The Battle Between Korea and Taiwan

Both Korea and Taiwan are incredible countries. Having lived in Korea for almost 4 years, I have accepted the many benefits of living and travelling there.

That being said, I recently took a 1 week adventure to Taiwan to visit a friend before heading to Southeast Asia for 6 months. During these 7 days, I found out that Taiwan was also an amazing countries with many benefits.

In this post, I want to compare Korea and Taiwan on various things. Who will be the winner?

1) Public Wifi

Let's compare Seoul and Taipei. Both are capital cities of their respective countries, both have enormous populations and are densely populated. Both crave high speed, constant connectivity. Well, at least I do!

One thing I found living around Seoul is that there is Wifi everywhere! But there is a catch! The wifi is only good if you have a Korean SIM card in your phone. You cannot connect to Olleh Free Wifi, U+Wifi, etc. without a Korean sim card. So although you may be browsing the city as a tourists and see open and free wifi, it usually requires you to enter a phone number or already have a Korean SIM card.

In Taipei though, there is free open WIFI everywhere! Connectivity is spotty, but it usually lasted me enough to go on Google Maps and navigate or check instagram (cause that's what I was really doing ;). It allowed me to send Facebook messages to friends about meet up times or chat about what we wanted for dinner. Even buses had free wifi!

In the WIFI battle, I give 1 point to Taiwan for free public wifi for tourists as well as natives.

Korea- 0 Taiwan- 1

2) Public Transit

Let me start off by saying that I think Seoul has the best public transit in the world from the countries I have visited so far. Seoul is ALWAYS on time, cheap, and pretty much will take you anywhere in the city or have high speed rail or buses to take you across the country.

As mentioned above, Taiwan did have free wifi on the buses as well as the underground, but the one thing I missed about Korea was the speediness and leaving right on time! No complaints about this though to be honest, but Korea is more punctual.

Therefore, 1 point for Korea for better public transit!

Korea- 1 Taiwan- 1

3) People

In Korea, I can honestly say, they are some of the nicest people in the world. Most times, people will help you if you are lost or if you cannot read the menu for what to eat. They will help you find the right bus or train, or help you find a taxi home. Old men and women will try to start a short conversation with you if they can speak English. They will feed you when you are hiking. Sometimes, you get the odd person who is rude and doesn't like foreigners in their country, but, hey, I get it. They have been through a lot! I also felt very safe in Korea all of the time.

In Taiwan, the people are also super friendly and kind. Similar to Korea, they will help you find your way, help you decipher the food menu, help you find a taxi, etc. They also speak English fairly well. That's great, cause I speak 0 Chinese. Similar to Korea, I felt safe here most of the time. I guess maybe because I am backpacking rather than living here, I was always a little more conscious and uneasy at times. That being said, nothing bad happened and I was safe!

For the people battle, I give it to... A TIE!

Korea- 2 Taiwan- 2

4) Cleanliness

In my opinion, most parts of Seoul are some of the cleanest places in the world. Koreans take great pride in keeping their streets and public places clean. That being said, Koreans do not put trash cans on public roads for the most part. This leads to people making what I call, "trash piles" by stop signs or street lights, or wherever the last person decided to conveniently drop their trash. These trash piles are always cleaned up and the streets look fresh in the morning, but I feel by using simple trash cans, every now and then, it would help solve this problem. I am not trying to impose my Western ways on Korea, as they are functioning super well and are a super power in the world. It would just be nice to see less "trash piles" everywhere.

So this blew me away in Taiwan. There is also scarce trash cans everywhere, but something very unique happens in Taiwan. Every night, the garbage truck strolls through the streets. It plays the ice cream truck song. At this time, something magical happens. All the residents of the street come out with their trash and wait near their home for the garbage truck to come by. This is done to reduce the amount of cockroaches as well as try to bring communities together. It is thought that people could chat outside with their trash while they wait for the garbage truck to merrily come by to collect their trash.

For that reason alone, I give Taiwan 1 point!

Korea- 2 Taiwan- 3

5) Convenient Stores

Korea has some of the best convenient stores I have ever been. Sometimes they have outside patios where you eat your noodles and drink beer with friends. The selection of food and drink inside in amazing! They will heat up your meals like hamburgers or serve you ice coffee. The workers are always so friendly and willing to help. You can also top up you T-Money cards or ship and collect mail from them. The top ones would be 7/11, CU, and GS25. All have similar stuff and really are part of a true Korean experience.

In Taiwan, they have Family Mart, 711 and OK Mart. These are similar to Korean stores. One unique thing in these stores though are you can order a taxi on machine and it will come pick you up at the store. In Taiwan, you cannot just wave down a taxi, and if you can I had no luck doing so. The Family Mart is probably my favorite one as it has a huge selection of food and would also top up your transit cards. You can also ship and receive mail from convenient stores as well.

This one is a close one, but I will give this battle to.... Korea!

Korea- 3 Taiwan- 3

In conclusion, although it's a tie, I still give my heart to Korea as it is my second home, but damn, Taiwan is a great country!

Which country do you prefer?

Comment below or DM me on instagram of Facebook!

Much love-

Anthony