Taiwan's frontline island — Cold War bunkers, kaoliang sorghum, and wind-lions three miles from China
Kinmen (Quemoy) is a Taiwanese-controlled island just 3km off the coast of mainland China — visible on a clear day — that was the scene of the 1958 Second Taiwan Strait Crisis when China bombarded it for 44 days. Today the military infrastructure is a tourist attraction: underground tunnels, battlefields, artillery, and fortifications from three decades of intermittent bombardment. The island is also famous for its kaoliang sorghum liquor (fiercely strong, beloved by Taiwan's army), its unique knife-making tradition (fashioned from artillery shells), and the carved granite wind-lion statues a…
Kinmen was fortified by Chiang Kai-shek after the 1949 retreat and successfully resisted PLA attacks in 1949 and the artillery bombardment of 1958 (500,000 shells in 44 days). The shelling continued symbolically (on alternate days, then odd/even calendar days) until 1979 — making Kinmen one of the longest-running military standoffs of the 20th century. The island was under military rule until 1992, and opened to tourism only in 1992. Today's wind-lion deity shrines trace to Ming Dynasty folk beliefs about protecting against the island's fierce winds.