For the past 27 years, Sun Jui-tien
A former first sergeant in the Ministry of National Defense (MND,
The land has been earmarked to become a municipal graveyard, but it already contains a number of tombs from before the land was incorporated by the city.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMESN
Sun says he does not live there for fun, nor to prove he's gutsy. He lives there simply because he cannot afford and is not qualified to move into any of the newly reconstructed military apartments for military officers and veterans that are nearby.
Since the land where Sun lives is owned by the city government and managed by the Funeral Management Section
The city could get even tougher: Sun could be kicked out of his 10-ping (or 33m2) dwelling which he built with his own hands or be made to pay the city compensation for the 27 years he has lived there without permission. The city could also decide to charge him rent for the property.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
LIFE IN THE GRAVEYARD
Lying on a bed with five fans blowing to cool the hot summer air, Sun, whose wears a partial cast on his left leg due to a recent fall from his bicycle, said he is used to life in the graveyard. "I literally walk around a whole pile of corpses," he said in the heavy accent of his hometown in Hupei Province.
Joining the MND's Youth Corps at the age of 15, Sun left his hometown village of Yinghua in 1930 and fought in various battles during the conflict with Japan and the Chinese civil war before he moved to Taiwan with other sol-diers in 1949.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
He has been living in the same tiny room since he was discharged in 1973. Pulling up the right leg of his dark blue pants, which are secured to his sunken waist with a long white shoelace, Sun showed his bruised ankle -- the result of another bad run-in he had with a bicycle back in 1980.
He also showed the scar where a stray bullet pierced his thigh during one battle and told of how the slug had to be taken out on the spot by his fellow soldiers.
"Because there was no anesthetic available at that time, four of them had to pin down my arms and legs, while the other pulled out a knife to cut open the wound to take out the bullet," he said.
Sun cannot read or write, except his own name, but seems to be very proud of his ability to recite from memory. To prove it, Sun started to recite, with impressive fluency, the full text of the Trimetrical Classic
"I can easily carry over 100kg, build houses, fix umbrellas and repair screen doors, but I cannot handle a simple pen," he said.
With a monthly military pension of NT$13,000, Sun said he can easily get by.
"How well you live your life depends on how you want to live your life ... I don't complain," he said.
Although he lives alone, Sun said he does not feel lonely because he has a lot of games to help him pass the time.
Showing off tricks he learned when he was a child, Sun manipulated a shoelace in his hands as nimbly as a magician. He also demonstrated his musical talent by singing old Mandarin and Taiwanese songs while playing a rarely-seen stringed instrument which he called a Chungshan zither
He later picked up a huge ancient wooden door lock stuck under his bed, eager to show how he once used it as a dumb bell to tone up his upper body muscles.
"I don't show all these tricks to many people, you know," he said with a smile.
RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT
The five nine-story buildings located on Tungpei Street
About 100 of the 270 families who live in the Yuanshan New Town
There are 540 families living in the four-building Lihsing New Town (
According to Tai Fa
Before the law was passed, a total of 46,113 households in 280 military villages had already been reconstructed or relocated -- 24,297 households of which are in Taipei's 157 military villages.
Currently, there are 16,582 households in the island's 36 villages under reconstruction, about 2,700 households of which are located in Taipei's eight military villages undergoing reconstruction.
To encourage veterans and enlisted men and women to buy the reconstructed apartments, the MND offers a variety of incentives.
For example, those who originally owned military housing are entitled to an 80 percent discount on the purchase of the reconstructed homes. If they are otherwise interested in the apartments available in the free market, they can also apply for a 30-year, NT$1 million low interest loan.
The reconstruction law also provides apartments of different sizes to be allotted to officers of differing rank.
Those with the rank of general are entitled to a 34-ping (about 112m2) apartment, while those at the rank of colonel are entitled to 30-ping (99m2) apartments. The rank of captain rates a 28-ping (92m2) apartment.
There may be a problem on the horizon, however, as the Cabinet proposed on Aug. 2 to pull the plug on the reconstruction efforts or to at least scale back the work. The hope is that this would help give the anemic real estate market a much-needed shot in the arm.
Wang Chi-cheng (
"It doesn't make much sense to have enlisted men and women and veterans pay for housing outside the military scheme when they could buy affordable housing within the reconstruction program," he said.
WHAT NEXT?
KMT city councilor Chen Yu-mei
"Although I have no problem with the city retaking land that it owns but has not used for years, why should it come at the expense of the people who have lived there for so long? Is it necessary to displace people just to plant some trees? Are trees suddenly more important than people?" she said.
KMT city councilor Wang Hao
"If they want to have it their own way, they will find that there is fierce opposition to the plan from both local residents and the city council. Besides, the city doesn't have the money to take over the land and drive the people out," he said.
Liu Mu-chuan
"We prefer to let nature take its course," he said. "They're old and their houses will collapse someday. Besides, there's no real reason for us to do anything about the situation right away," he said.
Hsieh Nan-hsing
"This tiny house is all I have. The rest of my family is in China. I have no where else to go," he said.
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