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Shihlin office hopes to help Taipei's foreigners

Taipei expatriates who need assistance or wish to become better acquainted with the city can now visit the Taipei City Shihlin District Office's Service for Foreigners division.

"This is Taiwan's first ever district-level service for foreigners," said Yeh Chieh-sheng (葉傑生), director of the office. "We hope that with our service here, the expatriates in town can further integrate themselves into Taipei life."

According to Yeh, the division offers information on medical and legal affairs, employment issues and information on foreign brides.

"For example, the service just printed handbooks on foreign brides and their babies," he said. "They have been very well received as many have visited the service to ask for copies."

Yeh said that the service also offers an introduction to Taiwanese traditional culture, as well as Chinese written and listening comprehension diagnostic tests that people can take to see where they need to improve their Chinese.

Yeh said information on food, shopping, housing, transportation, psychological services and other topics is available at the office.

Yeh said the division also offers a comfortable reading area complete with computers and a collection of approximately 2,000 books and magazines written in English, French, Japanese and several Southeast Asian languages.

"The main purpose of this service is to act as a communication bridge between the city's expatriates and their local neighborhoods and communities," he said.

"Although the service is located in the Shihlin District, expatriates who live elsewhere in Taipei are also welcome."

At its opening last week on the seventh floor of the Shihlin District Office, Yeh said that one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the service was Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

"It has been Mayor Ma's goal to develop Taipei into an international city," Yeh said.

"The Shihlin district is an appropriate place to start such a service because of its large expatriate population."

According to Yeh, approximately 8,000 expatriates live in the Shihlin district.

"The Tienmu area within the district has been known as a little international village because of the fact that there are several international schools located around that area," Yeh said.

"Another reason that this service came about is because we want to fortify a cultural understanding between foreigners in town and their local community," Yeh said, adding that due to cultural differences, a misunderstanding two years ago over graffiti almost started a conflict between the area's foreigners and locals.

"We hope that by having this service, it would also provide expatriates an opportunity to learn more about Taiwan's culture and to have a better understanding about us and vice versa," he said.

Yeh said that currently there is one full-time staff person at the division.

"However, aside from that one person, the service also has seven lawyers available to offer legal consultation as well as approximately 10 volunteers, who are either bilingual or expatriates themselves, who can communicate with those who come using their native languages."

"It is our goal to provide answers and assistance to the puzzles [of expat life], through which we also hope to build a bridge between expatriates and their local communities."

The Shihlin District Office is located at 439 Chungcheng Road, floors 7-10. The telephone number for the Service for Foreigners division is 2882-6200 ext. 8003
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