It appears, my friends, that I'll be leaving Pingtung soon. Between July and August I'll spend about a month visiting family in the States, and after that I'll be moving outside the county. Am I sorry to be leaving? In some ways yes, in others no. I definitely learned a lot during my time in Pingtung, even though living and working here wasn't always easy.
With three weeks to go until the end of the semester, I'd like to discuss my time in this county.
1. Places We Lived
1a. Fangliao 枋寮
Fangliao is about halfway up (or halfway down) the length of Pingtung County, for all intents and purposes on the dividing line between farmland and coastal scenery. About 20,000 people live in Fangliao, and its most important features are the Fangliao Fishing Port and the Fangliao Train Station.
There isn't much for tourists in Fangliao. There's some street food and a few restaurants within reach of the port, but nothing that will blow anyone's mind. Outside of Central Fangliao the township consists of fish farms, pineapple fields, mango fields and Taiwan's southernmost industrial area.
There aren't many foreigners in Fangliao. During my time there I met a few, though the few I met usually lived in nearby townships and not in Fangliao itself. This lack of foreigners is a reflection of the local economy. There are only a couple viable cram schools in Central Fangliao, and it's about as far from "international" as you can get. Sometimes I found this lack of internationalism refreshing, in that interactions with people there tended to be free of assumptions about what kind of person I was and what I was able to do.
This said, Fangliao can be kind of lonely. There's not a lot to do there, and most locals tend to retire to the safety of their homes when they're not busy in the fields. I never blamed them for this, but it meant that on weekends I often felt the need to "escape" to areas outside the township.
1b. Hengchun 恆春
Hengchun is the southernmost administrative district in Taiwan, and Central Hengchun, where I still work at the time of writing, is 10-15 minutes north of Kenting. A little over 30,000 people live in Hengchun. Several famous tourist sites can be found here, including Kenting, Kenting National Park, Nanwan, Baisha and Houbihu Fishing Port. Much of the economy is centered around tourism, though there's an agricultural area west of Central Hengchun where most farmers grow either rice or onions.
If you like being outdoors there's plenty to do in Hengchun. Hiking, surfing, diving, snorkeling, fishing and many other outdoor activities are easy to do in this area. There are a number of bars for those interested in nightlife, and there are a fair number of restaurants to choose from.
A surprising number of foreigners live in Hengchun. Given its status as a weekend getaway, the presence of these foreign residents makes a kind of sense, but then again the local population is small, and there aren't that many types of businesses that employ foreigners, so the disproportionate number of expats is, for me at least, something of a mystery.
I've never found Hengchun to be lonely in the way that Fangliao is lonely, but in Hengchun there's a different problem: finding a place to live. The rent here is often ridiculously high, and finding anything that's not just a room with a tiny attached (and probably illegal) bathroom is seriously difficult.
We rented two houses in Pingtung, one in Fangliao from 2020-2022, and another in Hengchun from 2022-2024.
2a. Fangliao (Xinkai Village 新開村)
Our house in Fangliao was located far from Central Fangliao, on the other side of the Mountainside Highway to the east of town. This house was in Xinkai Village, which is the last village you'll encounter if you're hiking the Jinshuiying Historic Trail from Fangliao to Dawu Township in Taitung County.
Xinkai is a funny little village surrounded by mango and wax apple orchards. The population is on average older. I never knew how many people live there, but it can't be more than dozens. Their elementary school closed down years ago, and snakes are plentiful in Xinkai. I saw many banded kraits ("umbrella snakes") either dead or alive on the road into the village each morning.
The house we rented in Xinkai was old but it had been remodeled. It consisted of three floors, with an empty plot of land next door that we used as a parking space. The interior was good, but water leaked through the stairway between the first and second floors on rainy days. The turn into the tiny lane fronting the house could also be difficult. Rent was 5000 a month, which was cheap even for Fangliao.
2b. Hengchun (Sigou Village 四溝里)
Our house in Hengchun is about 3 km west of Central Hengchun. When people ask me where it is I usually just say, "in the countryside out past the McDonald's."
Sigou Village is on the agricultural plain west of town, east of the ridge that separates this plain from the coast. It's not a place that most tourists pass through, though Sigou Road can be a convenient shortcut from the aquarium to Longluan Lake, Baisha and Houbihu Fishing Port.
Sigou is a lot like Xinkai, the difference being that I'm now surrounded by onion and rice fields rather than mango and wax apple orchards. The average age is about the same, though there are more kids in Sigou. I haven't had much to do with my neighbors in Sigou, but that's mostly my fault. We tend to go away most weekends, and from Monday to Friday we're only home about half of every evening.
Our house in Hengchun is slowly falling apart. I don't know how old it is, but it's easily more than 40 years old. It leaks during heavy rains, and on windy days all of the dust and other debris from the road get blown into the car port in front of our house. Rent here is 10,000 NT a month, double what we paid in Xinkai, but relative to other places in the area this is a steal. Only the air conditioner in the upstairs bedroom really works, and no matter how hard we try to clean the downstairs bathroom it always looks disgusting.
