Wasai--- Sidewalks

At home we have sidewalks. They're places at the SIDE of the road where people WALK. They're safety zones for pedestrians. Sometimes there is even a strip of grass between the road and the sidewalk. We even have rules of etiquette for the proper to use of sidewalks. For instance, a man usually walks closest to the street if he's walking with a woman.

Here, in Taiwan, we have spaces in front of buildings that look like sidewalks to the Westerner but are hardly the same. The sidewalks here are much wider and used for much more than just walking. They're used by small vendors to set up tables of goods or food carts. They're also used as parking lots for motor scooters, and driveways to get to the parking spaces. To the Westerner they seem more like an obstacle course than a safety zone.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Peggie Scott (Hsinchu)

For Expats
For Taiwanese