ABSTRACT
This chapter documents the success of trigonometrical surveys in colonial Taiwan, and, as a contrast, analyses the problem of land administration based on the registers of fish-scale maps in China from 1368 to 1950. The compilation of the cadastral register was of prime importance for every government in traditional China. After registration, registered households would want to hide their land so that it would not be taxed. In order to collect tax, as well as identifying the location of any land holding, Ming officials needed to know its exact area. In 1655, seeing that agriculture had recovered, the Shunzhi emperor ordered the Ministry of Works to cast imperial metal land measures in order to re-measure land in the whole empire. Taiwan was the first territory with Chinese population to adopt modern methods of surveying and mapping land. Before the land survey was put into practice, the colonial government of Hong Kong needed to prepare and collect all land claims.
