David on Formosa

I am sure most readers of this blog already know Michael Turton's blog, The View from Taiwan. Michael also has a website which is equally voluminous, Michael Turton's Teaching English  in Taiwan Web Pages. 

This website contains so much information that I won't claim to have read every page or looked at every photo. However, for someone looking for information about living in Taiwan or teaching English there is no better place to start your search.  

The pages are arranged into the following sections:

• Living in Taiwan
• Teaching English in Taiwan
• Teaching at a University in Taiwan
• Other articles
• Travels and trips in Taiwan
• Just pictures I & II

Michael has some quite strong opinions about Taiwan life. He doesn't always paint a rosy picture of life here. Michael has been in Taiwan for many years and is an astute observer. I respect his opinions but I wouldn't agree with everything he writes. Michael elucidates on his reasons for writing what he does:

…the number of Taiwan sites has multiplied enormously. What was once a small, almost intimate internet has become a vast wasteland of identical soulless commercial websites that emphasize a kitsch, exotic view of Taiwanese life, tempered by a slight bow to the widespread if imperfect knowledge of foreigners that There Are Some Problems In Taiwan. This site has also been built as a response to those websites. Some of them provide excellent information on visas and jobs. But they aren't going to tell you why so many windows are barred, or how to avoid counterfeit money, or why living next to an open plot of land is a bad idea. It is to fill that role that I constructed this website.

The site also includes a huge number of photos depicting all kinds of things around Taiwan. Michael is great at capturing ordinary street scenes and other things which are typical of daily life in Taiwan (and spiders!). 

Update: Problems with the webhosting company took Michael's site offline for a while. It is now back with a new, easy to remember domain name, www.michaelturton.com/Taiwan/teach_index.html.