The rocky islands of Kinmen once stood on the very frontline between China and Taiwan, but increasingly it's becoming a laid back tourist spot for mainland daytrippers to relax, breath in some fresh air and — most importantly — shop.
Direct ferry services with Xiamen began in 2003, and over the past decade Kinmen been making the transition from "island fortress" to island mall: a process highlighted by this weekend's announcement that the very first Starbucks will soon be opening on the island, in a new NTD80 billion megamall. Property prices in Kinmen are also skyrocketing, rising 7.2 per cent from last year. What used to be one of the last places you'd want to live is now looking like an ideal local to raise a family.
Kinmen, also known as Quemoy, is the furthest-flung if Taiwan's island, sitting a mere 8.5 kilometers from the Fujian shore. Just decades ago, this twelve-island archipelago was one of the world's major battlefields: after their 40,000-strong amphibious assault was repelled 1949, the Communist army waited nine years to launch a massive artillery barrage on the lonely Nationalist outpost. Over 44 days, half a million shells fell on the island — it was, and remains today, the most concentrated artillery bombardment on a single target in the history of warfare.
China then announced an "even-day cease-fire," whereby the two sides traded artillery fire only every other day (save for Sundays, of course). The two Chinas also launched propaganda offenses, firing canisters filled with leaflets and installing 30,000-watt loudspeakers speakers blaring anti-Communist messages and rock 'n roll across the Taiwan Strait. ROC forces were even known to launch helium balloons toward the mainland, containing wristwatches, pocket calculators and even silk lingerie to show how much better life was in Free Formosa.
To this day, passengers aboard the 50-minute ferry from Xiamen to Kinmen are greeted by giant billboards and murals painted on the cliff face that reads, "Unite China with The Three Principles of the People," Sun Yat-sen's foundational doctrine that espoused nationalism, democracy and the livelihood of the people. (Mao Zedong later came up with his own, somewhat less inspiring New Three Principles of the People: Alliance with Russia, co-operation with the Communist Party, and assistance to the workers and peasants).
Once described as the "West Berlin of the Orient," however, Kinmen has long served dual purposes as both fortress and showpiece: something for the "Communist bandits" across the narrow sea to gape at enviously through the Bamboo Curtain. Taipei has consistently pumped funds into the island. You'll never find scars of the thousands of homes obliterated by Communist bombs. The changing face of Kinmen is not so much a process of total transformation, but of its secondary role coming to overshadow its primary role.
As the smoke began to clear, each soldier stationed on the island was made responsible for the growth of a single tree, and the result is a feathery pine-covered fortress-cum-forest as pristine as a military base. Anti-aircraft guns still sit in the middle of roundabouts, tourists continue to be warned about the possibility of unexploded mines on the beaches, and a vast network of bunkers and tank-sized tunnels forms a second city below the surface — but all this belies the beguiling tranquility and charm of the place.
The changes that have taken place in Kinmen were hardly overnight, but they might be considered a barometer for the relationship between Beijing and Taipei. As relations between the two countries have warmed, so too has the pace of life in Fortress Quemoy relaxed.
"Kinmen" means Golden Gate, but for most of its recent history the island has been more of a double-reinforced, triple-bolted, hermetically sealed door slammed shut in China's face. As it continues opening its doors wide to the almighty yuan, however, the gold in Kinmen is set become a lot less promissory or poetic, and a lot more literal.
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