Taiwan

An island with urban comfort, cheap street food and mountains half an hour from the office: Taipei covers work and healthcare, the south brings warmth and the sea. Rent is lower than in Korea or Japan, and the health system is among the easiest in Asia to use in terms of cost and access. Summers are hot and humid, typhoons pass in autumn, and winter is damp in the north and close to summer in the south. The friction is the language, earthquakes as a routine fact of life, and work visas that are hard to get without an invitation.