Taiwan in Transit

Yesterday, I had the chance to use Taipei's MRT to travel to places along the red line such as Taipei 101 and the night market in Jiantan. I was struck by how efficient the whole system is regarding the lines, metro cards and the subway stops. A newcomer to any city can expect to be thrust into unfamiliar territory. While I have used subway systems in many cities, I was not expecting everyone to be using the metro cards to pay for their fares or for anyone to organize into boarding lines painted onto the subway platforms. The subway rides are likewise are absent of any disruptive rocking common in older subway systems.

In my travels abroad to Tokyo and Seoul, I noticed significant disparities between their subway systems. Perhaps due to the age of Tokyo's infrastructure, Tokyo's subway system is less developed than a newer system like that of Seoul's or Taipei's. Something similar between both Seoul and Taipei's metro system was subway platforms wide space, cheap fare and smooth transit between stops. The subway system in the D.C. metro area can be considered the standard for subway systems in the United States, and even that particular system simply does not compare to the cleanliness or quality of the MRT.

In my next blog post, I will be discussing the cultural conception of eye contact and how it varies between East Asian countries more Western standards.