Catalans Abroad

Asian magic

Oriol Ferrerons Manich Oriol is a quality control engineer who went to live in Taipei in 2012

Why did you leave Cat­alo­nia?

Ac­tu­ally, it was a com­bi­na­tion of dif­fer­ent rea­sons. My wife is Tai­wanese, and we de­cided to get mar­ried, but some of her rel­a­tives were strug­gling with health is­sues, so she wanted to move back. Also about that time, she was of­fered a job in Taipei. I had been work­ing as a Qual­ity, En­vi­ron­men­tal, and Safety man­ager for a cou­ple of years, but the com­pany where I was was hit by the cri­sis and I was laid off. I tried to find a new job in Cat­alo­nia, but with­out luck. So, we de­cided to move.

Why did you choose Taipei?

As I said, it's my wife's home­town, and also the biggest city in Tai­wan, where most op­por­tu­ni­ties are.

How long have you lived there?

Since Au­gust 2012, about four and a half years.

Are you happy with the job op­por­tu­ni­ties you found in your adop­tive coun­try?

It was very hard to find a job here. I worked as a free­lance agent rep­re­sent­ing Cata­lan and Span­ish com­pa­nies that wanted to sell their prod­ucts in Tai­wan then part-time work as an Eng­lish teacher. In June 2016, I found work as a QESH man­ager again. The prob­lem is the lan­guage, as the per­cent­age of flu­ent Eng­lish speak­ers in Tai­wan is about as low as the Span­ish av­er­age.

What do you think is the best thing about liv­ing in Taipei?

I'd say that the hand­i­est thing is the enor­mous amount of con­ve­nience stores open 24 hours a day, but that could also be true for other major Asian cities. The Taipei metro (MRT) is re­ally good and clean (even the bath­rooms), and taxis are re­ally cheap. There is a wide range of food qual­ity, but you can get good food from any Asian coun­try at a rea­son­able price.

And the high­lights for any brief visit for the first time?

The Taipei 101 sky­scraper in the Xinyi dis­trict is the most vis­ited spot, but there's the Palace Mu­seum, in Shilin. And if you spend the day there, you can go back and visit the Shilin night mar­ket.

And if vis­i­tors have more time or make a re­turn visit?
If you enjoy hik­ing,the Taroko gorge, or Yang­min­shan, north of Taipei, with its restau­rants and hot springs. What do you miss most from home? Fam­ily and friends. Even with video­con­fer­ence and mo­bile calls, it's hard being apart, and not being able to just go out and drink some­thing with friends. I met peo­ple here, but they're mostly for­eign­ers from other coun­tries, so I still have to use a lan­guage dif­fer­ent than my own. Do you plan to go back to Cat­alo­nia? Yes. My wife and I agreed to go back by the time our old­est daugh­ter would have to start high school. El­e­men­tary school in Tai­wan is all right, but high school in Tai­wan is in­sanely com­pet­i­tive and high-pres­sure, and we feel our two kids would ben­e­fit from an ed­u­ca­tion in Barcelona. After doing the el­e­men­tary school in Chi­nese, they should have enough base to mas­ter the most com­pli­cated of the four lan­guages they learn.

Some suggestions

Can you recommend a place to have lunch with friends?

Any of the Din Tai Fung restaurants (but I'm partial to the one under Taipei 101). Failing that, The Sweet Dinasty, very close to Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT (blue line), Exit 2.

Where would you have a special dinner for two?

Depends on how special. The problem with good, high-end restaurants in Taipei is that they're very crowded, so having an intimate dinner can be difficult if the next table is less than a metre away. If you want a really special dinner but you don't care so much about luxury, I'd say one of the tea houses in Maokong mountain, but you should go early and get a table in one of the terraces overlooking Taipei. If you're lucky and the day is clear, the views at night are astounding.

When is the best time of year to plan a visit?

I'd say either in early spring or late autumn. Summer is hot and very humid, and winter is often cloudy and rainy in northern Taiwan.

What is the best kept secret about the area?

I probably haven't found it yet. Even after more than four years, I keep finding out new things about the island I didn't know about. Just last year, I found out that there's an aboriginal village that has ancient trees more than a thousand years old, that makes for a nice weekend trip. Every time we go hiking, we see new species we didn't know about, biodiversity in the island is astounding, and any people who love fauna and flora could probably spend years in the field and still want to keep going out.

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