Chapter 13 : Transportation and Communication

        Travelers come and go. Commodities and information circulate. The movement of people, commodities and people is transportation. The movement of information is communication. Advanced means of transport reduces the time between places. Advanced communication technologies allow real-time or instant communication. You can send a message and a fraction of a second later it has already arrived at its destination.

There is land, water, and air transportation. Petroleum, natural gas and water pipelines are part of the transportation network. Optical fiber cables and communication satellites are part of the communication network. Both of these networks are essential to modern life.

 

Air Transport

        Air transportation is a fast way of traveling. Airplanes have limited payloads (they can’t carry as much as trains and trucks), need an airport to take off and land, and cost more to build and operate. Air freight transportation is only suitable for shipping small, light and valuable cargo. As for passenger transportation, the pace of life of modern people is getting faster and faster. “Time is money” is on everyone’s lips. To make money, people often need to go on business trips. No wonder domestic and international plane transport is way up. No wonder we need new airports! Air travel means convenience, but it also means pollution. We should keep this in mind when we are considering how we are going to travel.

 

Water Transport

        Most of the mountain ranges of Taiwan run north south. The rivers run east west and are short and full of rapids. In other words, inland water transport is not feasible. Only part of the Danshuei River can be used for water transportation. In the early days, north-south transport was via coastal waters. There used to be many harbors along the west coast, which were centers of cargo storage and distribution.

        As mentioned in Chapter 11, Taiwan is one of the world’s major trading nations. A large amount of cargo is shipped over the ocean. Harbors are links between water and land. Exports are shipped via railway or highway, stored in a facility in a port, where they “wait” to be transported abroad. Imports reach domestic ports and are distributed all over the island, by railway or highway. Places from which a port collects cargo are inside that port’s “hinterland”. Places to which a port distributes cargo are within that port’s “foreland”. The more efficient the overland transport system serving the port, the larger the port's hinterland and foreland.

Taiwan now has four major international harbors: Kaohsiung, Keelung, Taichung and Hualien. The largest is Kaohsiung.

 

Land Transport

        Land transportation includes railway and highway transportation.

        Although the total length of railways is much shorter than that of highways, railway transport moves large amounts of goods long distances without any danger of getting stuck in a traffic jam.

        Railway construction began at the end of the Ching dynasty. The full loop around the island was completed in 1991.

The total length of Taiwan’s railways is over 1,100 kilometers. There are four branch lines: Ping-hsi Line, Nei-wan Line, Ji-ji Line, and Ali-shan Line.

        In Figure 13-1, we can see that the highway system covers most areas of Taiwan, especially the plains, creating a convenient transportation system. Highways can be built in more types of terrain than railroads. Railroads cannot be very steep or turn very sharply. Highways do not have the same restrictions. However, individual trucks carry less cargo than trains. Highway transport is more expensive than train transport over long distances. To improve the efficiency of long distance highway transport, the government has built freeways without traffic lights or crossroads, greatly reducing time and fuel needs.

▲ Figure 13-1 Taiwan Highway System

 

Communication

        Communication is the transfer of information. Information means data and messages. The main information transmission systems in Taiwan include postal services, telecommunications, and mass media like newspapers, magazines, movies, broadcastings and television. We have communication satellites to keep in touch with the world and to send and receive telegrams and faxes. Without satellites, we would have far fewer television channels to watch. We also have advanced Information Technology infrastructure, including an optical fiber cable network. This explains why Taiwan’s Internet service is so great. Information transmission in Taiwan is really convenient and fast.