One of the great members of the Republic of China's cast of founders· is missing from the Double Tenth cast this year. President Chiang Kai-shek, who rushed home from military school to stand at the side of the Founding Father, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, passed away on April 5. His memory dominated events of the 64th National Day. The usual solemnity of the occasion was further tempered by the sadness of the people as they contemplated the nation's supreme holiday with- out the presence of the Generalissimo.
As one middle-aged patriot put it, "But he has always been with us." Those simple words summed up the feelings of the people about their fallen Leader. Chiang Kai-shek was only 24 years old when the National Revolution that overthrew the Ch'ing dynasty of the Manchus reached its successful culmination at Wuchang. The name and spirit of Chiang Kai-shek have become synonymous with the National Revolution since the establishment of the Republic of China on January 1 of 1912.
Yet the greatest gift of all was the strength and unity which President Chiang left to the people and armed forces of the Republic of China - and through them to those of Chinese blood every where in the world. The times have not been easy. As President Chiang had warned the people after the Republic of China's departure from the United Nations, one adversity succeeded another. Instead of becoming discouraged, the people followed the counsel of the Generalissimo not to be "disquieted in time of adversity," but to "Be firm with dignity and self-reliant with vigor."
The Republic of China entered its 65th year with flags flying and morale high. Communist enemies conspired to isolate Taiwan. They did not succeed. These same enemies waged economic warfare against the ROC. They failed. The Communists sought to create a spirit of defeatism. Instead, confidence in victory flamed steadily higher. No one was downhearted. No one was afraid. No one doubted that the Chinese people would assure the downfall of those who have op- pressed and enslaved the hundreds of millions of people on the mainland.
As Chiang Kai-shek joined the ranks of the immortals, it quickly became obvious that the leadership succession and the continuation of his policies had been carefully planned. There was no moment of instability, no slightest uncertainty.
The Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) reaffirmed the nation's dedication to anti-Communism and decided to retire President Chiang's title of Director General in honor of his leadership.
Premier Chiang Ching-kuo was elected chair man of the Party.
Vice President Yen Chia-kan took the presidential oath of office less than 12 hours after Chiang Kai-shek's death and pledged the nation's unremitting endeavors to carry out the late President's last will and testament.
President Yen told the nation: "In his last words, our late President urged all of the people to devote themselves to realizing the Three Principles of the People, recovering the mainland, rejuvenating the national culture, and remaining in the democratic camp in their united determination to carry out the National Revolution. I pledge that I shall brace and strengthen myself and, together with all of you, shall carry out this great instruction. "
President Yen later declared that "recovery of the mainland and the liberation of our compatriots is the unalterable policy of the government."
In a report to the Legislative Yuan, Premier Chiang said: "If we move forward in keeping with the President's instruction to take every step with firm stride and look forward, we shall be happy to see that new roads are opening up at every turn and that the sky is bright."
Premier Chiang pledged an efficient government serving the people and promoting their welfare under a constitutional rule of law.
Economically, the government is pledged to "development with stabilization" to safeguard the people's livelihood. Prices were held in check and even reduced in 1975 as the economy climbed out of the trough of the recession.
Of foreign affairs, Premier Chiang has said:
"We shall meet the challenges of all changes in the situation, develop total diplomacy and enhance our friendship and substantial relations with all countries under the principle of adhering to our anti-Communist policy and safeguarding the national interest."
Of leadership, the late President Chiang once said:
"In the history of our dynasties, heroes and sages have courageously taken up the responsibility for national salvation in many crises. They have enhanced national spirit, reasserted hereditary moral principles. burnished the truth and reversed wrongful trends of society."
For what might have been the crisis of his own demise, Chiang Kai-shek had chosen well in designating the leadership team to follow him.
Only six months after President Chiang's passing, President Yen and Premier Chiang had borne out their late chief's contention that leadership is not "based upon functions but upon performance."
