Ralph Jennings
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/ 22 March 2008

Taiwan’s KMT declares victory in poll

Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, Ma Ying-jeou, has won more than half the vote in Saturday’s election, the party said, auguring improved ties with diplomatic rival China. Ma had won more than seven million votes, the party said, more than half the total 13-million people who cast their ballot.

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/ 11 March 2008

Tourism brightens, darkens Taiwan’s Sun Moon Lake

Sun Moon Lake has been compared to a classical Chinese landscape painting with its crystal waters reflecting surrounding snow-capped mountains. But a hotel building boom around the mountain resort in central Taiwan has locals and environmentalists worried the unspoilt beauty of the lake, which draws three million tourists a year, might be ruined.

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/ 31 October 2007

Tourism threatens one of East Asia’s top diving spots

A tropical island off the coast of Taiwan has become a victim of its own success as pollution caused by a recent spike in tourism threatens its reputation as the best diving spot in East Asia. The aptly named 15 square kilometre Green Island, an hour’s ferry ride from Taiwan’s main isle, is fast losing its lustre due to garbage and excrement dumped into its azure waters and shrinking reefs plundered by coral-robbing tourists.