Taiwan — how to identify

Concrete utility poles are wrapped in

• bright black-and-orange (usually more orange than yellow) diagonal bands

that extend all the way to the ground

• In South Korea, where the stripes stop much higher and yellow
• Metallic (sic!) poles (usually lamp) in Taiwan have the same colour pattern but don't extend all the way to the ground

Often black-yellow diagonal stripes from bottom to almost top

Attached circle reflector. Yellow on the front side, and red on the back.

VS Japan:

• Taiwan one is taller
• Japan uses white for the back side reflector vs red Taiwan

In Taiwan, metallic poles are wrapped in

• bright black-and-orange (usually more orange than yellow) diagonal bands

that don't extend all the way to the ground

• In South Korea, where the stripes stop much higher and yellow

Continuous red edge lines mark no-parking zones and are a feature almost unique to Taiwan’s city streets.

Sometimes the no-parking zones are marked with red-painted curbs instead

In urban areas, dark green or grey box-shaped transformers are often mounted on short plinths. Even plinths without transformers can be a useful feature to notice.

Material: Plastic card

Shape: Rectangle

Color: Background - Blue, green, white-orange. Text - white

Text: The line with 1 letter and 4 numbers (F0453) represent coordinates to this particular location. Letter mark a grid block. Numbers give a location within that grid block (east–west and south–north percentages). The second line (if present) can provide greater precision (like within ~10 m) or additional grid refinement.

Attached circle. Yellow on the front side, red on the back side

Japan small reflectors placed on the white post vs yellow/no color in Taiwan

Driving direction: Right side

Convex mirrors at junctions and bends always have a bright orange frame, often with writing on them

In Taiwan, the writing on signs is in Traditional Chinese, a script known for its highly detailed characters made up of many strokes.

Japanese, while it also includes Chinese characters (kanji), looks different because it mixes in two additional writing systems: hiragana and katakana. These have simpler shapes and make Japanese text easier to tell apart from pure Traditional Chinese

Highway roads have different markings than city roads.

The outer lines are usually yellow on one side and white on the other, while the center lines are typically white

Many roads have open concrete channels running alongside them to drain rainwater. Similar channels can also be seen in Japan

On most city and suburban roads, the center is marked with double solid yellow lines and the edges with single white lines.

On narrower lanes, the double yellow is sometimes replaced with a dashed yellow

Background: Yellow

Arrows: Bold black