Taipei’s Forgotten ‘Virgin Land’ – Will Development Bulldoze Tradition?
More people than ever are living in Taiwan’s cities. But as older buildings and infrastructure show their age, the question of how to modernize Taiwan’s urban spaces without bulldozing communities and their time-honored traditions is hotly contested. At the epicenter of this debate – Shezidao, a river peninsula known as Taipei’s “last virgin land”. Urban development expert Liao Kuei-Hsien explains why Shezidao is such an outlier and how government and private developers can force land out of the hands of communities they’re meant to be helping. A special feature also goes in-depth on the communities of Shezidao, exploring whether their century-old rituals can survive as developers close in.