3. Jobs
3a. Fangliao
In Fangliao my main school was Fangliao Elementary. I also worked at Yuguang Elementary in nearby Jiadong Township.
My first year at Fangliao Elementary was GREAT, my first year at Yuguang Elementary less so. During my first year at Fangliao Elementary I was made very welcome by the principal and other staff members, and I had a lot of support for what I was doing. Yuguang Elementary was something of a mess during my first year there, primarily due to an unruly sixth grade class and a rather "unique" relationship the principal had formed with the parents.
During my second year in Fangliao the two schools seemed to switch places. The principal of Fangliao during my first year was sent to another school in Gaoshu, and our new principal, a transfer from Hengchun, never developed (or was never given a chance to develop) a good relationship with either the teachers or the parents at Fangliao Elementary. It got so bad, in fact, that he eventually gave up on being a principal altogether.
Yuguang Elementary, on the other hand, got a lot less weird during my second year there. The unruly sixth graders graduated, and thus their rather eccentric parents were no longer a problem. Yuguang also hired a few teachers who were willing to stand up to the principal, and this made everything better. This said, almost the entire second half of this school year was online due to COVID. It might have gotten strange again if in-person classes had continued.
By the end of my second year Fangliao Elementary was a mess. It also transpired that Fangliao and Yuguang elementary schools no longer wanted to work with each other, possibly because of the new principal at Fangliao. Both Yuguang and Fangliao asked me to stay on, but I would have had to choose between them. If I'd stayed at Fangliao they would have shared me with Donghai Elementary, if I'd stayed at Yuguang I'd have worked as the Foreign Teacher in their newly-christened "bilingual school."
I didn't like either option, and another FET was leaving her job at Hengchun Junior High School, so I transferred here instead.
3b. Hengchun
In Hengchun my main school is Hengchun Junior High School. I also work at Hengchun Elementary School, not far away.
I was warned about Hengchun Junior High before I applied to transfer. The teacher I replaced warned me, as did several people I know around the county. For the record I didn't disbelieve their warnings, it was just that I liked the area and I wanted to try it out for myself. Now that almost two years have gone by I can say that yes, they were right to warn me.
Kids in Hengchun Junior High don't study much. For that matter they don't often come to school on time, and they don't respect most of their teachers. I get a few extra points for being the one foreigner they have a chance to talk to, but most of them didn't learn much English in their various elementary schools and their textbooks are way, way above their level.
The biggest problem with Hengchun Junior High is, I think, the varying levels of education and home environments of its students. Students coming here from Hengchun Elementary and Qiaoyong are no problem, but in the seventh grade these students are mixed into a population that also includes kids from smaller, more rural schools like Daping, Shanhai and Kenting. A lot of the students from these smaller schools haven't -- to put it charitably -- quite mastered the alphabet or any other facet of the English language, and putting them in the same class as kids who have results in widespread frustration.
Hengchun Elementary, on the other hand, is an awesome school. It's one of the best elementary schools I've ever worked at. If I could get full time at Hengchun Elementary I'd sign on for another year in this area without hesitation, but they don't want to change their plan or take responsibility for integrating a foreign teacher into that school's English program. As it is I have six classes a week there, so I don't interact with them all that much.
4. County Government
Ah, the Pingtung County Bureau of Education. What can I say?
I've said it before and I'll say it again: communication is a BIG problem. There are competing Line groups, official notices for county-wide meetings (and other activities) often arrive late or not at all, and I'm still trying to figure out where any city/county government's responsibilities end and the TFETP Program's responsibilities begin. In many instances receiving up to date information in Pingtung seems to be more about who you know. In Taiwan relationships often take precedence over established rules, and in this respect Pingtung is not unusual.
I can't complain that much about the workshops because I'm not sure how much better or worse such workshops are in other counties. I'll just say that we're usually confronted with the same speakers, covering the same topics, in the same broken English. A couple of the speakers have had interesting things to say and have presented well, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
During my first year in Pingtung we were doing a "science lesson activity," in which we visited other schools in our area and taught them about a science concept of our choice. I genuinely enjoyed this activity. It allowed me to visit many other elementary schools in Fangliao, Jiadong, Linbian, Laiyi, Chunrh and Fangshan townships, and I enjoyed most of the interactions which took place during those visits. I think adding the science element to this activity was a bit unnecessary, but we were free to bend whatever topic we'd chosen to suit the students we were teaching.
Unfortunately COVID seems to have killed off this activity. Either that or there was an issue with the science toys/equipment purchased for this lesson. I've heard two competing explanations, and I still don't know which one is true.
Another part of working in Pingtung used to be the press conference held in Pingtung City. We'd all gather at the Pingtung County Government Building, a couple of us would do some kind of demonstration, the County Magistrate would give a speech, and the event would wind up in the newspapers later on. A lot of people hated it, but I thought it was OK. Sure, if you changed schools like I did it was a little odd to be representing your school(s) from the previous year while you were teaching somewhere else, but I didn't mind it that much.
Since moving to Hengchun I haven't had nearly as many interactions with the County Government. I have the feeling that this is normal in Hengchun, which is two hours away from the County Government building in Pingtung City. I still get observed twice a year, but that's about it.
