To demonstrate the absurdity of China-Taiwan relations, Chen and Ma finally managed to meet on the provision that Ma could be introduced as President of Taiwan and Chen would neither protest or acknowledge the “president” title for the leader of “the renegade province”. For neither protesting nor acknowledging, Taiwan now infers that China agrees to Ma’s “mutual non-denial” policy. That is, that both China and Taiwan will no longer pretend that the other doesn’t exist. So the diplomatic coup for Taiwan is “that China is not denying the mutual non-denial policy”.

And to reach that historic step the newly elected Taiwan government had to deploy an enormous police force to contain protests, stop display of the Taiwanese flag, and other patriotic actions. They have simultaneously run a political witch-hunt and detained, without charge, a number of the opposition party. Many feel they have taken an “improve economic ties with China” mandate to regress civil rights, oppress the opposition and quietly return Taiwan to China. Most seem too apathetic to care.

But all is not lost. Though political, social and economic control may be sliding westward, thanks to 50 years of an obsessive concrete fixation, a speedy physical relocation of Taiwan to China still remains unlikely.

A seaside or river photo from Taiwan almost invariably includes images of stacked concrete tetra-blocks. As a nation that is swept by 5 or 6 typhoons a year these concrete lumps are used to restrain the oceans and contain the rivers. Indeed, it feels like the civil engineers of Taiwan are determined to maintain the coastal shape and river courses. And inadvertently make the effort of moving Taiwan next to China a little more difficult.

On Lanyu Island the only two harbours are made entirely from these blocks.

On Shaoliouchiou island two designs reinforce the concrete wall and the top of the limestone reef.

The tetra-mold model-A in production use.

The Gaoping river on sections before it reaches the mud-plains.

Random splatterings of concrete from around the island.

Caishan village and fishing harbour, Kaohsiung.

You might well be thinking, how absurd is it that China would really want to move Taiwan 150 kilometers West across the strait. Only slightly less absurd than the charades and double-talk of the perpetual cross-strait stand-off.

But the majority of rubbish is recycled one way or another. Between recycle trucks, local recycle yards and old women collectors, nothing with any residual value is placed in the ground.

Six days a week the yellow rubbish truck winds its way through the lanes and streets playing The Maidens Prayer or Fur Elise in a distorted polyphonic ringtone. Upon the tune the whole neighborhood scuttle out of their homes with their bags of rubbish.

The truck has two barrels to collect food scraps. The meal of some happy (or unhappy) pigs somewhere.

Each Monday and Thursday a recycle truck follows close behind to collect paper, plastics, glass and metals.

I’m not sure when these musical trucks were introduced but I do recall the days when people would throw their rubbish into communal heaps where they were later collected. Though it can be inconvenient to make sure you reach the truck on time, it is far preferable than the old corner heaps.

There is a great recycle industry here that works through small local collection yards. There are 4 such yards within a short walk of our place. Here they pay by weight. Not a lot but enough that the twice-weekly recycle truck doesn’t collect that much.

They are messy places but interesting none-the-less. People busily break up and separate out the pieces.

They are sorted and recycled into something new.

Another part of the recycle chain are the old women and men who make a pittance living collecting and transporting stuff to these yards. Here a large hoard of rubbish sits by our road waiting to be sorted. Its been waiting a long time!

The end result is that Taiwan has a remarkable recycling record. There are however some things for which there is no recycle market. It is quite common to see old porcelain toilets and basins dumped on the roadsides and wastelands.

Perhaps more people should try recycling them like our relatives in Shanshang(山上).

With the trees cut down and the smoke produced you have to wonder about the environmental impact of so much burning.  There has been some discussion about this recently with the local EPA wanting to curtail people’s enthusiasm for burning incense and money. There also appears to be a decent trade in “counterfeit” ghost money from China. Definately not the right stuff! All this money burning is a popular topic amongst Taiwan bloggers. Wandering to Tamshui provides a review of the local paper money industry. The only Redhead in Taiwan recently mused about the EPA issue while Naruwan and Fili both recently discussed it. There is even a Facebook group devoted to people against ghost money.

There are lots of ghost money currencies for different deities and spirits. A single burning usually involves some gold and silver foiled as well as large and small plain notes.

As well as money there are of course the paper houses and incense sticks that add to the conflagration.

But what I like most about all the burning is the size and shape of the furnaces. They are such a motley collection.

You can buy a standard burner from your corner spiritual paraphernalia store.

Most are a stainless steel can with holes punched in the sides.

Popular are old washing machine tubs that are about the right size with holes pre-drilled.

Then there are the bigger stainless steel furnaces with irregular holes added.

Old 44 gallon (200litre) drums make a perfect furnace. Even when they are very old and very holey.

There are the Wizard of Oz Tin Man shaped burners.

Patched burners that should have been retired long ago.

Sometime just a ring of bricks do the job of containment

When someone passes away they need a huge sum of ghost money. That is when the purpose built mega-furnace is called in.

But if you just have more money than you know what to do with, set it in a ring on a spare patch of dirt.

