In the village of Almeirim nearby, O Toucinho (M), serves the typical stone soup; a charming, friendly, country spot.

A volcanic island covered with a carpet of tropical rainforest, Lanyu lies about 65km southeast of the city of Taitung, making it the southernmost outpost of Taiwan. Lanyu's status as a far-flung outpost isn't merely geographical, but cultural as well, as the island is by far the least Chinese part of Taiwan.

Yet this crucial break did not become an environmental threat until the counion of science and technology in the nineteenth century.

The Beckettian progression appears occasionally: while Miss Counihan (static) is an omnivorous reader and Murphy (transitional) a strict non-reader, Cooper is an analphabete.