金門 Kinmen

An entire military museum of enormous paintings 
showing how the KMT held off the PLA in Kinmen

Visiting Kinmen was a bizarre 36 hours for many reasons.  A friend invited me to join the trip the night before, and the next morning I flew domestically in Taiwan for the first time during the height of the Covid pandemic here.  Going between museums, we walked along wide, freshly paved streets bordered by pristine landscaping but no sidewalks.  Added on to the fact that we were spitting distance from China, it felt like a twilight zone, not Taiwan.  The 梅雨 "plum rain" that drizzles lightly during Asian rainy season picked up gradually throughout the weekend.

珠山 Zhushan Village, an eerie neighborhood of perfectly preserved Qing houses

On one hand, the island feels like 17th century China, as the Qing architecture is so well preserved.  On the other hand, it feels like the 1940s Chinese Civil War, as Kinmen was the heavily militarized keystone from where the Nationalists planned to retake mainland China.  Defending the island from an invasion by the Chinese Communists solidified the KMT's hold over Taiwan, establishing the standoff across the strait that endures to this day.

An military fort that can only be reached at low tide

Pointing to Xiamen (China)

Civil defense tunnels running underneath Kinmen

The three of us stayed in the heart of Jincheng in an Airbnb that surprised us with only one bed.  The next morning we had 油條 fried dough sticks, homemade by the neighbor, dipped in vermicelli noodle soup.

Eating Kinmenese breakfast with our Airbnb host and
discussing the Kinmenese identity, distinct from the Taiwanese identity

Western-style mansions built by Kinmenese who went elsewhere in SE Asia for work
and returned with new ideas about architecture, labor, style, etc