Stixy: For Flexible Online Creation Collaboration and Sharing

Even a military island can have a lotus pond and there was a very nice one near where we stayed.

But it's not strictly military. I loved this fanciful rain spout from an old japanese era house.

But most of the cool stuff was mllitary

They gave us a little demonstration of firing this gun on the tour

Me and my buddy the wind lion god.

Chinese mainland in the background

BIG SPEAKER

Think that guy has has a loud stereo in his car? Think again. This speaker is loud enough to be heard all the way to China (from Kinmen). It was used to broadcast propaganda during the conflict. Fortunately it was turned down a bit when we were there, so I can still hear.

So very briefly the story goes like this. There was long civil war between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and the Communist Party of China (CPC). Both claimed to be the legitimate government for all of China. In the end the Communists got the mainland. Chiang Kai-shek and about two and a half million troops and refugees got Taiwan and proclaimed the Republic of China. Fighting with troops stopped around 1950 though shelling continued.

This island is very close to the Chinese mainland. Close enough that they could and did lob many many shells at each other. We were told that at one time they would shell ever other day, giving a day off in between. They never really formalized the peace but tension has slowly eased. Nowadays ferry boats carry Chinese tourists to the island. As you might imagine the island is loaded with reminders of those days and that is the basis of much of it's tourism.