if you're not living in taipei.....

... you're basically wasting your taiwan experience. i lived in taipei for many years before moving to another part of the island, and all i can say is, the change in scenery doesn't make up for the utter stupidity of rural taiwan people. in taipei, people generally know that they can't make too much noise,don't park their vehicles like they have dyslexia, and generally don't act like they just came out of a chimpanzee cage. but the rest of this island, in the words of george carlin " Holy jumping shitballs! dumber than a second coat of paint!" you as a foriegner (unless you just look at the ground everytime rural taiwanese think you should) will have many problems with these people. it won't be long before they start pushing the limits with you, because they want to show you that you (and yes even your taiwan spouse) are outsiders. these people are also violent and basically have the law on their side thanks to gwan shi with the cops. also, their constant, noisy religious rituals and burning of paper money even drives taipei people batty. take my advice: move to taipei and stay there. the rest of this island isn't worth your time and stress.