All posts tagged: Taipei

9 Months Of Studying Chinese in Review

Studying at one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan, NTNU aka National Taiwan Normal University helped me level my Chinese up to a higher degree. I had the opportunity to learn Chinese from well-taught and talented Chinese teachers from September 2018 till May 2019 and in turn, truly improved and understood the true meaning of struggle as an adult living abroad in a foreign country where English isn’t commonly spoken. I have shared my first impressions of the school itself here, but now that I have fully finished and exhausted what the program has to offer, I share with you today more details. Let’s just get right into it.  First Semester This semester was a great starting point in getting back into learning Chinese. Because I have studied it before, getting back into it was a bit of a hurdle. For one, I have never learned traditional characters, so I had to pretty much retrain my brain to read and WRITE (omg WRITE) traditional characters. Compared to simplified characters, traditional characters have many more strokes. …

Biking in Taipei

Riding a bike in Taipei is one of the most convenient but also can be the most nerve-wracking things to do. A lot of people ride in the city to get to places much quicker when the MRT (subway)/ bus cannot necessarily take them there. A lot of people also ride as a form of exercise. Taipei has a ton of bike trails that span across the city and lots of people take advantage of riding them whenever the weather is super nice. If you’re just visiting Taipei for a short period of time or just want to ride to get to one place to another, I highly recommended taking advantage of Taiwan’s Youbike bike sharing program. Youbikes are the lovely orange bikes which people can easily rent wherever and whenever. There are stations placed all over Taiwan, but the majority of the stations are in Taipei. You can typically locate a station by an MRT stop or in a very busy central area. They have an app where you can find the closest one …