Democracy is not only a word in the Republic of China; it is a reality.
Elections have been held at local levels since soon after Taiwan's retrocession from Japan. These were subsequently expanded to the provincial level (meaning all of Taiwan).
Even the problem of national elections has been temporarily overcome pending return of the central government to the Chinese mainland.
Voters in Taiwan and other free Chinese areas will choose 52 new members of the Legislative Yuan December 20.
Parliamentarians of the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan and Control Yuan were first elected on the mainland in 1948. Substantial numbers of these representatives came to Taiwan together with the government in 1949. All three bodies continue to function in the Taiwan-Penghu Kinmen-Matsu area.
Additional elections were at first eschewed because of the difficulty of adding members to organs which represented the whole of the main land. Tenure of original members was extended by special amendment of the Constitution.
In 1969, national level by-elections were held to fill Taiwan vacancies and reflect provincial population growth.
Twenty-eight parliamentarians were added to the national roster. As with original members, they will serve until the return to the mainland.
The government was aware of the need to provide more new blood, reduce the average age of parliamentarians and give further representation to the 85 per cent of the people born in Taiwan.
Further amendment of the Constitution made this possible. Terms of three years for members of the Legislative Yuan and six years for members of the National Assembly and Control Yuan were provided. These tenures will be re-established for all parliamentarians as soon as mainland elections can be held.
Elected in 1972 were 53 National Assembly men, 51 members of the Legislative Yuan and 15 Control Yuan members.
The Constitution guarantees citizens the right to hold public office. Election of members of the National Assembly and Legislative Yuan is by universal, equal, direct and secret ballot under a system of "one voter, one vote for one candidate." Members also represent racial, occupational and women's organizations and overseas Chinese. Provincial assemblies, municipal councils and overseas Chinese elect members of the Control Yuan by secret ballot.
The Central Government is empowered by the Constitution to delegate large administrative power to provincial and local governments. The Taiwan Provincial Government comes into close contact with the people in their daily lives. There is a Provincial Assembly of 73 members elected every four years.
Under jurisdiction of the province are 4 provincial municipalities with 32 district offices, 16 counties and 11 county municipal offices, 231 village offices and 71 township offices. City mayors (except for the Special Municipality of Taipei), county magistrates, village and township chiefs and councils of all levels are popularly elected.
Candidates may run under party labels or as independents. They must have a high school education or the equivalent. The campaign period is two weeks. Most expenses are paid from public funds to give the poor man as good a chance as his rich neighbors.
Campaigning is colorful and energetic. Posters bearing the candidate's name, picture and number are posted on walls and poles. Rival candidates attend mass meetings and stump streets and market places. Issues are concentrated on education, taxation, road construction and sanitation. Vehicles decorated with the candidates' portraits and slogans pass through streets, public address systems blaring.
Polling places are schools, temples and public buildings. They are manned by college students (voting begins at 20), teachers and civic leaders. Representatives of candidates keep watch. Voters present identity cards, which are stamped, and receive ballots.
Although women have equality under the Constitution, they also have special political rights.
About 10 per cent of representative offices is reserved for them. Aborigines are similarly assured a fair share of political representation.
Although her economy is heavily dependent on exports, the Republic of China was among the first Asian countries to bring 1973-74-75 inflation under control and get business and industry moving again.
This was a reflection of economic cooperation between government and private industry plus the willingness of the working population to moderate demands for higher wages.
The Taiwan gross national product grew by a fraction of 1 per cent in 1974. That was the lowest figure since the retrocession of the island to the Republic of China in 1945.
This year's figure will be much lower than the 10 to 12 per cent of recent years but well above 1974. Trade will show healthy growth and the deficit will be down sharply from last year's level of more than US$1,300 million.
The government moved strongly against inflation early in 1974. With some individual exceptions, the price line was held this year. The money supply was relaxed to provide funds for hard pressed industry. Several small reductions in interest rates enabled businesses and factories to obtain loans at lower cost.
