Taiwan

Photographs of Taiwan

January 21, 2009

Vavilov was a keen photographer. We have uploaded some of the images from his trip to Taiwan. If you know of others that may be of interest, please let us know.

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Pigs and plants

January 19, 2009

1929 The lower part of the island is densely cultivated by the Chinese agricultural population. At each house there is without fail a sty for black Chinese pigs. Pig raising is far more developed here than anywhere in western Europe. The areas under vegetable cultivation are intensely utilized and heavily irrigated areas are occupied by [...]

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Oolong tea

December 18, 2008

1929 In addition to the camphor trees, a visit to the tea-growing station was one of the objectives of my expedition. The well-known oolong mountain tea of Taiwan was a most remarkable sight. In the mountains of Taiwan it is possible to see thickets of tea, reaching the dimensions of small trees 4-5 metres tall. [...]

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Citrus fruits of gigantic proportions

December 17, 2008

1929 When descending from the mountains we went to Kagi, to a tropical research station where all that is valuable in the worldwide flora is collected and where they make stubborn attempts to introduce especially valuable plants and fruits into cultivation for technical purposes. Here are plantations of rubber trees, mango trees and mangosteen, and [...]

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Camphor forests

December 10, 2008

1929 Most of all I wanted to see the forests of camphor trees [Cinnamomum camphora Nees & Eberm.]. Taiwan is the native land of camphor. At altitudes reaching up to 1900 metres there are large forests which consist almost exclusively of camphor trees. From their leaves and fruits camphor oil is extracted by distillation over [...]

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On to Taiwan

December 9, 2008

1929 Taiwan is, of course, a Chinese island. Of the 4 million inhabitants, 90% are Chinese. Taiwan was united with Japan only 50 years ago. The island retains the agricultural crops of China in an almost untouched form and therefore the visit to this island was of especially great interest to me. The island extends [...]

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