Somehow, despite the EPA and non-beliver’s objections I can’t see things changing anytime soon. Taiwanese will keep sending thier money up in flames for some time to come.

Back in Perth a family island holiday for us usually involves a week on lazy Rottnest Island.  I have wished to visit Lanyu for many years so with the kids on summer holidays we packed our bags and ventured off to see what it is like.

Firstly the island is volcanic in origin so the geology and geography are quite different from the mostly metamorphosed and alluvial Taiwan.  At 13 km long and 32 km around it has a steep hilly centre surrounded by thin strips and scallops of flat land. There are plenty of places where the hills plunge almost directly into the ocean.

There are 5 small settlements on the island. The people here are more similar to the northern Philippines than Taiwan and indeed very different from Chinese. The local language is apparently understood by those from the northern Philippine islands. Unfortunately many of the younger generation are no longer fluent in this language.

We visited in the middle of summer which is peak tourist time, though it didn’t have a tourist trap feel to it. Visitors we met were mostly extended family groups, student groups and young couples. We also met a group of mostly English teachers from Chiayi camping on a remote eastern beach making a real getaway from Taiwan living.

The easiest way to get around is by scooter. It takes a couple of hours to circumvent the island, an excellent way to spend the day. The next day, for a change, you can turn around a scooter the other way.

One place that I was eager to see was the low-level nuclear waste facility on the southern tip of the island. Spare a small rocky island a few kilometers further south, this is the furthest most point it is possible to get away from Taipei within Taiwan. The perfect place for nuclear waste dump! Except that it is in the path of typhoons, only just above the high tide waterline and on a geologically unstable land-mass. Someone told me the locals were duped in to believing they were getting a fish cannery.  There is a moratorium on new disposal and it is due for complete de-commissioning by 2010.

Lanyu just has an incredibly lazy feel to it. Which was just perfect for the type of break we were after. We collected hermit crabs and ran crab races, swam, tried catching some fish and generally just enjoyed discovering the island.

Lanyu reminded me more of the South-east asian islands than our favorite Rottnest. But for a relaxing and enjoyable island get-away we can all highly recommend it.

And surprisingly it is a very affordable dish. Where a dozen fresh oysters at home is a small luxury, here in Taiwan this dish is a cheap quick meal.

Well the port of Dongshih (東石) supplies 60% of the local oyster omellete market. We visted on a wet summer Sunday and discovered just how much oysters are part of this seaside town.

The large shallow bay is protected by an outer reef. Old oyster shells are strung on a length of line and hung on floating bamboo beds. Each old shell becomes the seed for many new oysters.

They are harvested and moved into one of the many shucking houses in town.

From there they are packaged and shipped to night markets all over Taiwan.

The town is littered with piles of the old oyster shells.

Not wanting to leave without a sample we purchased a small bag. At 200NT per kilo (USD7) they are cheaper than steak.

And as the old man who provided me a free sample later indicated with a rising finger, everyone the world over reckons raw oysters are great for mens virility.

A Hungry Girls Guide to Tiapei also covers this dish.

When I first arrived in 1989 Taiwan had just lifted martial law. Air raid drills were still common and the military had a very strong presence. You would often see movements of army vehicles and troops and there was a continual coastal watch. I remember being moved off the beach one evening by a couple of soldiers as well as being cautioned, though not badly, for taking photos of the Kaohsiung harbour entrance.

There are still plenty of signs of the military. With a two year national service for all men and an incredibly dispersed military infrastructure no one travels far without seeing an army base or a young uniformed soldier.

But even that is changing. The army may soon be voluntary, the newly elected KMT are making wishful overtures of conciliation with China and military spending has been stalled as the two sides of government bicker over Tiawan’s future.

Koahsiung harbour is Taiwan’s largest ocean port. It was well fortified during the Qing Dynasty, briefly coveted by the Dutch and English, occupied by the Japanese and then concrete reinforced by the Nationalists.

A few favourites of the Nationalist era were a string of coastal lookouts and pill boxes. Every bridge and major rail route had small fortified checkpoints. You can occasionally see the remnants of these today.

Like many in Taiwan we live close to a military base. This is a large area that today is more often used by elderly gardeners and hikers. They weed and shuffle between old tanks, overgrown razor wire, trenches and spent mortar casings.

The future of Taiwan is no more certain today than it was 60 years ago. But hopefully that future will be shaped by diplomacy and strong international economics rather than the military concrete and iron of the past.

Ma Ying-jeou and running mate on the left. KMT, red and blue, number (2). Frank Shieh and running mate on the right. DPP, green, number(1)

The voting was very well organised. The rules have been honed over the last 3 elections and now make for an incredibly smooth process. There is no campaigning allowed on election day. No overt display of campaign material within 30 metres of the ballot area. There were lots of police officers and volunteers to help out. The venue was the local school. Also, no photos inside the voting room.

And the result was quick to come through. Once public announcement was allowed all television stations showed a running tally. By 5pm the outcome was pretty clear. KMT’s Ma Ying-jeou, (2) will be president of Taiwan for the next four years. A result the majority of people in Taiwan are, by implication, happy with.

