In terms of geology, which measures time in hundreds of millions of years, Taiwan is just a baby.
It was only four million years ago that the hand of nature, pushing two plates of the earth's crust, squeezed the island up out of the sea. Mountains rose up rapidly, and from among them swirling rivers washed silt downstream to be deposited along the coast. Eventually rich land emerged where there had once been only the blue sea. By three thousand years ago, this mountainous little isle was blessed with fertile plains.
If nature were to continue her course undisturbed, Taiwan's western coastline would ceaselessly advance out to sea. According to a joke told by geologists, as the years pass and the mountains of the Central Range wear down, the Taiwan Straits will gradually be filled up, joining Taiwan to the Chinese mainland. In this way "national unification" will really be achieved.
But today a still more powerful hand has turned nature's hand aside, and the young land so recently born is little by little being stripped away, After its 3000 years of life, spanning so many human generations, the rich land is returning to the blue sea.
This has prompted us to begin a short series of special reports on "The Changing Shape of Taiwan," starting this month with "Our Disappearing Land" and "Castles Made of Sand."
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