Baseball serves as a bridge between island, Fujian

Lu Chin-lin, a baseball coach from Taipei, Taiwan, dreams of making baseball the county sport of Liancheng, a mountainous county in Fujian province, before his retirement.

"In every field in Liancheng, I hope to see our kids with bats and gloves, playing baseball," he said.

Baseball is a popular sport in Taiwan, and Lu has been fascinated by it since childhood.

He described it as a "sport of coming home" because to score a point, a player has to run through all the bases and get to home plate. For him, the pursuit of his dream on the Chinese mainland is also a "homecoming" journey.

Liancheng is known as China's "Baseball Town" due to its baseball equipment industry. In 2006, a Taiwan investor became the first person to set up a factory in the county to manufacture baseball gloves, choosing the area due to its low labor cost and location, which made it easier to transport goods.

Following this success, more Taiwan investors arrived to produce baseball bats, balls and other equipment to be exported to Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea.

As the industry grew, the county decided to bring in Taiwan coaches to offer baseball classes at primary and middle schools. Lu arrived in 2016, visiting several campuses to teach children how to play the sport.

When he arrived, the baseball fields were tucked away in the corners of campuses, and the players would have to step aside when the track and field teams practiced, he recalled.

"But the hardworking and dedicated students persuaded me to stay," he said.

One distinctive feature of Lu's team, which is composed of both boys and girls, is that all of the boys have shaved heads, symbolizing their collective commitment to their rigorous training. Due to regular outdoor training sessions, the boys' darkened heads stand out prominently.