Shanyuan Beach, Beinan Township, Taitung County, Taiwán
In recent years both the expropriation of private land and the cheap leasing of public land to big developers has gotten the public up in arms. If land expropriation has a face it’s the village of Dapu, in Miaoli County, where hundreds of hectares of prime farmland and dozens of homes have been bulldozered over to build a ‘science park’ to bring jobs to the region. This is common in Taiwan, where the requirements for government to seize land are exceptionally lax.
The face of leased public lands is beautiful Shanyuan Beach (杉原海水浴場; Shānyuán Hǎishuǐ Yùchǎng), the longest swimmable beach between Hualien and Taitung. Until 2004 the beach was public and supported a range of local businesses, from B&Bs to a campground to one of the best Italian restaurants in Taiwan. With the promise of bringing jobs to the region, the local government signed a BOT (build-operate-transfer) agreement with Taipei’s Miramar Group, kicked the other businesses off the beach, and boarded it up.
Epic Taiwan Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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