Street names and signs in Taiwan

Sometimes you can go completely crazy there with all those street names and streetsigns. At the beginning, I had so much trouble finding my way around at the beginning. All streetsigns are in Chinese. So you need to memorize and recognize some buildings, and combine them with certain routes and areas. Later you learn to combine the building with the name of the street. And when that happens you are as happy as a kid....You think! After all, we are talking about Taiwan. And Taiwan wouldn't be Taiwan, if there wouldn't be something that can turn any tourist into a mental nutcase. All streetnames can be written in more than 1 way, which would make living in Taiwan more complicated then necessary.

An example would be in place:
One day, I was looking for WenShin Road*. This shouldn't be difficult, I had a map, I had the "Lonely Planet", and I had the faith. In short, all the ingredients were there to end this daring task. Or at least, if it was any country other than Taiwan, it would be all that was needed to get you from A to B successfully. I had looked at the map in advance, so I knew a bit in what area I needed to be, and so I went on my way. After a while I had the idea that I should have been in the area by that time. So I checked the map, a different one this time, and couldn't find WenShin Road anywhere on the map. Also the streetsigns weren't very helpful. So, into another street then, hoping to find a helpful sign. And another street, and again, no useful info. Finally I found the spot (unfortunately not marked with an X). Upto this day I still don't know how I get there, but I guess luck had a lot to do with it.

Afterwards, while I was reconstructing the route, I found out what went wrong. It turned out that WenShin Road, was spelled in 3 (!) different ways. In the "Lonely Planet" it was written as WenShin Road, on the map I looked when I was on the street it was written as WenXin Road, and the streetsign read UenShin Road. It all look almost the same, but if you are there, and driving around, and not sure where to go, and in a complete strange world, then it can be very confusing. Also, consider, that nothing is what it looks like in Taiwan.
So, if you ever have this problem, try to pronounce the streetname, in english. Often you can find your way by the sound of the name.

The Lonely Planet writes the following about this:

"Perverted Romanisation
One traveller wrote to LP to complain about the use of the 'perverted' Wade-Giles Romanisation system in the Taiwan guide. Perverted? A Romanisation system may not be entirely adequate, but can it be described as 'perverted'?
Perhaps. The Wade-Giles system has everyone confused. Even the government officials who enforce its use don't have the foggiest notion of how to Romanise their own names. Street signs in Taipei are inconsistent - one side of the street has on eRomanised name while the opposite side has another. Maps and brochures produced by the Tourism Bureau consistently give different spellings for the same place - 'Hsuehpa' National Park or 'Shei-Pa' National Park?
Let's forget for the moment that Taiwan's capital is really spelled as T'aipei , not Taipei or Taibei. Is it Changrong Rd or Changjung Rd? Keelung or Chilung? Tamsui, Tanshui or Danshuei? Nanking Rd or Nanching Rd? Chiuju Rd, Jeoru Rd or Jiuru Rd? These fun questions ans more await unwary travellers trying to make sense of Taiwanese maps and street signs. Pity the poor postal clerks who have to sort out this mess and make sure that the mail gets delivered to the right place.
Things really start to get interesting when the Taiwanese newspapers take a stab at Romanising the names of people abd places in mainland China. Is the capital of China called Beijing, Peking, Peiching or Peiping? Tourists can visit the ancient city of Xi'an, Hsian or Sian, depending on what mood the editor is in that day.
Did Deng Xiaoping die or was it Teng Hsiaoping? Mao Zedong or Mao Tsetung?
Every now and then someone has the brilliant idea of trying to pursuade the government to drop Wade-Giles in favour of the more accurate Pinyin system. So they seek whichever officials are available, imploring them to make the change. Unfortunately they will soon discover that: (1) no government officials have ever heard of Wade-Giles; (2) they don't know what Pinyin is either, but if mainland China is using it, they definately don't want it; (3) no one is willing to take responsibility for making such change; and finally; no one cares anyway." (source: Lonely Planet, Taiwan issue, 4th edition)

*Can anyone who live in the Taichung area or is visiting that area, please send me a picture of that street sign?