The High Line – time out at New York City

The High Line at the west side of New York City is an unusual linear park.  At this time, it is a free public park at one mile long with narrow walkway south of 30^th street between 10^th and 11^th Ave.  Unlike typical linear parks, the High Line is elevated at 30 feet high, cutting through and standing in between two large avenues of the city. 

New York city did not actually spend big bucks to build an elevated city park from scratch.  The structure used to be a section of the West Side Freight Line  built in mid 19^th century by the Hudson River Railroad, connecting southern Manhattan through midtown all the way north to Albany, the capital of New York State 150 miles away.   In 1934, the section south of Penn Station at 34^th street was relocated west from street level along 10^th Ave to a 30 feet high structure, thus the name “High Line”, to avoid the frequent traffic accidents and to make loading and unloading of goods easier.  Who would have thought in only few decades, the hyper growth of the trucking and highway systems supplanted the rail transportations.  While the north section of the West Side Line beyond Penn Station is still used by Amtrak, the elevated High Line was abandoned in 1980 and left with weeds and rust till recent years.

Climbing up staircases at west of the intersection of 10^th Ave and 30^th street and turning right, you can see the last section of the High Line Park under construction that is scheduled to open in 2013.  From here, the High Line turns west towards to the Hudson River and will take visitors through the West Side Rail Yards to 34^th street. 

Turning left, one can start the journey south and stroll down the new section of the park which was opened a little over a year ago in summer of 2011.  As one walks south, ornamental grasses greet the visitors along with few surviving blooms of cone flowers.  Less than few hundred feet, a gigantic mural of a man, Brandon Many Ribs of a North Dakota Indian tribe, overlooks the High Line with eyes closed.  He appears to be screaming silently, possibly due to intrusions by the visitors.  This is a recent work by the award winning French street artist JR from his participatory Inside Out Project.

Near 27^th street, another mural “The High Line Zoo” by Jordan Betten and his team is at display on a roof top next to the High Line.  For some unknown reasons, the zoo animals are all gone from the roof when I compared my photo against that of the original display found on the net (see photos to the right).  

Two blocks further at the west 25^th street, you will not miss the colorful multistory mural by Brazilian muralist Eudardo Kobra. The American iconic B& W photo Victory over Japan Day in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt and other scenes of New York circa WWII were turned into bright carnival celebrations. 

                                                                                                                                                                         

As you walk further south, here comes the most dramatic illustration of the impact of the High Line on redevelopment.  HL23, an upside down 14 story luxurious condominium with a slim bottom fits snugly right into the High Line with no space to waste and no more weight o carry (see photo at the left).  Ceiling to floor glasses on the north and south side of the building provide plenty of lights and views for the residents at the expense of privacy.  The building was designed by Neil Denari and was completed a year ago with an explicit goal and challenge of maximizing floor spaces with a tiny base of 40x99 ft and zoning restrictions.  There is no question that this building will become one of the new icons for New York city, just like the IAC building designed by Frank Gehry in his signature twisted curvy exterior which can be seen from the High Line near west 18^th street.

At the west 18^th street, you can also view the huge High Line Billboard, currently showing Thomas Bayrle’s American Dream – a classic Chrysler car made of company’s logo.  Near Gansevoort Street, the southern end of the High Line Park, a cute 9-foot tall figure sculpture Old Singer with Blossoms by Alessandro Pessoli is hidden in trees and bushes (see photo to the right). For more about the current art exhibitions, see the web page of the High Line Public Art.  By the way, you do need to slow down and pay attention as you may end up missing some of the works like I did.

When High Line was built as an elevated railroad 80 years ago, it was deliberately made to travel in between 10^th and 11^th Ave.  As a result, a few high rises had to make ways allowing freight train to tunnel through the buildings. Some of these tunnels are now places for street performances and some exhibits.  It was such an enjoyment to hear a cellist play when I was visiting.  Other than taking a sip of water and wiping off his sweats on his face, he was totally immersed in the music and oblivious to the occasional deposit of changes into his cello case by visitors.  

