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Taiwanese people are very friendly and usually very honest. If you are an English speaker you will find, in the south at least, that many people are eager to practice while they drive you around. Taipei is not going to be any problem. Even in On the province problems might occurother hand, but many locals are solvable. It is highly recommended to have smartphone on you embarrassed to translate whatever you search into chinese characters and for the use of google maps. You can buy a SIM card their broken English (fareastone e.g.young people) for NT$350 giving you a credit of 150 for calling plus 1GB of mobile internet. The whole country offers excellent wifi services (restaurants, 7-11, Metro and bus stations). Registring is mostly needed. Search help for that.Waiting times to hitch are short and people often or don't mind driving a bit further than the place where they needed to be. Very oftenspeak English at all (people over about 40), the drivers will also offer you so knowing some Mandarin helps a drink or even food. No matter how deep inside the province you are, hitching is possible absolutely everywhere! You might encounter Taiwan to be the easiest place to hitch in the worldlot.

The next best thing is to have a smartphone on you to translate whatever you search into chinese characters and for the use of google maps. You can buy a SIM card (fareastone e.g.) for NT$350 giving you a credit of 150 for calling plus 1GB of mobile internet. The whole country offers excellent wifi services (restaurants, 7-11, Metro and bus stations). Free registration is often required. Search help for that. Waiting times to hitch are short and people often don't mind driving a bit further than the place where they needed to be. Very often, the drivers will also offer you a drink or even food. No matter how deep into the countryside you are, hitching is possible absolutely everywhere! You might find Taiwan to be the easiest place to hitch in the world. Not so many Taiwanese people speak English, but very often they make an effort to communicate with the few words they know or even call an English-speaking friend to talk with you on the phone. Nonetheless, it's a good idea learn some basic Chinese or ask a Chinese-speaking friend to create a [[hitchhiking letter]] for you. This is a tremendously good method.  Taiwanese people sometimes don't believe hitchhiking will work for longer distances (or they are maybe not familiar with the concept), so they might try to drive you to a train- or bus-station.

For e.g., Taipei to Taichung the lowest bus fares are about NT$250, and about NT$600 450 to Kaohsiungdepending on the time of week. The Highspeed train (HSR) finishes its 350km track from Taipei to Kaohsiung in only 2 hours. Fare is about NT$1600. slow Slow trains are generally sometimes cheaper than bussesbuses but don't travel long distances. In the East, trains may be the only form of intercity public transportation.  Taipei offers a 30-minute for free bike at almost every station (get the app!). Every 30 minutes after the first 30 minutes cost you NT$10. Get the smart card for the metro and bikes to save money. You will pay a hundred for it, but get 80 back when handing in again.

Taiwan is quite a developed countrycompared to much of Southeast Asia, as you will see when first entering Taipei. Unless you couchsurf and hitchhike it might get quite expensive. From the one author's experience you can stay in Taiwan for a month for about 300€ and see almost everything. Food is generally cheap everywhere (NT$40 to NT$100), hostels cost 400 to 600 NT$, transportation is mentioned above. Save some money in Taipei by oftenly using the Ubikes.