For Chen Jia-hsin (
Last Friday, when Chen looked into a water-escape canal under construction, he found that cement had set underneath the cobbles.
"This violates the original design," Chen said to Public Construction Commission (PCC) Vice Chairman Kuo Ching-chiang (郭清江).
At another site, proposed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to build a 1.45km bridge connecting Kinmen's main island and Lieyu (烈嶼), known as Little Kinmen, a cement breakwater was built and "wave-killing" tetrapods were placed on beaches.
Chen reported to Kuo that some 5,000 residents in Lieyu, where public infrastructures are insufficient, hope the NT$4.2 billion bridge will be built to help improve their situation.
"Are you sure all planned constructions need to be built in Kinmen?" Kuo asked.
The same question was also put to participants of a workshop held by the Kinmen County Government to promote eco-technology methods. Most of the participants were construction designers, community-based activists and teachers.
Kuo introduced the adoption of ecological engineering methods in public constructions in Taiwan and encouraged local people to preserve their precious ecology as a foundation to promote ecological tourism in Kinmen.
Chiang Bo-wei (江柏煒), an architecture expert appointed by the Kinmen County Government as chief consultant on environmental landscape management, said at the workshop that the future of Kinmen would be a cause for concern if new constructions were carried out without giving consideration to both cultural and ecological preservation.
"Ugly aluminum doors and windows are being used in ancient houses built during the Ming dynasty roughly four centuries ago," Chiang said.
Hung Chi-tung (洪啟東), associate professor of the department of urban planning and disaster management at Ming-chuan University, said that the younger generation's involvement in local public affairs would be a key way to protect Kinmen.
"When Kinmen residents ask for constructions, at least the designer should resist using construction technologies that are in bad taste. We've seen a lot of that happening in Taiwan," Hung said.
Judy Shih (
Kinmen is rich in biological resources because it is located at the junction of the old north zone and old tropical zone. It is also an important route for migratory birds in spring and autumn. More than 250 species of birds have been found around the island. Kinmen is an excellent choice for birdwatching.
According to local activists, however, ecological systems in Kinmen have been jeopardized by unmanageable factors and uncertain policies from outside.
Walking along the coast, Chou Chih-chiang (周志強), a teacher, said that birds might soon lose their habitats if protection areas in coastal wetlands are not established soon.
Workers were also collecting garbage spreading along the beach. Chang Shou-kang (張守剛), who helps the local government in planning environmental landscape management, said some of the garbage was from the opposite bank in Fujian.
"Bottles, plastic medical waste, bags, clothes, you name it, they can all be found here" Chang said.
Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Juh-feng (
"Especially in the rainy season, floodwaters flush down all pollutants to the Chinese coast and currents bring them to Kinmen," Lee said.
He said the Ministry of National Defense's failure in transferring land and properties to the local government made local planning challenging.
"For example, we local people cannot enjoy playing on the beaches. While we are planning to protect the coast, the number of landmines left there remain unknown," Lee said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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