Walking back north, I stopped by the Blue Bottle Coffee near the Upper Chelsea Market Passage at the 15^th street.  I joined the line, waiting patiently for a cup of fresh “hand-made” drip coffee.   I was curious if the coffee would taste any better as I watched the barista painstakingly pouring rounds of hot water into each holder attentively.

The High Line of New York city is not the first elevated linear park.  The idea in fact came from The Promenade plantée of Paris which is a 2.9 miles long walkway completed in 1993.  The High Line has however inspired many other cities in U.S. and elsewhere such as Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Luis and Rotterdam  to pursue conversions of abandoned city railroads into green space with the hope that they will attract and spur further neighborhood redevelopment.

perhaps the most impressive part of the story of the High Line Park of New York is that the project started as a result of the activism of neighborhood residents and is a true grass-root movement.  There were competing ideas by businessmen and property owners in 80s and 90s to demolish the elevated structure in favor of traditional redevelopment.  In 1999, two neighborhood residents and activists Joshua David and Robert Hammond founded the Friends of the High Line and championed the efforts and mobilized the community as well as city administrators and politicians to save the High Line.  The result was nothing short of a miracle as (what some would consider) a pie in the sky was successfully turned into a “park in the sky”.  To this date, a major part of the park maintenance is supported by the Foundation and volunteers.  It has already attracted more than $2 billion dollars of new development to the area around it for residential units, office and commercial spaces.   While the notion of “build a cool park, they will come” may sound naïve, the success of High Line park has become as a shining example of how a nice green space can revitalize city neighborhoods.  For more details about the High Line including history, timeline, and photos, you can visit its official website at http://www.thehighline.org/.

Enjoy your walk and talk to you soon!

North to Alaska

For those who’d like to be close to and to appreciate wilderness, Alaska is a top destination of choice.   It holds more than half of the designated wilderness area of U.S. and yet accessible by plane, car, and sea.  For tourists who have a modest budget and time but can’t quite stay away from modern facilities and some pampering, one way to enjoy Alaska is to take a 7 night one-way cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage for the southeast region of Alaska, aka Alaska Panhandle.  Then one can rent and pick up a car at Anchorage to visit the south central and central regions of Alaska for places like the Kenai Peninsula and the Denali National Park.  That is what we just did in late summer.

The name Alaska means “the Great Land” that came from Aleut people who are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.   Situated at the northwest corner of North America and disjoint from the rest of the U.S., Alaska has an area more than of 600 thousand square miles which accounts for almost 20% of U.S. and is bigger than most countries of the world.   With a slightly more than 700 thousands residents, it is also one of the least populated states of U.S.   Unlike most states in U.S., Alaska has more males than females.  With its unique natural resources and climate however, there is a popular joke about Alaska men: “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”

Some trivia: What is the north-most state of U.S.?  How about west-most and east-most?   How about the largest state by area?  How about the least densely populated state? Yes, Alaska is the correct answer for all of the questions above.  (You may quip how could a state be the west-most and east-most at the same time?  Well, technically, parts of Alaska are in eastern hemisphere and span from longitude 172° to 180° east of the Prime Meridian that passes through Greenwich, England.)  To give you some idea of the extremes, the population density of New York City is about 25,000 times more than that of Alaska which stands at 1.26 per square mile.

Alaska used to be a part of Russian Empire’s territory.  It was sold to U.S. on 1867 for a mere $7.2 million dollars (equivalent to $120 millions today) when the Tsar Alexander II made the strategic move using U.S. to mitigate Great Britain’s threat from its east who controlled British Columbia at the time.   

Did you know that Japan had invaded and occupied a part of Alaska (then a U.S. territory) during WWII?  Yes, Japanese did more to U.S. than attacking the Pearl Harbor.  Six months after the Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese force landed and occupied two of the Alaskan islands - Attu and Kiska of the Aleutian Islands in mid 1942.  It wasn’t until almost a year later that American and allied forces reclaimed those islands with heavy casualties on both sides.  

Historically, Alaska was the first entry point of humans into the Americas when some groups crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia during the ice age more than 10,000 years ago.  Over time, some moved south, settled throughout the Americas, and are now referred to as the Indigenous peoples of the Americas whose similarity in features to Asian offers a clue.

