Trip to Kinmen!

*Below is another student blog! Yay!*

DAY 13

We arrived in Kinmen after a short one-hour flight and were greeted by our tour guide, Peter, who took us straight to a congee restaurant for lunch. The congee tasted fine, however, the mystery meat in the congee really threw us all off so we didn’t eat that much.

After lunch, a quick bus ride took us to a military outpost built into a hillside cave, carved out with dynamite. The cave featured artillery openings and a viewing platform offering a strikingly close view of China from Kinmen. Then we got to watch them do a firing of the cannon. I was surprised how many people were required to just operate one cannon, and how the small island was able to operate all the cannons to defend against China.

Then a quick drive down the hill brought us to Shanhou Folk Cultural Village founded by the Wang Kuo Chen. Like many of the villages in Kinmen, the founder was born in Kinmen, went abroad, made a lot of money, and eventually came back to establish a village in Kinmen. Most of us were just unable to stand the heat so we all crowded into the only room with AC to stay cool.

Our tour guide Peter, to give us a break from the heat, led us to a store selling peanut candies and beef jerky and then to the MAJA noodle store. At both these stores we got to try samples, a little snack to fill us up before dinner and many of us bought some snacks to take home as souvenirs or just for ourselves.

Finally, to round off our busy day we went to a hotpot restaurant and enjoyed some Taiwanese-style hotpot. My favorite was actually the honey vinegar drink, sounds gross I know but it actually tasted like really good apple cider. Then we returned to the hotel to rest and retire for the night.

Day 14

The next morning we met Maestro Wu in the factory and he showed us how he made a knife out of the artillery shells. It was very impressive how fast he was able to make the knife, within the 30 minutes we were there Maestro Wu had transformed the old artillery shell into a completed knife.

Afterward, we went to Guning Village and visited a museum showcasing Kinmen’s diverse wildlife, the museum even had a glass window attached to the pond next to it so you could see the fish swimming in the water. The tour continued as we drove around Ci Lake Triangle Fortress, another military fort which had a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge that linked big Kinmen to little Kinmen. We took constant breaks to escape the heat.

Hungry, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to Little Kinmen for some Taiwanese steak. I ordered my medium rare steak, a big mistake. It practically came out rare and I had to cook it on the hot plate myself. However, the best part about this restaurant was the unlimited ice cream and sides we got.

Then we visited Warrior's Fort, yet another military bunker but this time there was beach access so we walked through a very small tunnel to get to the beach. The next beach we visited was the start point for the swimming competition that happened the previous day where racers swam to and back from Kinmen (in Taiwan)  to Xiamen (in China). We stopped for a nice cold bowl of shaved ice to cool off from the heat.

Our last stop was the Jiangongyu Islet, a tidal island. It's an island that you could only reach during low tide to another little island which is why they also call it Moses Part Sea. The path to the little island stands a Zheng Chenggong statue facing the direction of Gulangyu Island where another stone statue of Zheng Chenggong stands. Because the path was on the bottom of the sea, all our shoes got so muddy.

Finally, for dinner, we got a giant platter of food with a large selection of traditional food from Kinmen. Though we weren't even able to finish the whole platter, Le really made a massive dent, he ate the whole platter of crab by himself.

Satisfied with our day we drove back to the hotel to rest and get ready for another amazing day.

 -- Sophie Yi