I wandered to the local DPP office, (green incumbent party, now opposition) to see how the die-hard supporters were taking the result. Pretty subdued actually.

Though there is a lot at stake with the outcome of this election, there is a lot to be very positive about. Recent changes to the legislature and terms of office will ensure a more stable and less partisan politicking. Politics in Taiwan has been hamstrung by the extreme partisan nature of the opposing parties. Unfortunately the party bickering was the reason there were two referendum questions rather than one. And also why so many voters boycotted both referendum questions and without the required 50% threshold of voters, they were declared failed.

If you are particularly interested in the outcome or commentary on the results please check these links.

• Taiwan Matters. A group blog on politics in Taiwan.
• Taipei Times election results
• A View from Taiwan Taiwan’s die-hard green blogger.
• Thirsty Ghosts A great analysis on the two referendum questions.

We made a 5 day island tour across the southern cross island highway, east coast, Taroko Gorge, Hehuan Shan in snow and back past Sun Moon Lake to Kaohsiung. On their last day here we made a day trip to Taipei to see the bike exhibition followed by dinner then returned to Kaohsiung in the evening.

It was this last day’s trip to a city 400 km away that made me realise just how incredibly easy life has become in Taiwan.

We live approximately 5 km from expressway 88. This was completed around 8 years ago and is just a small addition to the incredible freeway system that makes car travel in Taiwan so convenient.

The new High Speed Rail is connected directly to this freeway system so we parked in the car park and within 10 minutes purchased tickets from the simple to use ticket machine and were on the 10:06 express to Taipei.

This train has just two intermediate stops and covers the 400 odd km in 1 hour 36 min at around 300kmh. The ride is smooth, the staff are friendly and the whole experience is fantastic.

In Taipei we caught the incredible efficient and growing MRT system to the brand new Nangang exhibition centre to see the largest bike exhibition in the world. As the MRT does not quite yet reach here we used the free shuttle bus.

After quickly looking at more bicycle frames and handle bars than I ever thought existed, we went shopping at the Miramar in the Neihu shopping district.

And then as a final meal we ate at the amazing Five Dime restaurant.

This is a truly exceptional place that would rank as one of the worlds best themed restaurants.

After dinner we made the three hour return to Kaohsiung via taxi, MRT, HSR and car.

This was a world class experience in a world class nation. I love Taiwan.

The open-air switchboard of a street-side food store. Here the free form wiring is starkly contrasted by the accumulation of cooking oil and street dust.

Above our kitchen sink is an added power point. It is a classic homespun addition. The extension wire consists of two short pieces joined together with colour-coordinated insulation tape. Notice the 5 degree to vertical slant on the wall enclosure. Very artistic.

At the barbers where I get my haircut a single extension lead wanders across to roof to power the fan, lights and a dangling lead is used to connect the cutters.

The local fish markets where each vendor is responsible for the space above and below their stand. Better to stick to the fishing I think.

Now here is a real Christmas tree of connections. Inside the heaven and hell exhibit at a temple. This hell-like connection is in the heaven section.

Inside a railway carriage at a children’s festival electrical power and an extra electrical appliance were hastily added to this converted railway carriage. No power plug available? No problem, just insert the wires directly. That should do it.

In a large clothing store there was obviously not quite enough light in this section. The solution, some fencing wire, florescent fixtures and some conduit. Seven fixtures are held up by a single wire strand above these shoppers heads.

When I was in Koahsiung in 1989 there was a major building fire somewhere in the city almost every week. Though fires don’t seem as regular now, wirings such as these always present a hazard.

Though Taiwan has experienced sixty incredible years of progress since this house was built, the architecture of house building has done nothing but regress. Sometime during the 50’s the ceramic tiled, steel reinforced concrete, multi-story terrace house was introduced. The ceramic tile size and colour has changed since then. But precious little else!

It is difficult to love the modern Taiwan house. They are irregularly shaped concrete lumps with rooftops covered in water tanks, TV aerials and ramshackle steel extensions. Tiles often fall off or are stained by rust welts or concrete ooze. Wiring, air-conditioning and clothe drying fixtures are half-heartily tacked on the sides. And when these additions inevitably fail, an equally poor replacement is attached without bother to remove the old. What’s more, they all leak!

But the old style houses have character. The external walls are made of small red bricks often partly rendered. Internal walls are made of large bamboo vertical and horizontal beams. Between these beams a course woven bamboo mat is placed , covered with mud and rendered with plaster. The roof beams are bamboo and the roof tiles are a dense pack of the classic red Chinese half shells. The roof line extends past the wall line to ensure rain does not seep through the rather porous red bricks. The floors are large red terracotta tiles and the main entry has dual heavy wooden doors, wooden hinged top and bottom and wooden bolted.

Here a similar house nearby has the brickwork ready for future side extensions that were never built. This three sided shape house facing a concrete courtyard is a very traditional rural Taiwanese style.

Other than the new wing, Uncle and Aunt’s house has had electrics and mosquito screens added since it was built. But otherwise, it is still in its original functional form. As a living room wedding photo taken in front of the house in a different era proudly shows, this was the golden age of house building in Taiwan.