By Zhen-Kang —

A doctor in five minutes

My unplanned GP visit cost $8.50, drugs and all…

Google Maps street view screenshot of a restaurant in a historic wooden house set in a neat leafy garden.
‘Chilldren’ Vegetarian Restaurant in Pingtung City. Photo: Google Maps.

Yesterday afternoon, my partner and I took a day trip to Pingtung County. Via the fastest express train, its largest city, Pingtung City (population 200,000) is only 16 minutes from Kaohsiung Main Station.

But we didn’t start in Pingtung City. Instead, we took a local train to Zhutian Township (population 15,000) to stop at an especially good café:

A vine-covered modern brutalist coffee shop built into the remaining shell of a former rice mill, in Zhutian Township, Taiwan.
Yamato Donburi Shop (大和頓物所) is built into the shell of a former rice mill.
A gravel courtyard with vibrant green trees, surrounded by the curved glass-walled rooms of a concrete-and-glass cafe.
Three different glass rooms wrap around an internal courtyard.
Modern, warm wooden furniture inside a glass room, built within the remains of an old rice mill in Zhutian Township, Taiwan.
Here’s the interior of one of them.
A long narrow brutalist room with concrete bench seating and circular steel tables, looking out through a glass wall.
We had lunch in this one. It was as peaceful as it looks.
Close-up of a hot latte, with a minimalist stone garden visible through the glass wall beyond.
And the coffee was good!

After looking around Zhutian, we caught another train to Pingtung City. But while exploring the city by electric YouBike (Taiwan’s public bike-sharing system), I started to feel sick.

Convinced I was getting a cold or flu, I wanted to swing by a pharmacy for meds.

But my partner said we should see a doctor instead.

In New Zealand, this would make no sense: A friend in Auckland recently waited eight weeks to see a GP, and then the consultation cost NZ$100 (NT$2,000).

But in Pingtung City, at around 5:45 on a Saturday night, I just rode to the nearest clinic, paid NT$170 (NZ$8.50), and saw a GP within five minutes.

The doctor spoke only Chinese. I understood (directly or via context) around 60% of what she said, and my partner translated the rest.

She diagnosed me with a severe allergy, and definitely not a cold or flu.

I was relieved.

Then we chatted about Taiwan for a while. She complimented me on my Chinese ability. I felt she was being more generous than factual, until she said other foreign patients have lived here for decades without learning the language.

She said American missionaries annoy her the most because they arrive with an attitude of superiority, then try to diminish local culture while speaking only English. (Her words, not mine.)

She prescribed much stronger allergy medication than my usual stuff. I collected it for free from the pharmacy next door.

I was told not to drive or operate heavy machinery.

I didn’t mention the YouBike.

We rode to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner, then back to the station for the short trip home.

Pingtung was good to me.

A wide-rimmed bowl containing a delicious-looking pasta dish on the table at a restaurant. Another dish, of vegetarian chicken, is just visible in the background.
Dinner at ‘Chilldren’ Vegetarian Restaurant (小孩吃素) in Pingtung City. The ‘Chill-Fried Pasta’ (NT$210 / NZ$10.50) was on point.
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