With a vast territory and northern location (the north most location of Alaska is about 1000 miles from the North Pole), one usually associates extreme colds with Alaska.  In reality, the climate of Alaska varies a lot depending on the regions.  For instance, the southeastern region which is the popular destination of Alaskan cruises is not much cooler than Seattle or Western Europe.  And Anchorage’s climate is reasonably mild although due to its latitude, there can be as little as 5 hours of daylight in the winter.  On the other hand, by some estimates, Alaska does have three million lakes and more than 100,000 or roughly half of the world’s glaciers.

Typical Alaska cruise itinerary includes visit to Ketchikan, Juneau and  Skagway from south to north on its ports of call.  Juneau is the capital of Alaska but is not accessible from Alaskan roadway system.   The other two towns are small enough for easy strolls and exploration by foot.   While Ketchikan has many wildlife to show for – from salmon to bald eagles, Skagway is full of colorful human stories and history, thanks to the Klondike gold rush of 1896.  It was the port from where prospectors prepared for and started their 500-mile journey to the gold fields in Canada.  Some never made it to the gold fields and many never made it back.  Very few became rich.  Of course, the real smart ones “mine the miners” and became wealthy without nearly as much hardship (Now you understand why people want to work in Wall Street?).

Land excursions at those towns through cruise companies or independent operators offer opportunities to get close to natural beauties as well as wild animals such as salmon, bald eagle, grizzly bear, and humpback whale.  More adventurous minded tourists could also try glacier/ice field trekking, kayaking, rafting, etc.  Further north from Skagway, scenic cruising of Glacier Bay National Park and the College Fjord adds acclamations to the week-long cruise as majestic glaciers meet the sea water.  For some reasons, our memory of Glacier Bay was different and better from our first visit a decade ago.  The cruise ship we were on shut the engines and let us enjoy the views and sounds in complete silence.  I can still remember hearing the sound of crumbling glaciers from miles away with occasional cheers when one actually sees something.  Otherwise, passengers were mostly whispering as if everyone was afraid of disturbing the nature.  Below are a few selected photos that I took for your enjoyment.  To enlarge, simply left click on the photo.

Mendenhall Glacier

Auke Bay

Juneau Port from Mt Roberts Tram

Juneau Cruise Port

Auke Bay, north of Juneau

Sea Lions in Auke Bay

    

Humpback Whales in Auke Bay

Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay

The disembarkation point of our cruise was Whittier which is 60 miles southeast of Anchorage.  As we stepped out of the cruise ship in early morning, stunningly beautiful Whittier harbor and nearby mountains veiled in fog greeted us.  Not far from the cruise terminal, there lies the 2.5 miles long Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel in one lane shared by both cars and trains.  It is the second longest highway tunnel of North America (50 ft shorter than the Ted Williams+I-90 extension in Boston) and is the only land access of Whittier to the outside world through the Portage Glacier Highway. 

The short drive through the Portage Glacier Highway was breathtaking.  We in fact returned to the area a few days later for more photo shoots and hikes to see the lake and glaciers.  20 miles west, Portage Glacier road meets the Seward Highway which is a part of Alaska Route 1.  If you turn left and heads west-southwest, you can explore the heart of Kenai Peninsula.   Turning right and head north, you soon see Turnagain Arm to your left with Anchorage at the far north of the mouth of the Arm at more than 30 miles away.  Turnagain Arm is one of the about five dozen places in the world where one can see tidal bore. (but it is not nearly as impressive as the one at Qiantang River of China which has the world's largest bore - up to 30 ft high and moving at up to 25 miles per hour.)   During high tides, pods of Beluga whales or white whales (ok, it is a misnomer and is really more like dolphins) follow and chase the silver salmon all the way upstream from Cook Inlet.  It is not difficult to spot some of these cute mammals along the highway, one of the only two places in North America where you can watch Beluga whales in the wild.

Turnagain Arm northward

Alaska Fireweed

Turnagain Arm when low tide

Continuing north on Alaska Route 1 past Anchorage, a mere 30 miles out, one reaches Wasilla which is a small suburban town of Anchorage with less than 8,000 residents.   It is now internationally known, thanks to Sarah Palin who was its mayor from 1996 till 2002.  She was elected as the Governor of Alaska in 2006 and became the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 election.  To boost her credential on international affairs, Sarah Palin had made the famous statement: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska." Although the statement was technically correct, it was such a stretch from her demonstrated intellects and experiences that the statement became a constant joke of her ignorance of foreign affairs. 

