450m above sea level. Therefore, the temperature is several degrees cooler than down on the coast, about 40km away. I suspect many people commute to Taichung each day for work. Puli is also about 15km away from Sun Moon Lake, which is one of the most famous lakes in all of Asia. It is definitely the tourist attraction in this part of Taiwan and one of the top tourist attractions for the entire province. People want to have a second home up here, because it’s so beautiful, and Taipei is only 1.5 hours away by car. In Nantou County there’s so much to see as far as forests, mountains and temples. We’re only 1.5 hours away from 2,000- to 4,000-meter mountains.
Saving the best for last, the most pleasing thing for us is the people. They are just superb. We are so impressed with the Taiwanese people. Shanghai people are different than Beijing people. Beijing people are different than Guangzhou people, and Guangzhou people are different than Chongqing people. Rurals are different than metropoles. Thus, Taiwanese are different than those peoples. They are all Chinese, but with variances.
The first impression you have when you’re on the streets, it is extremely low key, subdued and very businesslike. During my Buddhist meditation sessions, one of the mantras I repeat is, “Cool, Calm, Collected, Chillaxed”. That perfectly describes the streets of Taiwan.
When we got back to France after our first visit in May, I kept pondering why this is so. Mainland China’s streets are very animated, energetic, talkative and sometimes quite vibrant and noisy. The pace on the streets is much faster, although having lived in Shenzhen for three years, I can say it is an exception.
First, this is bound to happen in Mainland cities that have tens of millions of citizens and small towns having hundreds of thousands. People are more densely populated. Nevertheless, Taipei has eight million souls and it too is quite laid back, compared to similar-sized Mainland cities, like Chaozhou and Meizhou, which we also visited in May, so that’s not the complete explanation.
I was trying to figure it out and all of a sudden, I said, “Bingo!”: Taiwan was colonized by the Japanese for 50 years, from 1895 to 1945. I realized how much they remind me of the streets of Japan. Manchuria, the northeast part of Mainland China was also colonized during this same period. However, on the Mainland, there’s been so much movement of people, that I’m not sure if there are Japanese traits in Dongbei people (Northeast Mainland). I’ll have to ask my friend Mario Carvalo what he thinks, since he has lived in Dongbei and traveled the country extensively. Are they “Japanese”-different than the other people in the rest of China? If so, does he think it is because it was colonized for 50 years?
Being an island, Taiwanese have not had the chance to move where other Chinese were not colonized by the Japanese. Therefore, my initial theory is that the influence of the Japanese on the Taiwanese is greater than in Mainland China. Of course, this is a good thing because the Japanese are very socially harmonious. People love going to Japan, because when you’re on the streets, it’s so relaxing, calm and cooperative, etc. Mainland people are just as nice, helpful, friendly and honest – just more energetic.
However, that subdued, businesslike comportment on the streets often disappears once inside offices, stores, restaurants, etc. A good example is we went to the Labor Bureau for our work permits and it was not long before all of us were laughing, joking, chatting and having a lively good time.
The one thing that really impresses us here is the young men. There’s something about them that we definitely don’t see in Western culture. They are very mature, respectful, helpful, calm for their young ages and are grounded.
It goes without saying that our situation is somewhat unique. We are, of course, foreigners. Also, I speak read and write Chinese, which adds a huge dimension to our experience here. Evelyne has been studying Chinese for six months. God love her, she is 68 years old, and it’s her first foreign language. She’s really doing well and although with halted baby steps for now, the people go crazy when she practices with them. Like the Mainland, older people like us are venerated and respected, so we get treated so well everywhere we go, Taiwan Province included. It’s not just because we are “big noses” and “round eyes”. We see Chinese helping elders everywhere we go. This is Confucist-Daoist-Buddhist culture going back millennia.
Here in Puli, I needed to get some batteries for my hearing aids. We went to a shop that was on Google Maps and it had closed down, most likely because of the Covid pLandemic. We went next door to a shop selling vegetable- filled buns and other bakery items. The owner confirmed the old store’s closure, and I asked if they knew anywhere else I could buy batteries. The owner of the store, likely with his son and wife, just stopped what he was doing, it was right before lunch and it was pretty busy. He got his phone out, his son is helping him find a place for us to buy my hearing aid batteries. Mom kept cranking with customers.
They found one about 1.5km away – and get a load of this, the owner of this store, with people lining up to buy his tasty veggie buns, started taking off his apron and wanted to escort us to the hearing aid store! I told him, don’t worry, you’re very busy, I can read Chinese, we can find it, and I always joke with the Chinese in situations like this, “You need to put rice on the table”! That’s how incredibly welcoming and caring Chinese are.
To start out, we’re here at the best time of the year. November-April is the driest and coolest time of the year. May-October is the monsoon/typhoon season. Hot and steamy. It is difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that we left Normandy, France, which is one of the wettest places in Europe. It gets one meter of rain a year. Guess how much rain Puli gets? TWO METERS A YEAR! Double Normandy. Needless to say, that’s when we are going to be doing low-cost travel in Asia, including Mainland China, just a two-hour flight away from Taichung Airport, only 35km away from Puli.
We went swimming yesterday. I went into the changing room and agreed, there were not a lot of people there, but a guy left his phone laying in his open cubby box – they don’t even have lockers. No one’s going to steal your stuff. The same is true in Mainland China. His phone was an Apple. Can you imagine? He just left it sitting there for all the world to see. No one’s going to mess with it here. The Chinese (and Japanese) are incredibly honest and socially responsible people. The West N-O-T! Violent/sex crimes, robberies, burglary and theft are few and far between in China. Both the Mainland and Taiwan take a hard stance against drugs. That’s one of the reasons that we’re so relaxed here, contrasting leaving a Western country (France) that is in slow-motion, dystopian, societal collapse.
In China, it’s very Confucist, very Daoist, very Buddhist, and that makes all the difference. There is a real sense of spirituality, social cohesion and collective support. I read a recent quote by the Chinese philosopher Liu Runwei (刘润为) that sums up why we moved back to China,
Freedom is not a wishful fantasy, but a down-to-earth social practice. It’s inseparable from the collective and society. One cannot simply do as one pleases. Self-indulgence is not freedom, but the despotism of anarchy.
We’re very happy here and looking forward to sharing more experiences with you. I’ve started a new project called, Adventures in Asia with LadyB and Gonggong (https://chinarising.puntopress.com/2024/11/04/adventures-in-asia-with-ladyb-and-gonggong-my-new-concept-to-share-experiences-with-my-granddaughter-other-children-and-adults-too/ and https://www.facebook.com/SeekTruthFromFacts). Gongong means maternal grandfather in Chinese. My daughter and her husband have a two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, my first one, so she’s the inspiration. It will be the platform I use to show her, other children and adults about living, working in China, and traveling the Asian region.
This is Jeff J. Brown signing out. Have a wonderful day.
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JEFF J. BROWN, Editor, China Rising, and Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing, The Greanville Post
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China – The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and BIG Red Book on China (2020). As well, he published a textbook, Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). Jeff is a Senior Editor & China Correspondent for The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing and is a Global Opinion Leader at 21st Century. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff writes, interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on YouTube, Stitcher Radio, iTunes, Ivoox and RUvid. Guests have included Ramsey Clark, James Bradley, Moti Nissani, Godfree Roberts, Hiroyuki Hamada, The Saker and many others. [/su_spoiler]
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