Textiles is the biggest export industry and the bellwether of the economy.
Even at the low point of the recession, Taiwan's sales on the U.S. textile market were down less seriously than those of its chief competitors:
Japan, South Korea and Hongkong. Taiwan quality remained high and the price was right.
By mid-I975, textile production was up to 80 per cent of capacity. Orders were in hand for several months. The electrical apparatus industry, which ranks second in exports, also was producing at 80 per cent of the maximum rate. Of major export industries, only plywood - which depended on the lagging construction industry in the United States - remained in the doldrums.
Trade will probably not attain the US$15,000 million target set for this year but will be close to the US$12,619 million of 1974.
Government and private enterprise were gratified because the recession was surmounted with minimal damage to wage earners. The unemployment rate was held to a high of 5 per cent and declined as recovery took hold in 1975.
By May of 1975, leading industries were advertising for workers.
Recession casualties were relatively few - mostly small marginal factories with inadequate financing. Thousands of factories weathered the storm by reducing production and cutting costs. Many kept their employees on the payroll although working only half time.
Agriculture contributed more than its share to the 1975 export revival. Sugar will earn several hundred million U.S. dollars this year. A new export, eels, will check in at US$100 million. Canned asparagus and mushrooms are recording gains of from 25 to 50 per cent.
High-rise buildings and boulevards with pleasant green belts are giving Taipei a fresh, modem look. (File photo).
Foreign and overseas Chinese investment was US$189 million last year. That figure will not be equaled in 1975 but investors are still putting substantial sums of capital into the ROC economy. The cumulative total exceeds US$1,300 million with Americans and Japanese putting up the lion's share of the foreign segment.
However, the biggest single investment so far more than US$18 million - is from Philips of the Netherlands. The electrical machinery apparatus industry - capital-intensive as well as labor-intensive - has attracted about a third of all external investment.
Nearly 700 licensed factories are making a wide variety of electrical products - many of them for home entertainment use. The industry has some 175,000 workers and capitalization exceeding US$500 million.
Even in the recession year of 1974, Taiwan turned out nearly 4 million black and white television sets for export, mostly to the United States; 15 million radios and 2 million tape recorders. Color TV sets numbered only a little over 200,000 but this is expected to be the big earner of the future.
Clinton Electronics Corporation of Rockford, Ill., which already makes black and white TV tubes at a plant in Chungli southwest of Taipei, plans to invest in facilities to make color tubes. Of Taiwan's 24 makers of TV sets, 14 are under Chinese management, 4 are joint operations and 6 are wholly foreign owned.
The Republic of China has pioneered in the export processing zone concept for both local and foreign investors. Three zones have been established - two at Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second largest city and biggest port, and the third at the west central city of Taichung. Investors enjoy free port privileges for materials and components. Import and export red tape is minimized.
Investments in the zones are climbing toward US$200 million. Factories number about 270 with some 80 engaged in producing electronic products. Exports are expected to total about US$400 million this year.
In 1972 and 1973, Taiwan's trade volume surpassed that of the Chinese mainland. An island province of 14,000 square miles and 16 million people out traded a subcontinent of 3.7 million square miles and 800 million people. The Chinese Communists had a slight edge of less than 10 per cent in 1974. Preliminary indications are that Taiwan will move out ahead again this year.
Many of the export leaders didn't even exist as recently as a year ago. The order of earnings for 1974 put textiles in first place followed by electrical machinery apparatus, machinery and metal products, plywood and other wood products, and glass and products. Sugar was the processed agricultural leader.
The needs of these industries make Taiwan an important market for Japan, the United States and West Germany. Imports of 1974 were paced by machinery followed by basic metals. Then came electrical machinery apparatus, petroleum and chemical products.
Industrial success has rewarded the Taiwan worker with a steady rise in per capita income. The increase has been sevenfold in the last decade. From the US$178 of 1964, the amount rose to nearly US$700 in 1974.