Picking up Alaska Route 3, aka the George Parks Highway after Wasilla and going north along the imposing Alaska Range at the west, one can enjoy a pleasant drive to Denali National Park 200 miles away.  The word "Denali" came from the native Athabaskan language.  It means "the high one", referring to the Mount Denali of the park.  It is also known as Mount McKinley, named after president William McKinley of Ohio in 1897.  Mount Denali is the highest mountain of North America.  Peaked at 20,327 ft, it is simply a gigantic piece of granite that was lifted up into the sky from Denali Fault as a result of tectonic activities over 10's of millions of years. 

Denali National Park and Reserve has more than 4 million acres in area and is the third largest national park of U.S.   Because of the low temperature and short growth seasons, Denali National Park has little wooded areas.  Instead, tundra at various elevations with beautiful fall colors covered much of the ground no matter at which directions you look.  There is only one Park Road of 91 miles long that takes one from the park entrance to the mining camp of Kantishna.  The first 15 miles is open to private vehicles.  The remaining 76 miles of narrow gravel road is only accessible by Park concessionary buses.  A round-trip bus ride with short stops along the way all the way to Kantishna would be a 12+ hours venture.   The reward though is the spectacular sceneries and possible encounters with wildlife – grizzly bears, mountain sheep, moose, and more.  One new thing I learned from watching a film at the visitor center was the most impressive camouflage I have ever seen.  Look at the photos below and compare the Willow Ptarmigans (the state bird of Alaska) in late Aug that we saw and a photo of a Ptarmigan in winter that I downloaded from Internet!   

More selected photos follow them below.  With a three-night stays, we barely scratch the surface.  Next time, we hope we have a better luck with the weather and have more time to hike at various parts of the park.

A lone grizzly bear

A lone visitor

Eielson Visitor Center

Wonder Lake

Mount McKingley seen from Alaska Route 1

Before I go, I should say a few words about food.  Material wise, you can’t go wrong with fresh local salmon and halibut.  But if you are not sure about the joint, simply order entrees that retain the original flavor as much as possible. We have had decent food at most of the places we visited including the café in the Denali Park.  We also had a wonderful outdoor lunch break and leisure walk at Talkeetna on the way to Denali from Anchorage.  It is a lovely small town with quite a few cozy restaurants.  I had Caribou Chili and a special Ale made with Fireweed honey.  With 9% alcohol, that Ale was the strongest beer I have ever had but is very good.  The Caribou Chili was nicely done too.  It didn't taste gamey as one might fear.   Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that restaurants in U.S., as required by law, can only serve game meats that are farm-raised? 

Talk to you soon!

Cheat to Thrive

Recent news reports of large scale academic cheating at top schools like Stuyvesant High School in New York City and Harvard University have drawn a lot of attentions.  In the recent NY Times article Studies Find More Students Cheating, With High Achievers No Exception by Richard Perez-Pena,  Professor Donald L. McCabe of the Rutgers University Business School who is a leading researcher on cheating was quoted to say “There have always been struggling students who cheat to survive.  But more and more, there are students at the top who cheat to thrive.”  He may be right that there have been more reported incidents or such a trend indicated by surveys.  However, sorry to sound cynical, should we be surprised if there have always been people “at the top”, students or not, who cheat to thrive?

One finds a definition of cheat in Merriam-Webster Dictionary as a : to practice fraud or trickery

b : to violate rules dishonestly.  Wikipedia article on cheating gives it a broad definition: “an immoral way of achieving a goal. It is generally used for the breaking of rules to gain advantage in a competitive situation. Cheating is the getting of reward for ability by dishonest means.”  

There are several critical words in these definitions that warrant closer examinations.  What is considered immoral?  Is it a function of particular community and time?  Who define the rules and how are rules upheld and enforced?   Are the criteria of cheating absolute or relative?  What if there is no reward involved?  What if the underlying situation is not competitive?  Is the same behavior now still considered cheating?

