Pigeon's Foreign Service
Planning a trip, moving to Taiwan, already here and stuck? I've made every mistake so you don't have to. Help for hire here!
Hi, I'm 小貝
XiaoBei, a.k.a. Pigeon: your foreign friend in Taiwan. Like many Americans abroad, I'm trying to figure out how to make money without teaching English - and I'm learning a lot on the way! Through this journey I've learned how to shoot and edit videos, accidentally became a micro-influencer, learned some basic design skills, opened a print-on-demand shop, started a weekend craft stall, began operating a "foreign service", and more - all while working to level up my Mandarin! I'm figuring it all out one mistake at a time. I've created this site as a home for you to follow my journey AND as a way for everyone to watch how much money I'm making in my efforts to earn $2 million USD and retire to a cave.
FlixFluent Plug-in
An extension that turns YouTube and Netflix into a language classroom. Use code PIGEONLEARNS for a 20% discount AND get me a 30% kickback!
YouTube
If you're not an Instagram user, many of my reels are available as shorts on YT. Hopefully longform YT videos are in store for the future! Subscribe to follow along!
鴿鴿找寶 / My Craft Markets in Taipei
Custom, upcycled, hand-stamped jewelry! Your word on hammered metal jewelry. Market schedule posted here, come find me to get your unique piece!
Mandarin Student T-shirts
Gear for Mandarin learners in Taiwan! Traditional characters, Chinese sayings, and some very niche references only Taiwan-based language learners would get.
Buy Me a Coffee
A large iced Americano keeps the videos coming. Every cup shows up in the earnings ledger below.
For the most up-to-date content on my learnin', follow along on my Instagram!
Pigeon Earns
Primary goal: US$2 million, then retire to a cave. A nice one. With Wi-Fi.
Like you, I also thought influencers were rich by default. We're not. Social media pays $0. A personal brand is just a marketing machine for your products and services. I've made several avenues for revenue and now we can all track how it's going. Can I scale or will I fail?? Please note, everything I earn through these streams either goes back into each business or is added to an investing account where I only buy broad market index funds, like an adult. We won't stop until I can retire to a cave!
Where it comes from
TotalNT$34,848
Earned so far
NT$34,848
Latest month
NT$6,144
Sep 2026
Months tracked
2
Biggest source
Instagram ads
🕳️ Cave fund
Goal: NT$64,000,000
0.05% of the way to the cave
At this pace, cave move-in day is around the year 2332.