Flying via Hong Kong Many prospective teachers fly from the United States or Canada to Taiwan or
Hong Kong on a twelve-month, open-ended round-trip ticket. Unfortunately, after a year elapses, these people often find themselves wanting to extend their stay. Unless they can sell the return portion of their ticket
, it is wasted. For this reason, unless you have a definite date of return, it is best to buy a one-way ticket to Hong Kong and a round-trip ticket from Hong Kong to Taiwan. The return ticket to Hong Kong will serve as the required "onward ticket" out of Taiwan. If you decide to stay in Asia for more than one year, you won't have to waste a return ticket home. Relatively inexpensive return tickets can be purchased in Hong Kong. Many Westerners travel throughout Asia after they finish teaching and some even cross Siberia to Europe on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Customs On the plane, you'll be asked to complete a customs declaration and to
provide an address in Taiwan. If you don't have a set destination, use the address of the Mandarin Training Center, which is listed in the "Studying Chinese" section. After Customs, the information counter staff can be very helpful. They offer information on getting from the airport to downtown Taipei and give out accommodations brochures and domestic travel literature. You'll also want to
exchange a few dollars into New Taiwan Dollars (NT$). Getting into Taipei Downtown Taipei is about twenty-five miles from Chiang Kai-Shek (CKS) Airport. Taxis into town are expensive, but two bus companies offer regular service into the city. The more convenient of the two is the Chung Hsing
limousine bus, which leaves every fifteen to twenty minutes and runs on two routes—one terminating at the Taipei Railway Station and the other at the Sungshan Domestic Airport. This service costs approximately NT$102 (US$3.71). The other bus service is actually a local bus and offers only one route into Taipei that also terminates at the Sungshan Domestic Airport. The local bus is usually more crowded, makes more stops, operates for fewer hours each day,
and has less space available for luggage. Probably because of the inconvenience, the local bus is cheaper at approximately NT$48 (US$1.75). Both the limousine and local buses run by major hotels and hostels en route. There are also express buses running to CKS airport. One runs from in front of the Taipei Railway Station and the other from the western end of Sungshan Domestic Airport. For a list of airlines that fly to Taiwan, click here.
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