Turkish Wu Feng loves Taiwan / Riding a scooter is terrifying – even grandmas race

Text and photos by Wu Feng, excerpted from “A Country Bumpkin Loves Taiwan: Wu Feng’s 28 Life Surprises”

About Wu Feng:
His Chinese name is Wu Chengfeng, a not-so-old (Turkish) foreigner. He can speak fluent Turkish, German, English, and Chinese, and can also write. Originally working as a tour guide in Turkey, one day he had an epiphany (what kind?), feeling that living like this wasn’t the way to go. Since he already had a vague longing for Taiwan, after graduating from university, he studied hard, got into Ankara University, and diligently studied Chinese and Sinology. Four years later, he won a Taiwan scholarship and came to Taiwan to study at a teachers' college as he had hoped.

After arriving in Taiwan, everything here opened the eyes of this “bumpkin.” The various customs of Taiwan, which were completely different from Turkey and left him wide-eyed in amazement, along with the warm and hospitable personalities of the Taiwanese people, all left a deep impression on Wu Feng.

These cultural shocks didn’t scare Wu Feng away—in fact, they made him fall even more deeply in love with everything about Taiwan. Now, he has lived in Taiwan for six years and has become a true “local Taiwanese” who feels like the end of the world if he doesn’t eat tofu pudding every day.

On my first day in Taipei, I discovered another surprising thing — the traffic in Taipei.

I’ve never seen so many scooters gathered in one place. How can there be hundreds of them on a single road? I’m not the only one who thinks this—many foreigners are shocked to see so many scooters, it’s almost like a swarm of mosquitoes flying down the street, haha. At first, I was a bit worried that traffic accidents might happen easily, but everyone seems to be really skilled.

I’ve even seen four people riding on one scooter, plus a baby. In Europe and my home country of Turkey, that’s absolutely impossible because the police would immediately give you a ticket. What shocked me even more than the baby on the scooter was that even dogs ride scooters. Don’t dogs get scared or want to bite people?

Abroad, dogs aren’t allowed on scooters because of concerns that they might bite someone or jump off and cause danger. I never expected Taiwanese dogs to be so well-behaved, happily looking at the scenery. Taiwanese dogs really listen to their owners.

While taking photos, I admired everyone’s “driving skills.” Some people ride scooters in truly terrifying ways—even elderly grandmas in their sixties or seventies ride scooters. In Turkey, people in their sixties or seventies can hardly even walk anymore, but Taiwanese grandpas and grandmas can ride 125cc scooters like pros. It’s really impressive. Later, when I showed the photos to my friends, they all said I was amazing.
Although there are so many scooters on the road, I found that fuel prices in Taiwan aren’t very high. In 2006, when I first came to Taiwan, the price of a liter of gasoline was about NT$25–26. In Turkey, it was already over NT$70 per liter. Even though fuel prices in Taiwan have risen now, they’re still relatively cheap compared to Turkey, where the price has gone up to over NT$90 per liter.

Really thankful to the Turkish government for making us pay the highest fuel prices in the world. Luckily, the Turkish government officials don’t understand Chinese, so I guess it’s okay to complain a little.

I also have a very funny story about riding scooters.

Once, a Taiwanese friend gave a ride to one of my Turkish friends on his scooter. When he came back, his face was very pale. After asking, I found out that the Taiwanese friend rode way too fast, scaring him half to death. He excitedly told me, “Wu Feng, Taiwanese people are crazy. That guy was riding super fast—I couldn’t even open my eyes. I kept praying the whole time, telling God that I’d never slap a Taiwanese person’s scooter again!”

Seeing him so scared, I found it really amusing. Later, he became very averse to riding scooters. Now, that friend has left Taiwan and gone back to Turkey. Sometimes I still tease him and ask, “Want to come to Taiwan and ride scooters together? I’ll give you a ride.” He immediately replies, “Go die.” Haha. Looks like he’s really scared.

Now, I’m also part of the scooter gang. I own a little 90cc scooter. This scooter has been carefully customized by me. I picked it out online—it’s a used one—with a paint job pattern of the Turkish flag, which I did myself. I’m really proud of it. Although my scooter is adorable, my riding skills aren’t that great. I don’t dare to speed around with the Taiwanese riders. I ride very slowly, and sometimes even grandmas pass me.

If one day you see a foreigner riding a scooter very slowly, please don’t yell at him—because it might just be me.