Safety Tips in Taiwan

The damage of typhoons in Taiwan gets more and more with the global environment change,esp. in south of Taiwan,a popular tourist site,that is , Kenting, where there is a potential danger on a bridge linking kenting downtown and other towns. That means, when the bridge is damaged by wild wind and heavy rains, you could probably be stuck in kenting!
The same situation also applies in "lu dao" (green island), lan yu, and other islands.
Please check the Central Weather Bureau before you go.

Taiwan has a great medical system and if your un insured is pretty cheap to patch you up...compared to most countries.

There is no malaria, sars seems in the past and avian flu is kept at bay and i never heard of it.

The biggest worry is stuff like ecoli. every year i get some form of ecoli and it wipes me out for a week. Its from the foods, so you need to be careful, especially at markets and food stands on the roads, which is likely where you will get it from.

My family that visited got pills from the doctor that were a vaccine i presume, and they never had any troubles for the 3 weeks they were here.

Dengue fever can be problematic. every year there are a couple people that die (old/sick). Mostly in southern Taiwan. It spreads by mosquitoes, so avoid them and your good. i get bit a lot, and never have a problem, but last year there were a couple hundred people who got it (most get better no problem).

Don't drink the tap water. it wont kill you, but may make you sick. bottled water, or boiled water. Rainwater is usually acidic from pollution (mainly in western/northern taiwan), so avoid that as well. better yet, buy tea/juice instead, almost the same price anyway.....

Typhoons come every year, like a hurricane in the states. July to November is the season, but most are in Aug/Sept. Taiwan is quite safe in typhoons, and devastation like you see in China, Philippines and even the USA form hurricanes is just not seen.

you should avoid going outside though, things blowing around can be dangerous.

The real bad thing about typhoons are you cant travel.....it rains, and i mean REALLY rains, and blows hard.....so any sight seeing is ruined. sometimes you can still go shopping and such indoors, but going to and from, use common sense and avoid walking/scooters etc.

They happen. Many small ones. The building structure in Taiwan, although it may not look it, is pretty safe! there was a really devastating one a few years back, but they are rare. I would not be any more worried here than say Japan or California.

Probably good to have an emergency contact or 2, just in case. Even have your embassies phone #.

At first I was worried that my incoming flight would be delayed due the impending typhoon.

When the typhoon lashed downtown Taipei, I stayed indoor like the locals but right after the typhoon, we went driving around to check out the damage. Actually, it is not advisable as there could be broken power lines and better to keep roads clear for emergency operation.

There were many typhoon related scrolling advisories and advisories on all major tv networks, They are all in Chinese as the typhoon approached. So check with the locals and stay safe.

Usually the weather after the typhoon has passed is fantastic - clear skies. Unfortunately due to the damages on roads, it affected my planned trip to other parts of Taiwan.

The same sense of heeding warnings and following the local authorities when it comes to another natural disaster common in Taiwan - earthquake.

Rockslides and Mudslides are rather common occurences in Taiwan's mountains. Heavy rains and earthquakes (especially after 921) have caused many mountain slopes to become unstable. Often, entire mountain sides will collapse, causing roads to be broken and sometimes killing. While your chance of being buried by a landslide is small, all mountainous roads (including Hehuanshan Road, Alishan Highway, and South Cross Island Highway) are possible rockslide areas, often cutting off particular areas from travel. Check before you go into the mountains.

Traffic in Taiwan isn't quite as bad as some areas in America (yet) but it probably will be, soon. The Republic of China is a relatively affluent nation, and soon more people will be driving, and considering how many people there are for this small island, that's scary.

Traffic problems at the present don't deal so much with cars as with scooters and motorcycles. In Taiwan, scooters are everywhere; driving on the same road as those things is hell. Plus, motorists here generally don't pay attention to traffic signals; don't expect all cars to stop at red lights. Drivers are also generally more aggressive here than in the United States. Also, no matter what a traffic signal may say, pedestrians NEVER have the right of way, and don't expect someone on a car, scooter, or motorcycle to stop for you.

Although not quite as frequent as typhoons, major earthquakes in Taiwan are really something to worry about. The island of Taiwan was formed by the collision of the Phillipines and Eurasian Plates, meaning that the island sits right on top of the boundary of the plates. This also means that as the collision between the plates continue, plenty of earthquakes are produced (the earthquakes are what created the scenery of the Zhongyang Mountain Range). Earthquakes over magnitude 7 rarely hit Taiwan, but during the middle of the night on September 21, 1999, a massive earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale struck in Jiji, Nantou County. The Chelungpu Fault, a long fault line over 100 km long, was uplifted up to nine meters, causing bridges, homes, and buildings to collapse. Over 2,500 people were killed by the quake. Taiwan still get's its fair share of earthquakes: Each year, an average of 3.5 earthquakes over magnitude 6 hit the island, and 29 earthquakes over magnitude 5 hit. If you stay in Taiwan for a little while, you're bound to run into at least one earthquake.