People who return home after living abroad for many year often exclaim: "I don't recognize the place anymore!"
With its traffic-packed streets and towering high-rises, Taipei has a look similar to that of many other world metropolises. And the countryside is no longer the old vista of green rice paddies, rustic cottages, and water buffaloes.
There have been rather considerable changes in the political, economic, and social environment as well. The formation of a two-party political system, the legalization of street demonstrations, the passage of the new banking law, the stock market craze, and the boom in real estate values all bring home to people the feeling: Taiwan is changing!
In particular, the tendency of real estate values to go the way of Tokyo's has given mixed feelings to many.
This issue's cover story, "Skyscraping Rents Have Business on the Run," looks at the changes the rent rise is causing for Taipei merchants, while the article "Tali is Changing Fields" in the series "My Country, My People" also considers the mutual relation between land and the people who live on it.
The editing and printing of textbooks for elementary and junior high school students, produced by a single publishing house since 1968, were recently opened up to private publishers. Just what significance does the move have, and what effects will it bring about? This issue's special report gives you all ins and outs of the story.