An 83-year-old woman has signed up to run for Kaohsiung's city council on a single issue — stopping the city from cutting down trees in the Qiaotou forest — making her almost certainly the oldest candidate in the race.

• Chiang Huang Nu registered to run in Kaohsiung's third district, which covers Gangshan and five other areas.
• She grew up near the Qiaotou sugar refinery, once cut cane there, and later worked as a plasterer with her husband.
• She still walks in the refinery grounds and nearby woods every day, and got worried after hearing plans to build a big road through it and clear the trees.
• Her son, who pushed to preserve the old refinery and turn it into an arts village, and the head of a forest-city group went with her to register.
• If she wins, she says she will fight to save the trees and take people there to walk through the woods and watch the sunrise.

Outlook: The road plan now becomes a local election issue, and the campaign will test how much support the tree-clearing opposition has in the district.