Garbage Truck Music

For decades, yellow rubbish trucks have toured Taiwan’s streets playing tinkling renditions of Beethoven’s Für Elise or Bądarzewska-Baranowska’s A Maiden’s Prayer to alert residents that it is time to bring their waste downstairs. Rather than leaving bags at the kerb, residents hand-deliver sorted rubbish, food waste, and recycling directly to the truck — a system introduced in the 1960s that turned a mundane chore into a nightly neighbourhood ritual. For the elderly in particular, the wait for the truck has become a social occasion, with many arriving early to chat with neighbours at the collection point. Check garbage truck music in Taiwan on YouTube.

Knocking Before Entering a Hotel Room

Before entering a hotel room, it is common to see people knock on the closed doors before they are opened. This is a folk custom rooted in the belief that empty spaces may be occupied by wandering spirits. Knocking announces human arrival politely and asks the spirits to vacate.

Karaoke with Private Rooms

Taiwanese karaoke (KTV) is overwhelmingly a private-room experience, not the open-stage format common in Western countries. Groups book a room by the hour, which comes equipped with a large screen, a catalogue of tens of thousands of songs including Western and Mandopop titles, a touchscreen song-queuing console, and often food and drinks service. The format removes the performance anxiety of singing before strangers, making KTV accessible to people of all abilities, and it is a genuinely popular social activity across all age groups — from university students to company colleagues to family gatherings. Street-side and MRT booths also exist for those struck by a sudden urge to sing.

Free Public Toilets

Public toilets in Taiwan are consistently free of charge and are generally clean, well-maintained, and plentiful — in MRT stations, parks, scenic areas, and government buildings. This is conspicuous to visitors arriving from parts of Europe or elsewhere in Asia where pay toilets are common. Convenience stores (open 24 hours, found approximately every hundred metres in urban areas) also have customer toilets freely available. If you cannot find a dedicated public facility, the nearest 7-Eleven or FamilyMart is a reliable fallback.

Few Public Rubbish Bins

Paradoxically for a society that is notably clean in its public spaces, Taiwan has very few public litter bins on its streets — far fewer than most European or North American cities. This is intentional: the rubbish-truck system requires residents to sort and deliver waste directly, so there is little infrastructure for discarding things on the go. Visitors should pocket their rubbish and bring it to the hotel. The relative cleanliness of public spaces despite the scarcity of bins is a testament to civic culture rather than infrastructure. However, you still can find rubbish bins at MRT stations, convenience stores, night markets, etc.

Why Taiwanese Rarely Swim at the Beach

Taiwan is an island entirely surrounded by ocean, yet public sea swimming is relatively uncommon. The main reasons are practical: powerful rip currents along the east coast, sudden typhoon swells, and a coastline that in many areas lacks the gently shelving sandy beaches suited to casual bathing. There is also a cultural dimension — a historical association of the sea with danger and uncertainty. The result is that beaches draw sightseers and surfers, but the mass beach-swimming culture familiar to Australians or Brazilians is largely absent.

Formosa: The Beautiful Island

The name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted an uncharted island and recorded it on their maps as Ilha Formosa — “beautiful island” in Portuguese — a name that eventually replaced all others in European literature and remained in common use among English speakers well into the 20th century. Today, “Formosa” survives in certain Taiwanese company names, product brands, and in the scientific names of endemic species, as well as in the Chinese phonetic transliteration 福爾摩沙. The name is not considered offensive, though the modern preferred usage is simply Taiwan.

The Animated Pedestrian Crossing Figure

Taiwan’s pedestrian traffic lights feature a small animated figure — colloquially known as the little green man （小綠人） — that walks when it is safe to cross and progressively speeds up as the remaining time decreases, before switching to red. The animation is charming enough to have become something of a cultural mascot; Taipei has even installed novelty variants featuring pairs of figures holding hands or walking dogs at certain intersections. What the figure communicates practically is useful: the increasing pace of the animation gives a calibrated sense of urgency without requiring the pedestrian to stare at a countdown number. Check the animated pedestrian crossing figure on YouTube.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine （中醫） is fully integrated into Taiwan’s national health insurance system and practised alongside Western medicine rather than as an alternative to it. TCM clinics are ubiquitous — in urban neighbourhoods you will typically find one within a short walk — and it is entirely normal for a Taiwanese person to consult a TCM practitioner for chronic conditions, seasonal health maintenance, and post-injury recovery while also seeing a Western-trained doctor for acute illness. Herbal dispensaries, often identifiable by their distinctive dried-ingredient smell and rows of wooden drawers, are a common sight in older commercial districts.