My last observation was two weeks ago. There was a somewhat wistful, slightly unsettling moment after this observation when I got into a conversation with the three people sent to observe me. As this conversation progressed it slowly dawned on those present how long we'd known each other, and how long ago we'd first met. One of the women present had observed me at my very first public school posting, way back in 2006.
5. Pingtung in General
Aside from work issues I don't have anything against Pingtung. For the most part it's very rural; the farmers do farmy things, the mountain people do mountainy things, the ocean people do oceany things and the city people do city things. This is as it should be.
I've known many expats (myself included) who've fallen into the trap of blaming local people for being who they are, but in my opinion this is a surefire way to make yourself unhappy. You don't need to like everything and everyone in Pingtung (or in Taiwan in general), but it's important to remember that they have reasons for being the way they are, and holding a grudge against them for that is just silly.
People aside, it must be admitted that most of Pingtung isn't easy to get around. Highway 1 (Highway 26 in Hengchun) runs almost the length of the county, and closer to Kaohsiung there's the Formosa Freeway between Ligang and Linbian. Aside from those two thoroughfares, however, a lot of this county consists of narrow roads leading to dangerous intersections. Traffic accidents kill about 10 people in Pingtung every month, so if you're on the roads in this county be careful.
In terms of vacation destinations, most of the scenic spots are either south of Fangshan or east of Neipu, but many people also like Donggang, where a major religious festival is held every year, Xiaoliuqiu, a coral atoll off the coast of Donggang, and the Christmas/New Year lights at two locations in Pingtung City. There are some spots worth going to in Gaoshu, Neipu, Chaozhou and the mountain townships south of (the more famous) Sandimen, but some of those places are admittedly very local and not for everyone.
As to whether you yourself would enjoy living, working or just visiting Pingtung I cannot say. For me it's been a mixed bag, but I've certainly made both friends and memories in this part of Taiwan. It's definitely not a county to be judged on what you see from Highway 1 alone, there's a lot more to it than that.
6. Pingtung Compared to Other Cities/Counties I've Lived In
I don't think it's either fair or meaningful to compare Pingtung to Taichung and Hsinchu. I lived in those two cities a long time ago, and in the years since they've changed a lot.
I could compare Pingtung to Kaohsiung, but since I have yet to really live or work in Kaohsiung that doesn't seem fair. We own an apartment in Kaohsiung, and I visit that city often, but I think that until I really live there I won't know Kaohsiung like the people living there know it.
I can, however, compare Pingtung to Taitung. Before moving to Pingtung I lived in Taitung for a total of 13 years, and I still visit that county at least once a month.
6a. Nature/Scenery: Taitung has far better ocean scenery, but in terms of mountain scenery it's a close race between the two counties. If you want to go up in the mountains and feel "aboriginal," Sandimen and Wutai townships are hard to beat.
6b. Work Environment: Working for the Taitung County Government has changed quite a bit since I left that county. Relations between the FETs and the Taitung County Government aren't as cordial or as informal as they once were.
I will say, however, that the Taitung City Government's location in the center of that county facilitates improved communication between the local bureau of education and the schools. In terms of the quality of these schools I think the two counties are, on average, fairly similar. Often the difference between Taitung and Pingtung public schools amounts to a question of scale -- Pingtung has more larger public schools than Taitung has, and there are also more schools in Pingtung County than there are in Taitung.
6c. Local Government: The differences between the Pingtung County Government and the Taitung County Government are largely due to a) Pingtung's much larger population, b) a much larger agricultural sector within Pingtung County, and c) the fact that Pingtung tends to lean left/DPP where Taitung leans right/KMT. The Taitung County Government is more compact/efficient, but given its penchant for "development" (i.e. covering green spaces with cement and building questionable facilities), this "efficiency" can be a problem.
6d. People: People in Pingtung tend to lean on Taiwanese/Hokkien a lot more, whereas I never felt the need to know much Taiwanese in Taitung. Where Taitung is more divided between Han Chinese and aboriginal people, Pingtung is more of a mix of Taiwanese speakers, Hakka speakers and Paiwan-speaking aboriginals.
6e. Transportation: Maybe one day there will be an HSR stop in Pingtung City, maybe one day the Kaohsiung MRT will extend all the way down to Donggang or even to Chaozhou, yet until that day most of Pingtung won't be very easy to navigate, even if this fact sometimes adds to its charm.
Taitung is more of a dichotomy. The train line through Taitung passes through the East Rift Valley, so getting to any number of locations near the mountains between Taitung City and Hualien isn't that difficult. Getting to some spots on the north coast, however, is going to take you a while. That's not necessarily a bad thing.
6f. Pingtung City vs. Taitung City: In this regard it's no contest: Taitung City is WAY more interesting. The best I can say about Pingtung City is that it's close to Kaohsiung. Taitung City? It's a tourist spot in its own right, and also a very comfortable place to live if you can find work there.
7. So Yeah, Goodbye Pingtung
I'm sure I'll pass through again, but I doubt I'll be staying very long.
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