Lai Ching-te, the political brawler who went from a Taiwan mining village to the presidency

Luo Kuo-lin, a neighbour of Taiwan's incoming president Lai Ching-te, walks through the old mining tenement where they both group in in Wanli, Taiwan. Photograph: Helen Davidson/The Guardian

The house itself is a modest, two-storey dwelling on a larger parcel of picturesque land. Mist floats down from the jungled hills behind, settling in the narrow lane that winds towards the rundown remnants of a mine.

The only people there on the day the Guardian visits are curious tourists. They are there for one thing: to see the family home of Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s next president.