a fireplaced dining-room

The Matsu islands are archipelagos in the Taiwan Straits which are composed of five main islets under the four administrative townships called Nankan, Beigan, Chukuang, and Donyuin.

I'll have a whisky on the rocks, please.

Leaning against piracy fits in with China's desire to cast off its image of a country where exploited workers toil for a pittance in Dickensian factories that turn the air and water black with the pollution they discharge.