Prosperity has helped keep Taiwan solvent.
The budget has been in balance for several years. Bad times in 1973 and 1974 did not mar the record.
The budget for fiscal 1975-76 is in balance at US$2,303 million. The increase of 14.8 per cent over 1974-75 was necessary to fund the Ten Basic Construction Projects to be completed by 1979.
General administration occupies only 5.4 per cent of the budget with 44 per cent going to defense and foreign affairs and 21 per cent to economic construction and transportation. Then come social welfare at 13 per cent, education at 6.2 per cent, subsidies to Taiwan Province and Taipei City 5 per cent, debt service 3.4 per cent and others 1.9 per cent.
Taiwan's market is small but growing. As of 1975, foreign trade and the gross national product will be nearly equal.
This is not the ideal as far as the government is concerned. The objective is a higher rate of consumption by the people. Taiwan is making goods and growing food for others in order to assure a better life for free Chinese.
Nuclear power will begin flowing through Taiwan's distribution system next year. The first nuclear generator will become operational in October of 1976 and the second a year later. Combined capacity will be 1,270,000 kilowatts.
Third and fourth generators will be installed at northern Taiwan's second nuclear plant in October,1978, and October, 1979. They will add 1,970,000 kilowatts to the system's capacity.
Southern Taiwan's first nuclear plant will add another 1,900,000 kilowatts when generators go on line in January, 1981, and January, 1982.
The state-owned Taiwan Power Company is also spurring development of thermal and hydro electric projects. A fifth generator of 500,000 kilowatts capacity was added to the Talin thermal plant in southern Taiwan last May. This raised Talin's maximum output to 1,850,000 kilowatts and made it the island's biggest power installation.
Increased generation o~ electricity is one of the Republic of China's Ten Basic Construction Projects for the 1975-79 period. Capacity will reach 15 million kilowatts in the mid-1980s compared with 4,350,000 kw in 1975.
Planning for the contemplated three nuclear plants (with eight generators) began in 1969, long before the price of oil began to soar. Petroleum is the principal fuel reliance of the thermal plants.
Taiwan imports about 10 million metric tons of crude oil annually. The island produces little oil and over 70 per cent of energy requirements come from imports.
Use of energy for transportation is relatively small - only about 8 per cent. Most of the imported oil is burned to produce the commercial energy which has opened the way for industrial development.
The Chinese Petroleum Corporation drilled 19 wells in Taiwan last year. Five are adding 57 kiloliters of crude oil and 900,000 cubic meters of gas to the daily output.
CPC has contracts with six American oil companies to prospect for oil in an offshore area of 96,664 square miles. CPC is also seeking under seas oil on its own.
The first well drilled with the cooperation of the Continental Oil Company found both oil and condensate in 1974. Drilling continued through 1975.
CPC produced 210,000 kiloliters of crude oil last year, a 252.2 per cent increase over 1973. Natural gas production was 1,580 million cubic meters in 1974. Taiwan uses natural gas for industrial and household fuel and as a raw material. The Taiwan Power Company hopes to use gas for power generation to save oil.
Other measures to reduce dependence on imported fuel include the tapping of geothermal deposits and the harnessing of solar energy.
Taiwan has numerous hot springs and other indications of geothermal activity. Exploratory wells have been drilled.
The earth's heat is already being used to dry wood. A kiln at Yangmingshan in suburban Taipei began operations in April.
Southern Taiwan has nearly 300 days of sun shine annually. Experimental production of steam from solar energy has already been carried out.
As an industrialized country, Taiwan's future depends on energy. Government and private enterprises are cooperating to provide a reliable supply at a price which will keep the island's products competitive.
Taiwan's economy has been described in terms of an "economic miracle." The Taiwan society and way of life could be described as miracles of the people. Never have so many Chinese lived so well, so peacefully and so enjoyably.
