You like money, don't you? I like money. I don't like money as much as the things I buy with money, but I've met a couple of people who prize money above all other things. In Taiwan, provided you're not Christian or Buddhist, you can even pray for money without feeling too guilty about it.
There are two kinds of money in Taiwan: ceremonial or "joss" money and real money. With ceremonial money you can buy the favor (or protection) of ancestral spirits. With real money you can buy a beer at 7-11 or pay your rent. I suppose you could burn real money and use that to buy the favor of ancestral spirits, but that would get expensive.
Part of me would love to write about ceremonial money here. That topic is really fun. But no, real money will be today's topic.
The picture at the top is the type of currency you'll encounter in Taiwan. There are the 1 NTD ("New Taiwan Dollar" or "Taiwan New Dollar" / "TWD") coins, which are about as useful as pennies in the States, there's the slightly more useful 5 NT (most of us drop the "D") coins, the 10 NT coins, the 50 NT coins and the paper currency. 100 NT will buy you a lunchbox with some change left over. It will also buy you a draft beer in most bars. It will buy you less than a full tank of gas for a scooter. 500 NT will buy you cheaper items of clothing, a cheaper bottle of whiskey and a meal in all but the most expensive restaurants. 1000 NT will buy you almost a full tank of gas for a newer car, a day inside an amusement park or a pair of decent (if not excellent) shoes.
At the time of writing the exchange rates are:
1 NT = 0.36 U.S. Dollars
1 NT = 0.03 Euros
1 NT = 0,03 British Pounds
1 NT = 0.05 Australian Dollars
1 NT = 0.05 Canadian Dollars
1 NT = 4.01 Japanese Yen
1 NT = 0.23 Chinese Renminbi (Yuan)
Adjust your expectations accordingly. Needless to say, some things are cheaper in Taiwan, some are more expensive, and sometimes bargaining comes into play. If you ask me Taipei is expensive, but then again I've lived in Taiwan for over two decades, and most of those two decades were spent in more rural areas. Anywhere outside of Taipei is cheaper, though buying foreign products is almost never cheap, no matter where in Taiwan you are.
Of course at some point you'll need to take some of those New Taiwan Dollars (or Taiwan New Dollars) and put them into a bank. To do so you'll need to set up an account in one of Taiwan's many banks, none of which are pleasant to deal with or pleasant to sit in for long periods of time. Oh well, you like money, right?
In terms of selecting a bank, I'd encourage you to select one with more branches, and moreover with branches all over Taiwan. This is for two reasons: 1) You may be working at more than one place, and having an account at a bigger bank makes getting paid easier, and 2) Foreign residents will need to engage in international banking on some level, and smaller banks don't do this well for obvious reasons. Bank of Taiwan? No problem. The Taiwan Post Office? Also not a bad choice. The Farmer's Bank of Penghu? Maybe not the best place to put your money.
As for actually opening an account it involves, as you'd expect, filling out and signing various forms, and also showing proper identification. For U.S. citizens this process is even more complicated, in that we have to fill out an extra form notifying the IRS that we're opening a bank account in another country. I highly recommend that those new to Taiwan take along an English-capable Taiwanese friend or coworker to assist them in opening a bank account. There's no reason to get paranoid. Between the bank's insistence on procedure, and the scrupulousness of most Taiwanese people with regard to money, you're not likely to get tricked out of your month's pay while at the bank.
Unless maybe you're from the Philippines, Thailand or Indonesia. But that, my friends, is another story...
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