TAIPEI -- The world still remembers the month of September for the terrorist attacks in New York. For most Taiwanese, however, the month will stay long in memory for another tragedy -- the devastating earthquake that hit central Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999.
Some six years have passed since the major quake, popularly known in Taiwan as the "921 Earthquake," struck. Today, Taiwan can boast of its unique achievement of successfully turning one of its worst natural disasters in the 20th century into an advantage, having steered the hardest-hit local communities to economic recovery .
Symbolic of such efforts are the preservation of some heavily devastated facilities as memorials site to attract tourists, and the creation of a new industry to replace the farming industry.