NIGHTLIFE

Taiwanese nightlife is completely different from the European one...
I don't know how the situation is in Taipei or other cities so I will talk to you only about Taichung.
First of all: ALL YOU CAN DRINK FORMULA. Almost all the clubs here (18TC, Muse, Lobby, X-Cube) are all you can drink, which means that you pay the entrance and you can drink for the whole night as much as you want. Clubs are open from Wednesday to Saturday (Some of them open also on Sunday), from 22.30/23 to 4/4.30 and there is a difference of price between men and women; the "standard" price is 100-200 NTD for girls (around 3-6 euros, clubs for girls are really convenient) and 600-700 NTD for boys (around 20 euros). Wednesday is usually "girls'night" and girls enter for free before midnight or pay 100 NTD after midnight, Thursday is "students'night" and if you show your student ID card you can have a discount... Friday and Staturdays all those clubs are always super full! The important thing to remember about all you can drink is that you don't have to lose your glass, never, because they would give you drink only if you have the glass in your hand. You can only choose from some basic drinks such as whisky coke, vodka lime, vodka cranberry, tequila sunrise, sex on the beach... And sometimes the dancers (yes, there are sexy dancers, most of the time girls but sometimes also boys) come close to you with a bottle of vodka and they give you shots.

vodka shots

Muse club

Another thing I noticed is that here they don't really pre-party... Clubs open around 22.30 because I think that Taiwanese people in general don't drink a lot before entering the club, as they have the all you can drink... It's really different because for us in Europe it is the opposite: we meet in someone's house and we drink a lot until 00.30/1, before entering the club, and once inside we usually don't drink anymore because cocktails in clubs are way too expensive!
Also bar are not really common here... In our neighborhood we have just one bar we used to go during the first weeks because they gave us the all you can drink formula for 10/12 euros, but after 2 or 3 times we didn't go anymore because alcohol wasn't alcohol at all and after the second time we went there they didn't want to give us cocktails anymore; there is also a nice bar close to our Universty but also there drinks weren't so good! The atmosphere was really nice, but they didn't know how to prepare cocktails... They gave the wrong name ("sex on the beach" became "sexY on the beach", "screwdriver" became "schooldriver") and sometimes they also put different ingredients (maybe rhum insted of whisky, or things like that).. I really think that drinking is not in their deep culture! Anyway, the most common local drinks are "Taiwan beer" (which can be normal or with different flavours such as honey, mango, pineapple) and "Kaoliang", a strong liquor similar to whisky (I actually think it is disgusting hahahah).

Taiwan beer

But Taiwan means karaoke! for Taiwanes people karaoke is the new club: you meet with your friends in a room (from 5 to 10 people) and you usually have buffet and non-alcoholic drinks included for around 4 hours...and you start singing and laughing!
Other common thing young people do here is going to bowling (we often go too and it is always really crowded) or go the cinema, which are usually multiplex.