Orchid Island

Orchid Island is located 80 kilometers southeast of Taiwan, the area of the island is 45 square kilometers. The island can be reached by plane in 30 minutes or by ferry in 3 hours. The island owes its name to the beautiful tropical flowers growing in its forests.

The island is home to Yami, an ethnic minority who emigrated to the island from the Batan archipelago 800 years ago. Of the 4,000 people living on the island, approximately 2,400 belong to the Yami Aborigines, and the remaining 1,600 are mostly Chinese. In the Philippines, the island is called Botel Tobago.

In 1982, a nuclear waste repository called Lanyu was built here. The plant takes waste from three power plants in Taiwan. About 100,000 barrels of nuclear waste are in the Lanyu complex. In 2002 and 2012, there were protests from local residents calling on Taipower to remove nuclear waste from the island. In April 2013, an Australian TV channel broadcast a documentary about the protests on Orchid Island.