This is the "good life" that has been attained elsewhere in Asia only by the Japanese.
Just a few years ago, color television broad casting began and the dream possession of many was a color set.
Now there are three networks, all broadcasting popular dramas in color at the same time. Most affluent families have more than one set so that differing tastes of various family members may be served.
The people of free China have prospered de spite worldwide recession and inflation. They can afford to buy. Restaurants, coffee shops and night spots are crowded. Styles are those of Paris, New York and Hollywood with a growing flavor of Taiwan design from the mushrooming garment industry.
Taipei has so many motorcycles - nearly 200, 000 - that city authorities are concerned about the traffic problem.
Parking space can't keep up with the people's acquisition of cars.
Construction is the fastest growing industry.
Private contractors are seeking to satisfy the pent up demand for housing. For the free Chinese, enjoyment of the good life is concentrated in home and family.
Governor Hsieh Tung-ming's "Operation Well to-Do" is eliminating poverty. About 200,000 people have been helped to help themselves. Relief rolls have been cut.
Taiwan Provincial and Taipei City Governments have programs to help workers, farmers, fishermen and civil servants acquire their own houses. Public housing is eliminating slums.
Although the family remains the backbone of welfare, several social security programs are under way.
Labor insurance for factory workers was instituted by the government in 1950. Coverage has since been extended to many other groups.
Government employees have been insured since 1958. Counting dependents, more than a million people are benefiting. The insured pay only about 20 per cent of the premium for medical, disability, retirement and survivor benefits.
Social security coverage of one kind or another is extended to 1.8 million people. Benefits totaled US$51 ,237,000 in 1974.
Schooling is free for nine years and compulsory for six. The 1,231 primary schools and 906,950 pupils of 1950 had become 2,354 schools and 2,406,531 pupils 25 years later. The attendance rate rose from 76.9 per cent to 98.46 per cent in the same period.
Freedom is equated with the good life.. As elsewhere in Asia, citizens of the Republic of China carry ID cards. But they are free to travel wherever and whenever they wish within the territory of the Republic of China. They can work where they like and change jobs as they please. Foreign travel is allowed for any legitimate reason.
Taiwan is a great place to visit but an even better one to live.
Student population of Taiwan has more than trebled in the last quarter of a century. This means 278 students for every thousand people. In 1950, the figure was 140. The number of teachers has increased by 365 per cent.
Growth has been fastest at the college level.
In 1950, the Republic of China had only one university and three independent colleges. The count is now around 100 - 9 universities, 15 independent colleges and 76 junior colleges. There are also 171 vocational schools. Enrollment at the college level has increased 14 times since 1950.
National Taiwan University, established in 1945, is the biggest and most prestigious institution of higher learning in Taiwan. It has six colleges with 41 departments and 43 graduate programs on three campuses. All graduate schools offer master's degrees and 19 of them award doctorates.
Affiliated with NTU are the University Hospital and Veterinary Hospital. Faculty members number about 1,400 and students 13,000. The library has 1,087,477 books and 655,159 copies of periodicals.
National Cheng Chi University at the foot of Mt. Chihnan in Mucha about 10 miles from down town Taipei has three colleges with 41 departments and 16 graduate schools. Enrollment is about 6,000 with a tenth of that number seeking advanced degrees.
Cheng Chi was established at Nanking in 1927 as a special school to train administrative person nel. In 1929, it became the Central Institute of Political Science. Chiang Kai-shek was the school's president in this early period. Designation as National Cheng Chi University goes back to 1954.
Cheng Chi has cooperation and exchange programs with Sung Kyun Kwan University in South Korea, St. John's University's Graduate School of Arts and the University of South Carolina in the United States and the Free University of Berlin.
Chiao-tung University was established in 1896 to specialize in railway engineering, electrical mechanics and transportation administration. Chiao-tung now has 10 departments offering courses in electronics and electrical engineering as well as transportation.
