Kinmen Island (Day 2)

April 4, 2010 (Sunday)

The tourist guide told us that the itirinary today will be tiring, and yes it was!!! By the end of the day, I was so tired and slept early (very unsual). We left the hotel around 8am for the first destination, oh well - the introduction of the famous "root tea" and "ointment" by Dr. Wang. It's sort of little talk about the history and of course sales talk. We were given samples of tea (the taste was ok, but the smell made me ****), I couldn't stand it.

It was time for us to take a boat the southwest of Main Kinmen to see "Little Kinmen" or Lièyǔ (烈嶼鄉), meaning "Heroic Islets". The place where actually 5000 meters to Xiamen (Mainland China). It's about 15 minutes sailed from Kinmen Dock to Jiugong (九宮)Dock. We walked through Xiwei (四維)Tunnel to Jiugong (九宮)Tunnel. The place were used to move troops and supplies. Below are some sceneries in the area:

We took another bus and visited the Huchington War Museum in Donkung Village, the army place and propaganda frontier to the Mainland China. This is the place where the visitors can see Xiamen, Mainland China through telescope. All  da ge da subscriber celfone will receive message, saying "Welcome to China".

Dropped by to a small village below were Temple of Chaste Maiden is located called "Shien-Ku Temple" She said to fight against the communist soldiers who tried to raped her, the soldiers were so angry that they pushed her in the ocean. In front of the temple, we bought some sweets and dried fish. The first time I saw small boiled small taro, Sansan bought some for our midnight snacks. Our lunch also have this one of the dish, yummy!

After lunch, we headed to another garden/museum

Next is the August 23 Artillery Battle Museum that was built in 1988 to honor the soldiers and civilians for their courage. Inside are some information and photos exhibited.

The Banyan Garden and Weilu is located in the right side of August 23 Artillery Museum. This was the place where the Hung Family of Min Dynasty. The house is just remodelled in 1967 and named the house Wei lu. It is called Banyan Garden because the place is surrounded with Banyan Trees.

Finally, our last itirinary... the hardest part was to go hiking in Tai Wu Mountain...but it was fulfilling seeing the whole entire Kinmen on top of the mountain (although it's kind of foggy!). Photos below say it all:

Another landmark... "Wu Wang Zai Ju" outlined in 1952 by Chiang Kai Shek.

At the end of the day, it's still early for dinner... again we dropped to liquor store for tasting. Kinmen is famous producer of Gao Liang Jiu (Gao Liang Liquor). Sansan and I just stayed in the bus and waited.

Dinner @ 6:30 pm, the same restaurant we had on first day... this time they served lobster, and more food!
I was exhausted an went to bed at 9pm, as I've said that was unsual! :)