The Receipt Lottery

Every purchase at a registered business in Taiwan generates a 統一發票 — a standardised receipt printed with an eight-digit lottery number. Every two months, the Ministry of Finance draws winning numbers, with prizes ranging from NT$200 for matching the last three digits up to NT$10 million for a full eight-digit match. The system was introduced in 1951 to combat tax evasion, giving consumers a financial incentive to demand legal receipts from merchants. Visitors can participate: keep your receipts, check the numbers after the draw, and redeem smaller prizes at any convenience store. Many Taiwanese people leave unchecked receipts in a box near the till as a small act of charity to shop staff.

Riverside Parks as Flood Defence

The wide, flat green spaces lining Taipei’s rivers — including the extensive Danshui and Keelung riverside parks popular with cyclists, joggers, and families — are not purely recreational. They are engineered flood plains: when typhoon rainfall causes river levels to rise, these parks are designed to flood, protecting the urban areas behind the flood walls. The parks sit several metres below road level, accessed by staircases through the flood barriers. On ordinary days they are delightful public amenities; in typhoon season they may be submerged. If you cycle along the riverside and notice the park gates are closed, a flood warning is likely in effect — heed it.

The Covered Pavement: Qílóu

Many older commercial streets in Taiwan feature qílóu（騎樓）: a colonnaded arcade formed by the ground floors of buildings projecting out over the pavement, creating a covered walkway between the road and the shop fronts. The design arrived via southern China and spread through the Japanese colonial period as a practical response to Taiwan’s hot summers and frequent rain. Walking under qílóu allows you to move between shops in comfort regardless of weather, though the uneven heights, occasional motorbikes parked in the arcade, and varying floor levels can require attention underfoot.

New Taipei City Christmas Town

Each year from late November through early January, New Taipei City transforms its civic centre around Banciao Station into one of Asia’s most elaborate Christmas light installations, known as New Taipei City Christmas Town（新北耶誕城）. The event attracts millions of visitors and features large-scale light sculptures, a central illuminated Christmas tree visible from the surrounding streets, and live music performances. It is conspicuous given that Taiwan has no significant Christian majority, and illustrates the wider East Asian tendency to adopt the aesthetic and commercial aspects of Western holidays with enthusiasm while decoupling them from religious meaning. For residents, the picture is more mixed. The crowds generate serious congestion around Banqiao, straining transport links and disrupting the rhythms of a busy commuter district. It is worth bearing in mind if you are passing through rather than visiting on purpose.

Taipei 101’s Changing Lights

Each night, the upper floors of Taipei 101 are illuminated in one of seven colours corresponding to the day of the week — following the order of the visible spectrum: red on Monday, orange on Tuesday, yellow on Wednesday, green on Thursday, blue on Friday, indigo on Saturday, and violet on Sunday. This system makes the tower something of a living calendar visible from across the Taipei basin.

Taipei Zoo: One of Asia’s Largest

The Taipei Zoo in Wenshan District covers a total area of 165 hectares, making it one of the largest zoos in Asia. The zoo is easily accessible by MRT (the Brown Line terminates at the zoo entrance), and its size means that a full visit rewards an entire day; taking the in-park shuttle to the upper areas and walking back downhill is the most comfortable strategy.

Internet Slang: ㄏㄏ (hh)

Taiwan uses a distinctive phonetic writing system called zhùyīn fúhào （注音符號, also known as bopomofo） as a phonetic alphabet taught in schools and widely used on keyboards. This has produced a uniquely Taiwanese form of internet abbreviation: the character ㄏ represents the sound h, so ㄏㄏ (hh) is used in online chat as the equivalent of “haha” — a mild, non-committal laugh reaction. This typing convention is invisible to those who learned Mandarin through pīnyīn romanisation (as in mainland China or internationally) and is one of several markers that distinguishes Taiwanese internet culture. Seeing ㄏㄏ in a message means someone is mildly amused, not necessarily laughing out loud.