The National Normal University with three colleges trains teachers for secondary schools. Its graduate programs tum out many college teachers.
N.N.U. has 11 graduate schools, 18 departments and a training division in the Colleges of Arts, Education and Science. About 1,100 master's degrees and 250 doctorates have been granted in the last two decades. The approximately 8,500 students include many overseas Chinese and a number of foreigners.
National Tsing Hua University specializes in nuclear and other sciences. Twelve graduate schools offer courses in nuclear engineering, industrial chemistry, applied mathematics, applied physics, mechanical engineering and other advanced scientific subjects. Tsing Hua's 3-Mev Van de Graff accelerator, the open-pool reactor and new moving type reactor are tools for teaching and research. Radioactive products of the reactors are widely used in medicine, agriculture and industry.
Eight universities have doctoral programs. One hundred and thirty-seven departments offer courses leading to master's degrees. Doctorates may be pursued in economics, political science, literature, medicine, agriculture, engineering and natural sciences. More than 3,000 students are working on advanced degrees.
Seventeen universities and independent colleges have evening classes.
For many years, the Republic of China has been the world center of higher education for overseas Chinese.
Scholarships, grants, medical care and travel allowances are provided. About 1,300 overseas Chinese are graduated from universities and colleges annually. More than 40,000 have returned to careers in their countries of residence in the last 20 years.
Nearly 750 foreign students are in residence.
Many others come for summer short courses in Chinese language and culture. Several American universities join in a cooperative Taiwan program for their Chinese language students.
Athletes of the Republic of China are seasoned world competitors, veterans of the Olympics and specialists in contests to show goodwill. Ninety-seven teams made up of 1,370 athletes took part in international meets and games in 27 countries and areas last year; more than a hundred teams with 1,728 athletes from 15 countries came to Taiwan. The sports story for this year was similar.
Although the accent was on good feeling rather than medals, ROC athletes did all right. Teams finished first in seven 1974 international competitions. Individuals captured 19 gold, 23 silver and 8 bronze medals.
Chinese golfers continue to dominate their sport in Asia. Hsieh Min-nan, a member of the winning team in the 1972 world cup tournament, captured the 1975 Asian circuit title with 140 points. The runner-up was another Chinese, Kuo Chi-hsiung, just half a point behind. ROC golfers won half of the 10 Asian tournaments and have taken the circuit's crown in 9 out of 14 years.
The women golfers were not to be outdone. Wu Min-yueh, Tsai Li-hsiang and Tai Yu-hsia finished in that order to dominate the 1974 Pacific Ladies' Master Golf Tournament at Nagoya, Japan. They duplicated the sweep in the 1975 Philippine Women's Amateur championships.
Tsai Li-hsiang and Wu Min-yueh outscored 23 European and American entries to win the world's amateur team title. Tai Yu-hsia won the Jennie K. Wilson tournament at Honolulu in 1975 for the third straight time.
Little League baseball champions of Taiwan won their fifth world crown in six years in 1974. In 1975, the Senior Little League team won a fourth straight world title and the National Little League-Big League team its second in a row. Free China's dominance of the Little League playoffs led the United States to bar foreign teams from the Williamsport (Pa.) "world series" beginning this year.
Track and field athletes won two gold, six silver and seven bronze in the first Asian championship meet at Manila. They defeated Japan, 80 to 65, in the Philippines first invitational meet. In a Taipei invitational meet, Chinese athletes won 18 gold medals to equal the total captured by South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines combined.
Taiwan's soccer team was second among six teams competing in' the Thailand Queen's Cup tournament.
Basketball teams have done well in foreign climes. The Yue Loong men's team visited six African countries and lost only one game.
The Kuo-tai women's team toured the United States and Latin America last winter and swept all 35 games played. Canada, Colombia and the United States were bested in an international tournament.
