Taipei is one of the few capitals that I know from which you can reach the mountains within 30 minutes by MRT (subway). There are an infinite number of hiking trails around Taipei leading to beautiful waterfalls and hot springs. Each weekend, groups of exchange students and locals meet up to explore this nature around Taipei.

The Dutch Railways (NS) and her travelers really can learn something from the MRT and Taiwanese people. The MRT is never delayed, never skips a service, the transfers are smoothly timed and it is perfect clean. The latter is remarkable, as there are no public trashcans around here. Apparently everybody just takes his or her trash home. Furthermore, people queue properly to embark on a train, waiting until all other travelers have alighted the train.

You don’t only see these queues in the MRT-station; Taiwanese love to stand in line. You’ll see these queues for every food stall at the night market and people are just waiting patiently in a decent manner. For me as an Operations Management and Logistics-student these waiting lines are of course not very efficient.

However, this proper behavior fosters the friendliness of this nature-rich country. Everybody follows the rules, is incredibly helpful and behaves in a way that they’re expected to, creating a safe country. I think that we as Dutchies can learn something from these guys.