It is especially busy on Sunday, when many villages prohibit swimming, and is popular among transplanted mainlanders wishing to wear bikinis, which are often frowned upon at public village beaches.
More recently, forms of localism that reject the Mainland and mainlanders have emerged.
Ms. Chao is among more than 1,000 mainlanders who, for the first time, have been permitted to study for academic degrees in Taiwan and have just completed their inaugural academic year.
The South China Morning Post and Radio Free Asia said the two mainlanders — who were among hundreds of Chinese who attended the march — had unsuccessfully petitioned mainland officials to investigate the unexplained deaths of their spouses.
Already uneasy about raising their children among an elite group of mainlanders, the Rosskams also feared the political brickbats hurled at them would harm Mr. Muñoz Marín's political future.
Such protests are effectively banned in mainland China, creating a draw for the mainlanders who attended.
Last Saturday, a lively but civil debate among the three candidates was viewed by millions of mainlanders via the Internet — even though many of the video links were deleted by government censors.
The complaints in part reflect real problems and in part, perhaps, stereotypes among the middle-class Taiwanese about the backwardness of mainlanders -- biases that are only strengthened by the influx of low-end job seekers.
This has kindled resentment among the pre-invasion Cypriot Turks, who complain of Turkish mainlanders' patronising ways.
The flood of prosperous mainlanders has provoked considerable angst in Hong Kong, particularly among the young, many of whom struggle to find jobs these days, especially if they are not fluent in Mandarin, a different Chinese tongue from the Cantonese that most residents speak here.
