It also carried the official Beijing summary of the poll's significance - that it was a local election which did not change the fact that Taiwan was part of the mainland.

Major portal Netease.com had pictures of all candidates and a brief description of their positions.

Elsewhere it displayed photographs of the mainland's military might - with pictures of a submarine, tanks and warplanes on display.

Some of the news was somewhat unreliable, including a report that Beijing television was broadcasting advertisements for army recruits. An official at the television station said there were no new adverts being aired.

Another report claimed that Fuzhou - the southern coastal city facing Taiwan - would have civil air raid drills soon and build an air raid shelter.

However, a Fuzhou government official said yesterday he was unaware of any such plans.

Meanwhile, chat rooms were full of patriotic messages.

'Chen Shui-bian will come to no good end,' read one message on the Netease on-line chat room.

'Chen Shui-bian is bad news for everybody,' read another. 'If there is a war, all of those who are hurt will be Chinese - either from the mainland or Taiwan.' 'Just fight and Taiwan will come crawling,' wrote another Internet user.

One reader said he and his family kept abreast of the election returns on their home computer on Saturday night but once it was clear that Mr Chen was the winner, the atmosphere changed dramatically.

'Our food went cold. My heart went cold as well. I couldn't sleep last night,' the reader wrote.

Some readers posted messages that might concern the leadership.

'If the Communist Party doesn't respond, I will go to Tiananmen Square and kill myself to prod the nation into action and erase this national shame,' an angry reader said.

But not everyone was so carried away.

'Who wants to fight?' asked one. 'We should go out and study.'