Kinmen Trip—Jiangong Islet

April 3, 2011 — Jiangong Islet, Kinmen

Jiangong Islet sits at the mouth of the Wujiang River, south of Jincheng Township in Kinmen. During the years of military confrontation across the Taiwan Strait, bunkers and other defenses were built here to guard the river mouth and monitor maritime activity along the route from Lieyu, or Little Kinmen, and in the direction of Xiamen. After the troops withdrew in 2002, the Kinmen County Government developed the islet as a visitor attraction.

Visitors walking on the tidal road exposed between the Kinmen shore and Jiangong Islet — Visitors make their way toward the islet along the exposed, slippery road.

What makes this place unusual is that the road to the islet appears only at low tide. Misjudge the tide and being unable to cross is the least of your problems—if you get stranded on the island, you may have to wait another twelve hours to return @.@'"

Rows of rock-oyster cultivation posts in the tidal flats near Jiangong Islet — Rows of stone posts form traditional oyster beds across the tidal flat.

The stone posts rising from the water mark oyster beds. Kinmen’s famous rock oysters cling to them, growing especially plump and sweet after a cold spell ^.^

Visitors carefully crossing the slippery tidal path to Jiangong Islet — The crossing is short, but the slick surface makes every step a careful one.

The crossing was only a few hundred meters long, but it took us about fifteen minutes. The surface was wet and slippery, and landing flat on my back here would not have been much fun ~.~'"

View along the tidal road leading toward Jiangong Islet — Continuing toward Jiangong Islet along the road revealed by the falling tide.

Tidal flats and the exposed road near Jiangong Islet — Tidal flats and the exposed roadway shape the scenery on the approach to the islet.

This was my second visit to Jiangong Islet, and from a distance I noticed a new stone figure standing nearby. When we got closer, it turned out to be a statue of Koxinga, probably installed to echo the nearby Prince of Yanping Shrine.

Stone statue of Koxinga near Jiangong Islet — On our second visit, a statue of Koxinga had appeared beside the islet.

It still looked rather out of place against the surroundings. I really had no idea what the county government was thinking ~.~'"

Mystery solved, we continued into the islet to have a look around~~

View while proceeding from the entrance into Jiangong Islet — After inspecting the statue, we continued farther into Jiangong Islet.

Old bunker and military structures on Jiangong Islet — The islet’s old defenses still carry traces of its military past.

Inside the old military structures, we looked back toward Greater Kinmen from a sentry post. The tidal road we had just crossed had become part of the view below.

View toward the Kinmen coast from a sentry post on Jiangong Islet — The coastline opens into view from one of the islet’s sentry posts.

View from Jiangong Islet toward Greater Kinmen and the surrounding tidal flats — Looking back from the islet toward Greater Kinmen and the tidal flats we had crossed.

A narrow machine-gun opening remained inside the bunker, aimed out over the water.

Interior of a Jiangong Islet bunker with a narrow firing opening — Thick bunker walls and narrow openings reveal the structure’s former defensive role.

Machine-gun opening facing the water from inside a bunker on Jiangong Islet — A machine-gun opening points from inside the bunker toward the water.

Jiangong Islet is actually only 500 square meters—compared with a wealthy family’s villa, it is not much larger @.@'"

As daylight began to fade, we joined the others heading back along the same route.

Visitors returning from Jiangong Islet along the tidal road at dusk — As daylight fades, visitors follow the tidal road back to shore.

Back on shore, this beach was also a place to look for horseshoe crabs. Overharvesting had made them difficult to find, though; spotting one required more than sharp eyes—it also took a little luck ~.~'"