Young people of Taiwan are taller, stronger and healthier than they were a decade ago. This is the result of physical education as well as dIet. A survey of 110,000 students showed 12-year-old boys averaged 3.88 cm taller and weighed 2.57 kg more than those of 10 years ago. Girls were 2.18 cm taller and 2.75 kg heavier.
Records are not the supreme objective of sports in the Republic of China. Health, well-being and recreation are more important.
But world marks have been set and still endure after many years. The decathlon mark C.K. Yang set in 1963 has never been equaled. Chi Cheng's women's sprint records are still unsurpassed after five years.
Mostt of the nearly 900,000 tourists coming to Taiwan this year visit the National Palace Museum, look around Taipei and maybe take a trip or two out of the city. They miss a lot.
The "island beautiful" has some of the best off-beat tourism to be found anywhere in Asia. For instance:
- An easily accessible small island where time has virtually stood still for hundreds of years.
- Buddhist temples where one may obtain board and lodging for a song and know the peace and quiet of the remote countryside.
- Seas where the diver may coast along coral reefs.
- Mountains soaring to more than 13,000 feet and skiing in the sub tropics (January and February only).
- Artifacts of the Dutch, the Spanish and eight aborigine tribes.
Taiwan is the heartland of traditional Chinese culture in the world of today.
Moderate prices, good hotel accommodations, unmatched Chinese cuisine, friendly people, and a secure environment are other free Chinese attractions.
Taipei alone has more than 10,000 first-class hotel rooms. The new wing of the Grand, a high rise building in Chinese palace style, is one of Asia's most spectacular structures. The rates range from a low US$15 to a reasonable US$30. Even small cities have modern and comfortable inns.
Southern Taiwan has a charm too frequently missed by those who arrive in Taipei and see only that city and a bit of the northern part of the island.
Kaohsiung is a city of 1 million, more tropical than Taipei - busy with the island's biggest port and export processing zones, picturesque with the River of Love and peaceful Cheng Ching Lake. At the lake is another Grand Hotel, equal in magnificence and service to that in Taipei.
Yamis of Orchid Island came to Taiwan in these high-prowed canoes and still use them for fishing. (File photo)
Only a couple of hours from Kaohsiung is the southern tip of the island with its tropical botanical gardens, caves, sparkling beaches, coral reefs and comfortable hostels. Oluanpi's lighthouse looks out across the Bashi Channel to the Philippines.
The venturesome may take a fascinating bus ride from Kaohsiung eastward through the moun tains, then northward along the edge of the blue Pacific to Taitung, a bustling small city in the heart of pineapple country.
From here daily air service is available to Lanyu (Orchid Island) about 50 miles to the south east. Lanyu has primitive Yami tribesmen as well as orchids, mountains and a small but comfortable hostel. Only recently have the Yarnis been persuaded to wear clothes. They still make and fish from the high-prowed, high-sterned canoes that carried them to the island from Micronesia many hundreds if not thousands of years ago.
Another offshore trip out of Kaohsiung is that by airliner to Makung in the Pescadores, the low-lying islands that the Chinese call Penghu.
The' main islands have been joined by a causeway. People of these windswept chunks of coral live principally by fishing. The seafood is excellent.
Less than two hours by train north of Kaohsiung is the small city of Chiayi, gateway to Alishan at 7,500 feet in the Central Mountains. Alishan, which has a new hotel, is reached by a narrow gauge forestry railroad which passes from pineapple and banana country through groves of giant bamboo and into stands of conifers and huge cypress.
If one had only a few hours to stay in Taiwan, the National Palace Museum would be the destination of choice. Housed in a modern structure nestled in foothills near Taipei are nearly a quarter of a million Chinese art treasures covering a time span of 5,000 years - bronzes, porcelains, jades, paintings, calligraphy, manuscripts, carvings, tapes try, embroidery, lacquer ware and trinkets of the emperors.
Visitors in 1975 included Vice President Nelson Rockefeller of the United States. Open every day, the museum charges admission of less than 40 U.S. cents.
