Since last month’s devastating earthquake in China’s Sichuan province, an unprecedented amount of aid has been flowing into the area from Taiwan, with celebrities and companies competing for the rank of biggest donor. But the island could make an impact beyond money through passing on its experience recovering from a big earthquake that hit on September 21 1999.

“The Sichuan quake is almost like a copy of 9/21, only on a much larger scale,” says Liao Wei-shih, a local government official in Nantou, the county at the epicentre of the island’s quake. “Both quakes hit in remote mountainous areas heavily reliant on agriculture and tourism. Both created quake lakes.”