For the recent Harvard scandal (see NY Times article Harvard Says 125 Students May Have Cheated on Exam), the professor did tell the students that they must work alone in the take-home open-book, open-internet final exam.   When the professor saw the similarity of the answers in many of the papers submitted, he did the right thing and reported the incident to the administration who opened the investigation.  For the Stuyvesant High School scandal (see NY Times article Allegations of Widespread Cheating), the scandal became public when the Principal confiscated a student’s cell phone during a city language exam and uncovered evidences of widespread cheating. 

Are these students “cheat to survive” – to survive in a highly competitive environment?  Note even at Stuyvesant and Harvard, by definition, half of the students are below median in their class!  Since the cheats appeared to be “business as usual” to many of the students involved according to the reports, I would guess at least many of the offending students belong to the group of “cheat to thrive”.  

Thus a more sombering question is what is happening with our society as a whole?   Is there a trend of increasing moral delinquency especially among the elites?   Is this just a tip of the iceberg?    After all, these are not isolated incidents and students have not been the only ones caught cheating.  Only a little more than a year ago, 178 Atlanta public school teachers and principals were accused of altering students’ grades in high-stake standardized tests.  

As many have observed, technology and tool advances have made cheating easier.  Obvious example is cell phones with camera and texting.  Copy and paste features in word processing software allows people to lift others’ writings effortlessly.  Further, there are abundant resources online at our finger tips.  With powerful search engines, one can plagiarize any subject matter even at advanced levels.  All in all, the popularity and ease of sharing over Internet have eroded the time-honored respect for originality, authorship and ownership.  I have seen highly educated and accomplished adults lifting regularly others’ work in their communications without attributions.  While one may argue that there are no explicit or direct rewards in some of these cases, one cannot stop wondering what kind of role models and what effects would it have on next generations? 

Misguided promotion of group work in school is also a suspect.   Group work sometimes does degenerate into straightforward copying and sharing of final outputs and credit without division of work and responsibility.  To some, the lesson learned from team work is how to get more easy awards by taking others’ credits instead of the true meaning of collaboration that one plus one can be bigger than 2 and that it is the only way to work a complex problems effectively. 

Competition for reward and satisfaction is certainly a huge factor in inducing cheating behaviors, especially for the elites.  A famous example can be found in the NOVA program Secret of Photo 51 that details the history of Rosalind Franklin's contributions in the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.  The 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was given to James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins who, along with their Lab directors, knowingly neglected to mention that their successful discovery and breakthrough model was critically dependent on Franklin’s experimental results to which they had obtained access without her permission.   I am sure you have no problem finding plenty examples in politics and business world where people constantly dance between the fine legal and ethical lines.   In his Sept 24^th New York magazine article Cheating Upwards, Robert Kolder had an in-depth profile about Nayeem Ahsan, the Stuyvesant High junior who was in the center of the recent cheating scandal.  Do you know what was his dream college?  Yes, it was Harvard.  Do you know what his dream career is?  It is investment banker.   Should we be surprised that there is less and less trust the public have on our political and business leaders? 

Why do people cheat?  I can think of many reasons and you can too: no one is watching, others do it (and I would be disadvantaged if I don’t), the reward is worth the risk of getting caught and the possible penalty if caught, the thrills and pleasure, help a friend in need, it won’t really hurt others, and because I can, just to name a few.  Sadly, cheating appears to be universal throughout human history in all civilizations.  Let us be honest.  A vast majority of us do have the temptation to cheat from time to time (Perhaps,  it comes from our survival and competitive instinct?).  Given that, and given that a dominating factor in cheating is how easy it is and how high the penalty is, the solution seems clear.  More transparent process, more safeguards, raise penalty and enforce the rules.  Success should be commended but cheat to thrive must not be tolerated.

Talk to you soon!

Kinmen Highlights

In my last blog, I talked about our recent visit to Tainan 台南where modern history of Taiwan began when the Dutch set up its trading post there almost 400 years ago.  Dutch’s 38 years of occupation ended in 1662 when Zheng ChengGong 鄭成功 (aka Koxinga 國姓爺 and Prince of YanPing延平郡王) and his men laid a 9 month siege of Fort Zeelandia (aka AnPing Fort 安平古堡) and drove the Dutch out of Taiwan.  

