Kinmen Island (Day 3)

April 6, 2010
Monday

The 3rd and last day here in Kinmen Island, it was raining hard and we’re worried about our flight, good thing the rain stop. We still had half day tour visiting another tunnel called Jhaishan Tunnel, and the highlights of Kinmen – old traditional and western houses and buildings built by immigrants long time ago. Then, we had early lunch in one of the store, free tasting of their different noodles and sauce. By 1:30 pm, we’re back in Songhan Airport. Here are some photos taken:

@ Jhaishan Tunnel

@ Kinmen Folk Village – You Tang Villa

@ Jinshui Primary School built in 1932

@ Shui Tou De Yue Tower

Taken this long thin noodles (miswa) and bought few stuff from the store.

 That ends our weekend get away in Kinmen Island!

Long noodles hanging…

Kinmen Island (Day 2)

April 4, 2010 (Sunday)

The tourist guide told us that the itirinary today will be tiring, and yes it was!!! By the end of the day, I was so tired and slept early (very unsual). We left the hotel around 8am for the first destination, oh well – the introduction of the famous “root tea” and “ointment” by Dr. Wang. It’s sort of little talk about the history and of course sales talk. We were given samples of tea (the taste was ok, but the smell made me ****), I couldn’t stand it.

It was time for us to take a boat the southwest of Main Kinmen to see “Little Kinmen” or Lièyǔ (烈嶼鄉), meaning “Heroic Islets”. The place where actually 5000 meters to Xiamen (Mainland China). It’s about 15 minutes sailed from Kinmen Dock to Jiugong (九宮)Dock. We walked through Xiwei (四維)Tunnel to Jiugong (九宮)Tunnel. The place were used to move troops and supplies. Below are some sceneries in the area:

We took another bus and visited the Huchington War Museum in Donkung Village, the army place and propaganda frontier to the Mainland China. This is the place where the visitors can see Xiamen, Mainland China through telescope. All  da ge da subscriber celfone will receive message, saying “Welcome to China”.

Dropped by to a small village below were Temple of Chaste Maiden is located called “Shien-Ku Temple” She said to fight against the communist soldiers who tried to raped her, the soldiers were so angry that they pushed her in the ocean. In front of the temple, we bought some sweets and dried fish. The first time I saw small boiled small taro, Sansan bought some for our midnight snacks. Our lunch also have this one of the dish, yummy!

After lunch, we headed to another garden/museum

Next is the August 23 Artillery Battle Museum that was built in 1988 to honor the soldiers and civilians for their courage. Inside are some information and photos exhibited.

The Banyan Garden and Weilu is located in the right side of August 23 Artillery Museum. This was the place where the Hung Family of Min Dynasty. The house is just remodelled in 1967 and named the house Wei lu. It is called Banyan Garden because the place is surrounded with Banyan Trees.

Finally, our last itirinary… the hardest part was to go hiking in Tai Wu Mountain…but it was fulfilling seeing the whole entire Kinmen on top of the mountain (although it’s kind of foggy!). Photos below say it all:

Another landmark… “Wu Wang Zai Ju” outlined in 1952 by Chiang Kai Shek.

At the end of the day, it’s still early for dinner… again we dropped to liquor store for tasting. Kinmen is famous producer of Gao Liang Jiu (Gao Liang Liquor). Sansan and I just stayed in the bus and waited.

Dinner @ 6:30 pm, the same restaurant we had on first day… this time they served lobster, and more food!
I was exhausted an went to bed at 9pm, as I’ve said that was unsual!

Kinmen Island (Day 1)

April 3, 2010, Saturday when my friend Sansan and I left Taipei Songshan Airport to Kinmen. It’s about an hour flight via Mandarin Airlines. It’s a nice flight, no delay or any hassle. The weather is fine, although it’s forcasted that it will be raining that day. Since we’re in a tour group, we waited the rest before we left Kinmen Airport and headed to a typical restaurant for lunch. We’re 41 in all in a bus tour, mostly were from Taipei.

After lunch, the first visit was this natural resources museum where they showed and explained to us its natural features by the tour guide.(in chinese!)

Kinmen (Jinmén), known as “Golden Gate” is a small island outlying China, but controlled by Taiwan. It’s 2km away from Xiamen (mainland China) and 25 km away from Taiwan. A place where China and Taiwan split. Kinmen or Quemoy (Spanish..) has 6 Townships: Jinning Towship(金寧鄉) know as Golden Tranquility was the first destination.

bicycle route map of Jin ning Township

Kuningtou War Museum

In 1949, Kinmen was attacked by the communist

that lasted for 3 days in this place “Kuningtow”,

that’s why this museum was built in 1984.

Juguang Tower – a symbol of Kinmen,

inside the tower are some documents and materials

about the history and current status of Kinmen.
Another is the common telephne booth…

Chiu Liang-kung’s Mother Honorific Arch
 It was established in 1812. Ms. Hsu was a wife of Chiu Chih-jen (a general in ching dynasty),
became widow in her late 20s, and raised her only son – Chiu.
Chiu had made a lot of contribution to this country.

Kwei-ge Tower

A place built in 1896to pay respect for Kwei – shing (faith of career).

A place where the students long time ago come and pray for passing the exam

and be admitted as government officials.

Below are some old buildings and typical narrow passage…

Another place we visited that day, “Kinmen Command Headquarters in Qing Dynasty” in Jincheng Township.There’s an underground showing the life of the prisoners and how they beheaded.

Next is the famous 1925 built Mofan Street, a western house look that linked together based on Japanese Architecture…said to be that the foreigners put up their own business store here…

Our last destination was to visit the famous knives maker in Kinmen, made from the remains artillery shells fired by US in World War II, that would made a natural resource of steel for the locals.

Dinner was served and we headed to our hotel (Hotel River) @ 7pm. We went for a walk to see their night market, nothing much in there…