Vancouver City and Taipei City
張貼日期：Nov 20, 2010 11:6:25 AM
Vancouver City and Taipei City
Irene
During my tour in the last summer, I spent a lot of time in Vancouver city where I learned and experienced a new living style which is different from that in my hometown—Taipei. Although both cities are big and prosperous, they are different in the mass transportation system, environment of the residence and representative buildings. After contrasting these two cities, I think I prefer to live in Vancouver than Taipei.
The first different is the mass transportation system. The mass transportation system in Vancouver is very convenient. There are two main systems there; one is cable car; the other is a kind of rapid train, called sky train. The best point of them is that they are always on time because the government has already built two special roads for these two transportation means. So they will not be caught in the traffic jams. Besides, since they are always on time, the passengers can know the exact time when the bus will arrive, so they needn’t spend a lot of time waiting. In Taiwan, the mass transportation system now only depends on the bus and due to the bad traffic and service, almost all regulars of the bus have the experience of waiting a bus for a long time and become mad. Even when passengers get on the bus, they might also spend a lot of time riding on it because the traffic usually is not smooth. What’s worse is that most bus drivers are rude and impatient. Those situations bother Taipei citizens and make them feel inconvenient.
The second different is the environment of residence. Vancouver is a well-designed city. So the residential and the business districts are separated. Most residences locate in the residential area in the suburbs. Most houses are bunglows and they are painted in brightly palatable colors and there are beautiful lawns in front of the houses. The residents there like to plant flowers and use them to decorate their houses. For instance, they hang flower pots from the ceiling or beautify the lawn with flower beds. It’s quite obvious that they spend a lot of time on gardening. On the contrary, most Taipei citizens don’t live in pure residential districts. The residents usually locate in business districts or industry districts. The most popular house style here is apartments and they are always crowded with people. Most people don’t care much about the appearance of their houses; the colors of apartments are gloomy and look dirty. Sometimes those apartments are covered with a layer of dust because of too much dirt in the air. Furthermore, few families in Taipei have private lawns unless they are rich enough.
Both Vancouver and Taipei cities have their own representative buildings. In Vancouver, the most famous and representative building is near the sea. Its former use is the meeting place of the world fair. Now, its interior is remodeled into movie theaters, restaurants, hotels and museums. Its outline looks like a white sailboat, with canvas-style roof and rig-style fence. Many citizens like to have a walk there and enjoy the beautiful sunset on the sea. In Taipei, the most representative building is Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Its location is not very good because around it are four big and noisy avenues. There are three main parts of it: one is the music hall, the other is the theater, and another is the Memorial. The music hall and the theater are typical Chinese architectures. The Memorial is more modern. But I think the whole square is too artificial. On holidays, many Taipei citizens do outdoor exercise there. Too many people make it become crowded.
In my heart, Vancouver is a city mixed with nature and modern beauty. Moreover, it has good transportation systems, wall-planned residences and enough activity spaces. On the contrary, Taipei’s traffic is bad, the living circumstance is abominable and crowded. Living in this kind of city for so many years sometimes makes me feel unhappy and bored. Therefore, I think I’d rather live in Vancouver city the rest of my life.