Power and passion

Others see this attitude as fundamentally shortsighted.A local laborer working on the nearby construction of a sports park sponsored by the Kungliao Township Administration Office (貢寮鄉公所) said: "The free electricity provided by Taipower just means that people in the area are more wasteful. They don't cook with gas anymore," he said. And if these benefits are taken away should construction begin again on the plant, then "people will simply go back to the way they used to live."

But going back to the past is notoriously difficult, and according to Huang Wen-hsiung (黃文雄), head of the construction section of the administration office, while the power plant project has had little impact on the livelihood of local residents, tourism might prove to be a more destructive force to local lifestyles.

"Many local people resent the scenic area administration. By closing off sections of the coast for paying customers, local people who used to swim and fish in this area are driven away," he said.

While the danger brought to the environment in this section of the northeast coast by the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant may now be in abeyance, the threat of ClubMed-style development along the coast might pose a greater threat.

Asked if the massive structure of the completed power plant could be damaging to tourism, Tseng said "most Taiwanese are not very sensitive to scenic impact."

"The greatest difficulty with tourism in this area is Mother Nature," he added. Seasonal rains and the northeast wind cause a huge fluctuation in tourist numbers. "This kind of seasonal fluctuation is very destructive to tourism development," he said.

Lo agreed, saying that only if facilities are created to cater for year-round visitors -- in the case of the Yenliao Beach Park, this means an artificial environment sheltered from the sea by windbreaks 10m high -- can the quality of tourism in the area be increased.

But for local residents, this brings little consolation. Whatever benefits either the nuclear power plant or tourism may offer, Mother Nature seems to be in danger of being firmly put into second place.