Who was Zheng ChengGong?  Where did he and his men come from? To get some appreciation to the answers to these questions, one can backtrack the footsteps of Zheng ChengGong 鄭成功and pay a visit to Kinmen金門, a group of islands110 miles west of Taiwan and a little over 1 mile off Xiamen 廈門of Fujian Province of China.   Zheng and his navy force were based there between 1651 and 1661 prior to sailing to Tainan and forced Dutch out. 

Zheng ChengGong鄭成功 was born to Zheng Zhilong 鄭芝龍 and his Japanese wife Tagawa Matsu at Hirado, southern Japan in 1624, the year Dutch started building Fort Zeelandia in Tainan, Taiwan.  At age 7, he and his mother were brought back to Nan'an 南安, Quanzhou 泉州 (north of Xiamen) and reunited with his father. 

Zheng Zhilong is an important character in history.  For one, Zheng ChengGong’s career was made possible with his father resources and organization.   Zheng Zhilong appeared to be a smart and ambitious young man, judging from the stories of how he left home as a teen.  He earned his livings first on merchant ships and eventually made his way to Japan where he met his mentor Li Dan, a rich Chinese merchant.  At age 19, he took over the fleet of his mentor when Li passed away.  By age 23, he was already the most powerful pirate/merchant in the region with 400 junks and tens of thousands of men. 

In those days, with a weak Ming government in China and competing colonial forces and traders, one can imagine the lawlessness on the high sea from East Asia all the way south throughout Southeast Asia.   Zheng Zhilong and his men appeared to be engaged in activities from trading to looting and offering protection to others for fees.  He in fact organized and headed a major pirate organization called Shibazhi 十八芝, not unlike the Godfather of a mafia.   At age 24, after defeating Ming navy, Zheng Zhilong decided to go legit, accepted an official appointment and worked for Ming while continuing to operate his now a formidable 800+ ships fleet and organization.

Zheng Zhilong was probably serious about going legit (remember the all time classic 1972 movie The Godfather?).  He had his son Zheng ChengGong brought up with the traditional Confucian studies who in fact had passed the first level of imperial examination科舉.  When Beijing fell to Qing’s hands in 1644, Zheng ChengGong was in fact a serious student at the Nanking University.

Zheng Zhilong was initially supporting Ming Dynasty in resisting Qing’s conquer of China.  He helped enthroned Longwu Emperor of the Southern Ming in Fuzhou, Fujian under his protection.  However, he switched side and defected to Qing a little later.  Perhaps as a hedge of his bet, he left his men and resources with his son Zheng ChengGong who continued to be loyal to Ming and resisted Qing.  What he probably had not expected was his son’s royalty to Ming Dynasty never wavered that caused him his life as he was executed by Qing in 1661. 

In 1651, Zheng ChengGong moved his fleet and men to Kinmen and continued to look for opportunities to restore Ming and reclaim the mainland.  Ten years later in 1661, he took his men and fleet to Tainan, drove out the Dutch and set up Taiwan as his new base.   For those who are familiar with the history of modern China, the parallels are striking and eerie with Chiang Kai-Shek’s move to Taiwan with his Nationalist government almost 300 years later.    Zheng ChengGong died young however at age 37 in 1662 due to malaria.   He never set his foot on the mainland again after he left Kinmen.  Neither did Chiang Kai-Shek after he retreated to Taiwan in 1949.

Zheng ChengGong is a rare example in history where an individual is still revered as a hero long after his death by all interested political entities – Communist China, Nationalist China, Taiwan Independence Movement, and Japan.  Every one of these entities was able to find something in him that they can use to promote their agenda: Japan likes to play up its connection with Taiwan using the fact that Zheng’s mother is a Japanese.  Communist China likes to emphasize the nationalism using the fact that he drove out the Dutch colonial power and kept Taiwan in Chinese’s hands.  Nationalist China likes to talk about his dedication to and goal of reclaiming mainland with his unwavering loyalty to Ming Dynasty.  Last, but not the least, pro-Taiwan-independence movement likes to emphasize Zheng’s founding of Tungning Kingdom, resisting mainland China’s takeover of Taiwan.

