Besides that I <3 Taiwan!! As a tourist I loved pineapple cakes, beef noodle soup, night markets, high-speed trains, and plenty of fresh mangoes and coconuts!

I love Taiwan and its people, and I hope everything stays peaceful and will do my part to keep it that way like voting and writing policymakers, but if I’m an expat I wouldn’t be emotionally invested in a total war for survival.

Just like the TN visa. That's a deal breaker right there.

Then again, given the right mix of COL and wages, that might be tolerable, especially in a situation where something makes me willing to follow through on that plan.

Also, charitable donations, which includes working for charities for free, as well as voluntary work, are tax deductible for the "tax entity", which if you are married you can choose to be your marriage.

So depending on what your partner does, and likes to do, if you are in a very high paying job, it might make more economic sense for your partner to "work for free" donating their work to a charity.

This essentially would mean that you get 100% of your income, free of taxes.

Example A: your salary 200k, your partner salary 50k. Combined taxes: 250k * 0.45 = 112k. Earnings: 250 - taxes = 138k.

Example B: your salary 200k, your partner exercises a 50k job for a charity for free. Taxes: 200*0.45/2 - 50k = -10k = 0k. Earnings 200k > 138k.

I'm not suggesting that your partner shouldn't work, only mentioning that if you are moving to Germany for a high-paying job, that is just one part of the equation. IANAL, nor a tax advisor, so I'd recommend you explore the options and evaluate the package "as a whole".

For a lot of people, being able to work for a charity for free for a couple of years can be much more rewarding than a 8-5 office job at a FAANG.

Drop me a line if you were ever here and longing for a joy ride ;)

For safety, from 0 to 10, I'd give it a 9.5. I like to joke about the daily biggest national news being a grandma who lost its cat, since not much "bad things" happens here. Most of the thing I lost were returned, for example I thought I've lost my bag with my ipad few years ago in a bar, but someone returned it the day after x)

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2020/06/13/2...

I would've thought that was India.

I found safety to be a non-issue the last time I was there. Taipei feels like any other big Asian city and even on smaller side streets I didn't feel unsafe. In smaller towns and such, I also wasn't nervous.

Over a year of anecdotal data using my own senses, which I consider extremely sensitive to allergens.

Maybe some pollution data will indicate otherwise? It's certainly no rural Kansas, and I bet industrial hot spots in Taiwan suffer (like near TPE), but yea I felt great in Taipei. Far better than most Asian cities, perhaps comparable to Tokyo.

> based on reports by the World Health Organization, that the air quality in Taiwan is generally the worst of all of the Four Asian Tigers, in particularly drawing attention to the annual mean PM10 level of Taiwan (54 micrograms per cubic meter). The annual mean PM10 level of the country's capital Taipei (47.1 micrograms per cubic meter) made the city rank only 1,089 among 1,600 included cities around the world. Based on 2004 data by Taiwan's Department of Environmental Protection, the annual mean PM10 level for Taiwan had, for the last decade, been worse than the European Union limit value (40 micrograms per cubic meter) every year.

I always enjoy taking a break from Japan and going there. People are more spontaneous, food is more varied, it’s refreshing.

Despite that, I've never felt safer at night than I have in Taiwan.

As long as you give a WIDE berth to blue trucks you should be fine.

Each of these places has a stereotype. Each are amazing the vast majority of the year. Pick your poison for the rest of the year.

Taiwan needs to open branches of all production in US and plan for mass evacuation of its population, so it doesn't wind up wasting it's time like Hong Kong must do.

A land invasion of Taiwan would quite possibly be the most painful land invasion imaginable.

https://warontherocks.com/2018/10/hope-on-the-horizon-taiwan...

> The first phase is the decisive battle in the littoral, extending up to 100 kilometers from the island. Key capabilities at this phase will include sea mines, and large surface vessels equipped with Taiwan’s capable, domestically manufactured anti-ship cruise missiles, the Hsiung Feng 2 and 3. Taiwan’s surface fleet includes larger vessels from the legacy force, such as French-built Lafayette class frigates, U.S.-built Kidd-class destroyers, and U.S.-designed Perry class frigates armed with both Hsiung Feng and Harpoon missiles, as well as a new class of fast attack Tuojiang class catamarans that carry 16 missiles. Taiwan also fields anti-ship Hsiung Feng missiles mounted on trucks that will disperse in order to survive initial strikes. While evading detection in Taiwan’s urban and mountainous terrain, they will launch strikes at surface ships throughout an invasion.

> The second phase seeks to annihilate the enemy at the beach area, which extends approximately 40 kilometers outwards from anticipated invasion beaches. This phase calls for Taiwan’s navy to lay mines in deep and shallow waters off suspected landing beaches. A new fleet of automated, fast minelaying ships are being built for that mission. In the interim, mine-launching rails can be installed on several classes of surface vessels. While invading ships are slowed by mine fields, swarms of small fast attack boats and truck-launched anti-ship cruise missiles will target key ships in the invasion force, particularly amphibious landing ships carrying the initial wave of PLA assault troops as well as roll-on-roll-off vessels carrying follow-on vehicles and armor.

On top of that, hike along the west coast at any time. As you hike along mountain paths you'll stumble upon bunker after bunker.

Air quality has regressed though, because they shut down the nuclear power plant after Fukushima.

You will however need to continue file US taxes at a lower rate. America is one of the few countries that expects its expats to do that. Retain an accountant who specializes in this.