With Taipei as the hub, side trips may be taken to the scenic northern coast (two nuclear power plants are under construction here); two of the most beautiful golf courses in the world; the busy port of Keelung, one of the rainiest cities in the world; and Taroko Gorge, the mini-Grand
Canyon of Taiwan and in its own way just as spectacular as Arizona's big ditch. Taroko is near Hualien, northernmost city on the east coast plain, and can be visited in a day on a combined plane and bus excursion.
Hualien is also the eastern gateway of the East-West Cross Island Highway which penetrates the Central Mountains to reveal vistas of upland scenery. The traveler may break the journey at Lishan's halfway lodge, then continue onward to Taichung, the metropolis of western Taiwan. Tai chung is another gateway, this one to glistening Sun Moon Lake in foothills of 2,500 feet and a favorite retreat of honeymooners.
Taipei has its own attractions: outstanding handicraft shopping, temples that are busiest at night, department stores offering the goods of the world as well as Taiwan's best, old-style markets where bargaining sets the price, theater restaurants, live television shows with audience participation and night clubs. The finest Chinese restaurants to be found anywhere offer all of the major cuisines.
Visas are not hard to get even for nationals of free world countries lacking diplomatic relations with the Republic of China. Airlines and travel agents can help. Consulates are open and China Airlines has offices in leading cities. CAL flies to Taipei from San Francisco and Los Angeles in Boeing 707s and a new 747. China Airlines also flies to most other large free Asian cities.
On the Chinese mainland, meanwhile, Communism has gone from one campaign to another and from purge to purge.
The "great proletarian cultural revolution" had barely quieted down when Mao Tse-tung launched the campaign to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius.
That ran its course. Now the followers of Mao are engaged in an effort to destroy pay differentials and incentives with the weapon of "proletarian dictatorship. "
None of the objectives set in these campaigns is ever reached. The real intention is to confuse the people and keep the mainland in turmoil. Once the 800 million people recognize the basic in stability of the regime, the end of Communism will be in sight.
A document issued by the Communist party central committee has admitted existence of a mainland-wide negative attitude toward the movement to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius. The same document confessed continuing economic failures.
Even Chou En-Iai's address to the 4th "national people's congress" gave no specific figures to bear out generalities regarding economic programs.
The new movement to promote the "dictator ship of the proletariat" is a return to the absurdities of the "great leap forward" and an attempt to create "Maoist man."
Articles by Yao Wen-yuan and Chang Chun chiao, two leading "cultural revolutionists," at tacked "new bourgeois elements," especially among leading cadres, and demanded the restriction of "bourgeois rights."
Chang said the people and Communist cadres were opposing socialism and Mao's policies and line. He railed against "a swarm of flies waving Mao's banner to strike at Mao's forces."
Warnings of new purges were sounded. Behind this and the last gasp effort of Mao to clamp across-the-board socialism on the mainland people lay his continuing inability to designate his own successor.
Mao has purged one leader after another. Lin Piao, his one-time heir and "closest comrade-in arms," was only the last big name on a long list.
In the wake of the "cultural revolution" purges, Mao began to run out of talent. He was compelled to call back and reburnish some old names - notably that of Teng Hsiao-ping. Less than a decade ago, Teng was coupled with Liu Shao-chi as a traitor among traitors. Today he ranks third among Communists behind Mao and Chou En-lai.
Mao's leadership failure on the mainland is a stark contrast to the late President Chiang Kai shek's triumph in Taiwan. The succession to President Chiang went off without a hitch as Vice President Yen Chia-kan took over as chief executive and Premier Chiang Ching-kuo assumed the Kuomintang chairmanship.
Double Tenth 1975 is a day of hope and an expression of courage. The Chinese Communists have failed and the Republic of China has succeeded by every conceivable test except the measurement of territory controlled. That last measure will be reversed as, in the goodness of time, the Chinese people look a t the record and take matters into their own hands.