Living in Taiwan: Our Practical Guide for 2026

Updated August 2026. Taiwan is still one of the easiest places we have lived for a few months. It has excellent public transport, fast internet, dense neighbourhoods where almost everything is close, great food, accessible nature and a level of day-to-day convenience that makes settling in surprisingly easy.

The original version of this guide was written when Taiwan was much cheaper, before it had a Digital Nomad Visa, and with a long political explainer that now distracts from the question readers actually have: what is it like to live there? This version focuses on that.

Living in Taiwan: the short version

I would happily live in Taiwan again. Taipei works particularly well if you want a major Asian city without giving up easy hiking, reliable transport or the ability to get dinner at almost any hour.

The biggest adjustment for many foreigners is language. You can function in Taipei with limited Mandarin, but daily life gets much richer once you can read basic Chinese and handle ordinary interactions yourself. Outside the most international parts of Taipei, Mandarin becomes much more useful.

Taipei or somewhere else?

Taipei is the obvious first base. It has the best public transport, the largest international community, excellent healthcare access and the widest range of work-friendly cafes and services. It is also the most expensive part of Taiwan and gets a lot of rain.

Kaohsiung is warmer, flatter and more spread out. Taichung sits between the two in feel and climate. Tainan is where I would go if food and older neighbourhoods mattered more to me than having the full infrastructure of Taipei.

Getting around Taiwan

One of Taiwan’s biggest advantages is that you do not need a car for ordinary city life. Taipei’s MRT is easy to understand, buses fill the gaps, and the rail network makes intercity travel straightforward. High-speed rail connects the main cities on the west coast quickly.

Scooters are everywhere, but I would not rent one simply because they look convenient. Urban riding requires comfort with dense scooter traffic, turning rules and local road behaviour. For hiking or rural trips, a rental car can make sense; for Taipei itself, it is more burden than benefit.

Internet and working remotely

Taiwan was one of the easiest places we worked online. Home internet was fast, mobile data was dependable, and cafes with usable Wi-Fi were easy to find. I still get a local SIM rather than depend on roaming because mobile data becomes the backup connection for work and navigation.

Taiwan’s Digital Nomad Visa in 2026

Taiwan now has a specific Digital Nomad Visa for people working remotely for overseas employers or businesses. The initial visa allows a six-month stay and can be extended in Taiwan in six-month blocks, up to a total stay of two years if you continue to qualify.

The current income threshold is US$20,000 in one of the previous two years for applicants aged 20–29 and US$40,000 for applicants aged 30 or older. Holding a digital nomad visa from another country can also satisfy one of the eligibility routes. The visa does not give you permission to work for a Taiwanese employer.

I would check the current application requirements before applying rather than build a move around a screenshot or an old blog post. This programme has already changed significantly since it launched.

Cost of living in Taiwan

The old version of this article described US$3–5 meals and very cheap short-term rent as though those were permanent facts. Taiwan is no longer the bargain it was when we first lived there, especially for furnished accommodation in central Taipei.

What still keeps daily costs manageable is the structure of life: local meals can be inexpensive, public transport is good enough that you can avoid a car, and convenience stores handle an absurd number of everyday tasks. Housing is the part of the budget I would research first.

Food is one of the best parts of living there

Beef noodles, lu rou fan, dumplings, gua bao, breakfast shops, fruit, shaved ice and night-market snacks make it dangerously easy to organise your day around eating. You can also eat out constantly without treating every meal as an event.

After a while, though, I wanted more vegetables and less fried food. Our guide to eating healthy in Taiwan is specifically about how we handled that while still eating local food.

Mandarin, Taiwanese and English

Mandarin is the language I would learn for everyday life. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Taiwan, which takes some adjustment if you learned simplified characters in mainland China, but the underlying language is familiar.

You will also hear Taiwanese Taigi, especially outside the most international environments and among older people. English can get you through a surprising number of professional interactions in Taipei, but I would not treat Taiwan as an English-speaking destination.

Healthcare

We had good experiences getting ordinary medical and dental care in Taiwan. Clinics are plentiful in the cities and the system is easy to navigate compared with many places we have lived. As a short-term visitor, I still carry travel insurance rather than assume Taiwan’s domestic health system will cover me.

Weather: Taipei is wetter than the postcard version

Taiwan ranges from subtropical to tropical, and the experience changes considerably by city and elevation. Taipei can be damp and grey in winter and hot, humid and stormy in summer. Southern Taiwan is generally warmer and sunnier.

Typhoons are part of life. If one is approaching, I follow local warnings and closures rather than trying to preserve a sightseeing itinerary.

Would we live in Taiwan again?

Yes. Taiwan works particularly well for us because it combines city convenience with language learning and genuinely accessible outdoor life. I would budget more for housing than we did the first time, choose the city based on climate and daily routine, and stay long enough that learning Mandarin starts paying off in ordinary conversations.