Mary Ann Bates, age 16, of Lynn, Mass., for her question:
HOW FAR FROM CHINA IS TAIWAN?
Taiwan is a mountainous island in the South China Sea. It is about 90 miles off the Chinese coast. The wild, forested beauty of the island led Portuguese sailors in 1590 to name it Ilha Formosa, meaning beautiful island. The Chinese renamed it Taiwan, meaning terraced bay.
After the Chinese Communists conquered mainland China in 1949, the Chinese Nationalist government moved to Taiwan. Generalissimo Chaing Kai shek, the Nationalist president, made Taipei the capital of the Republic of China.
The Nationalist government also controls several islands in the Formosa Strait, including the Matsu, Pescadores and Quemoy groups.
Almost all of the people of Taiwan live in the coastal plain that makes up the western third of the island. Moat Taiwanese are Chinese whose ancestors came to the island from Fukien and Kwangtung provinces on the mainland.
Over 1.5 million more persons fled to Taiwan from the mainland after the Communist takeover in 1949.
The population also includes about 150,000 tribal people who probably are related to tribes in the Philippines. Most of these people live on reservations in the mountains.
Taiwan has a subtropical climate, with hot, humid summers and an average annual rainfall of more than 100 inches. Temperatures average about 80 degrees Fahrenheit in summer and 65 degrees Fahrenheit in winter.
Summer monsoons bring strong winds and rain to Taiwan. In winter, monsoons bring rain and cooler weather to the north. Typhoons occur almost every year, with damaging rains and winds that sometimes exceed 100 miles per hour.
About 90 percent of the population can read and write. The law requires children to have six years of elementary school and three years of high school.
Taiwan has few natural resources except its mountain forests. But the island's economy has expanded steadily with the growth of manufacturing and foreign trade.
Forest products include bamboo, camphor, lumber, paper and plywood.
Taiwanese factories make bricks, cement, fertilizer, plastics and other products.
Exports include bananas, canned foods, chemicals, electrical machinery, metals, plywood, sugar and textiles. Most of the exports go to Hong Kong, Japan, the United States and to West Germany.
Only about a fourth of Taiwan's land can be farmed. The farmers use much fertilizer and harvest two or three crops a year from the same field. The chief crops include asparagus, bananas, citronella grass, mushrooms, pineapples, rice, sugar, sweet potatoes and tea. The farmers raise hogs and poultry.
The fishermen catch mackerel, sardines and tuna. Island ponds produce carp, eels and other fish.