5% inaccurate: Manly yet peaceful Kinmen

This place reminds me so much of my grandpa. This is the perfect place for him to retire in. On the other hand, it is probably the manliest island I have been to, regarding the things it is famous for : military, knives, liquor and horseshoe crab.

I have long heard about Kinmen, just never thought of visiting it. I even doubt that is it worth visiting at all. It is not a famous tourist spot, many Taiwaneses on the main island have never even been there. This time, it was actually my mom's idea to go there. She had watched a taiwanese series and she absolutely loves it, a series which set in Kinmen.

Kinmen is composed of a series of islands. But the main island plus Lie Yu (also called Little Kinmen) together are no larger than the Penand island. The most interesting thing about the island is how close is it to the main land China, so close that it is merely 5km away. In fact, it is closer to China geographically than to the main island of Taiwan which is a few hundreds kilometers away.

Since China and Taiwan were in conflict and still it is true today, Kinmen becomes naturally the frontline between two powers. It was heavily bombarded during the peak of the conflict, around the 50's and 60's. It serves as a military point for Taiwan side until today, as many military posts on the island are still operational. It is said that all minefields are disarmed but bunkers and coastal defence measures are still everywhere.

Of course, the conflict is no longer as heated. It have just diluted into this dilemma nobody wants to mention about. Simple fact, all out war will just deteriorate the fragile situation and bring no benefit to any side. So despite being heavily militarized, Kinmen is quite a peaceful place to live in. With very few buildings taller than 10 storeys, Kinmen stays more or less in an agricultural state where almost everybody is still a farmer. My grandpa always loved this kind of places, peaceful and very close to the nature and he loves gardening. That's why I said this is the perfect place for him.

The island is not big, so travelling within on a scooter is ideal. But again without international licence, my mom and I couldn't rent one. Bicycle was the next best choice, as so what I originally thought. How wrong was I! Roads in Kinmen are hilly, plus the intense summer heat, biking is a really bad choice. I still could withstand the severe circumstances, but my mom wasn't. After one morning of biking around, we quickly dropped the idea of visiting all touristic spots on bicycle. Public bus was not so bad after we tried it. The coverage was not as extensive, but it still could get us to major places we wanted to go.

It might be a little hipster-ish, I always have a special love to places where very few people know about. I always love to be among the locals when I visit a place, without the overwhelming waves of foreigners. That is exactly why I love Kinmen!