用英文簡單介紹台灣

日前在 orange county的圖書分館借了一本介紹台灣的旅遊書，很厚，我就當讀書報告一般抄打了幾頁，在這跟大家分享其中一段標為Fact file的文章，也是一些老外初步了解台灣會想知道的一些的基本認識：

書名：THE ROUGH GUIDE TO TAIWAN（Written and researched by Stephen Keeling and Brice Minnigh,The first edition published April 2007.）

• Lying just 130km off the southeast coast of China at its closest point, the island of Taiwan is slightly larger than Belgium, and bisected by the Tropic of Cancer.

• The population of 23 million is ethnically 98 percent Han Chinese, with the remaining two percent made up by the Austrone-sian indigenous population.

• Known as Formosa in the west until the 1950s, Taiwan’s official name has been the Republic of China (ROC) since 1949.

• Almost half of Taiwan is covered by mountains, with 258 peaks over 3000m: the tallest is Yushan(3952m). The Jhuoshuei River is the island’s longest(186km).

• Taiwan is a democracy with the president directly elected by universal suffrage every four years, and empowered to appoint the premier who assembles a cabinet comprising the known as the Executive Yuan. The Legislative Yuan acts as Taiwan’s parliament, its members also elected every four years.

• Taiwan’s main exports are electronics (including 75 percent of the world’s laptop computers and 40 percent of its LCD screens), mechanical appliances and plastics. Taiwan’s per-capita GDP is around US$25,000(PPP basis).