In the eyes of you outsiders, it seems Green Island has not changed at all. But for those of us who grew up here, the changes have been great.

When I was small, there was no sea dike on the stretch of coast from Kung Kuan to Nanliao Port. The beach was coral and egg shaped stones, and near the coast was white sand and stands of trees. My house was right behind the wooded area. On nights when the wind and waves were running high, the waves would roll the egg shaped stones up into the woods, making a "gu-lou, gu-lou" sound like rolling bones. When I heard it then it seemed like the sound of a zombie's footsteps, coming closer and closer. . . . I was so afraid I couldn't sleep.

Today I really miss that sound, but you can't hear it any more. On this more densely populated stretch, the egg-shaped stones, the sand beach, and the trees have all been dug up and taken away. The coastline you see now is one with concrete break-waters and dikes taming the waves, and this sea dike like an iron chain.

Sandslide: The stated purpose of building the dike was to prevent the water from encroaching and threatening people. But I remember that when I was small our house was never flooded. The biggest waves would just smash up against the trees then recede. Wasn't that the best kind of natural protective dike?

Since the construction of the dike, in fact, the waves are now often kicked even higher by running up against the breakwater and the sea dike. Then it's like rain coming down on the roofs of the houses near the shore. Over time, the houses will be corroded by the salt from the seawater. So the people who live near the shore have to wash their roofs periodically and paint them. Isn't this an even bigger hassle?

I also remember that on the western part of the island there were a lot of sand dunes, with white, very fine sand. It felt great to run your hands through it, and it was the favorite playground for us kids. We often slid down from the tops, just like on a slide. The ones higher up were like magic carpets for riding in the clouds. With those sand dunes, who needed Disneyland?!

Of course, they are hard for you to locate today, because most have been wiped out under the relentless machines of the sand dealers. There are only a few left in the southern and eastern parts of the island, down in inlets protected by relatively steep cliffs.

This is the reason why I gave up my old job to come back to Green Island.

Fortunately, after a year of continual communication and compromise, the gravel and sand dealers have stopped taking the sand along the coast, and have begun importing it from the main island of Taiwan. Today, the main work of our local ad ministration station is to prevent damage by tourists.

Easy does it: I hope the Green Island does not try to go too fast in developing tourism, because the island is not yet prepared for it. For example, at the Green Island Station, besides myself, there is only one technician, a patrol boat pilot, four temporary sanitation workers, and two police officers posted here. Just to clean up the garbage left behind at Swallow Cave took three months of full mobilization of everyone to finish.

Besides this, medical care is a major problem. There is only one public clinic on the whole island, without even the facilities for simple surgery. Yet tourists love to circle the island on motorcycles, and there are many people and many vehicles. If there should be an accident, what then? We Green Islanders are already used to the times when you have to take a plane to Taitung to see the doctor whenever a child comes down with a high fever.

[Picture Caption]

"We hope that visitors will not take anything but photographs," says dir ector Chen Tsung-hsien. (photo by Huang Li-li)

"We hope that visitors will not take anything but photographs," says dir ector Chen Tsung-hsien. （photo by Huang Li-li）