Now back to Kinmen.   For visitors, the natural place to start is the Grand Kinmen (or Greater Kinmen)大金門, the main and largest island of Kinmen islands which is less than 1 hour away by plane from Taipei.  Grand Kinmen is a dumb bell or H-shaped island of over 50 square miles, more than twice the size of New York Manhattan!   After Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan in 1949, Chiang Kai-Shek had placed as many as 100 thousand troops in Kinmen islands.  Along with the Matsu Islands  馬祖, it served for four decades as the first line of defense for Taiwan and as a launching pad for military actions against Communist China.

To appreciate how close Grand Kinmen is to Communist China controlled territories, one needs to visit the MaShan Observation Post 馬山觀測站at the northeast corner of Grand Kinmen.  Looking out from the Observation Station in a heavily fortified bunker, one sees clearly the island of Jiao Yu island 角嶼of mainland China at 1 mile away in low tide.  It is totally believable that Dr. Justin Yifu Lin 林毅夫 , a top Chinese economist and former Senior Vice President of World Bank, did swim across on his own in 1979 and defected to Communist China when he served as the Company Commander at MaShan Observation Post.  Indeed, the distance between Kinmen and the mainland China is so small that for decades, nationalist and communist China had engaged in psychological warfare with loudspeaker walls (a group of 48 huge loudspeakers) and gigantic loudspeakers.  Each would blast announcements, speeches, and performances to the other side directly over the sea, 24 by 7.    The Taiwan TV news report below gives you an idea how the facilities looked like and how it worked.

At 253 meters, TaiWu Mountain 太武山 is the tallest and only mountain in Kinmen.  Zheng ChengGong used to come to the mountain top with his staffs to observe the training of his navel force.  Following the roadway, one can take a leisure hike from the parking lot at the base to the top to visit the observation point of Zheng’s to have a panoramic view of the islands and sea (see photo to the right).  A little further up, one will see the landmark 100 ft tall granite rock with Chiang Kai-Shek’s writing 勿忘在莒 as well as  the 800 years old HaiYin Temple 海印寺. 

Kinmen became known to the world during the Second Taiwan Strait Crises, aka the Quemoy Incident or the 823 Artillery Bombardment 八二三炮戰.  The intensive and nonstop shelling of the island was begun by the Communist China on August 23^rd 1958 that lasted for 45 days till Oct 6.  Almost half a million shells were fired that translates to approximately 15 shells per acre in average, and 2500 Nationalist troops were killed.   After the failed attempt to force the surrender of Kinmen, the bombardment evolved to a peculiar protocol where two sides would fire at each other (Matsu islands included) on alternate evenings with propaganda shells filled with pamphlets.  The practice continued till the normalization of U.S. China relationship in 1979.  What was unexpected was that the shells collected on the Kinmen islands had become a popular material for handmade cleavers, now a souvenir and gift item for tourists.

The less well-known but a more significant battle involving Kinmen between Communist and Nationalist China took place eight years earlier.  It was the Battle of Kuningtou古寧頭之役and lasted only three days in Oct, 1949.  Communist China’s plan was to dispatch 19,000 troops and launch an assault of Kinmen against 40,000 Nationalist garrisoned troops.  If successful, there was little doubt that Taiwan will be the next target and Chiang’s Nationalist government will fall.  However without a naval force and adequate training, only 9,000+ PLA troops were able to land on Kinmen after making several major tactical errors.  The assault ended up to be a disaster - almost 4,000 of PLA troops were killed and the remainders captured.  The battle marked the last hand-to-hand combat between Communist and Nationalist China.   Six months later, Korean War broke out in June 1950.  U.S. government expanded its containment policy to Asia against communism and signed the US-ROC Mutual Defense Treaty with the Nationalist government.  Note the Treaty excluded Kinmen and Matsu islands.  Indeed U.S. did not intervene during the 823 Artillery Bombardment 八二三炮戰 in 1958, other than providing some critical weapons and supplies.

Now it is all peaceful and quiet in Kuningtou which is at the northwestern corner of the Grand Kinmen.  A small gate greets the visitors to the park and museums.  The blood of soldiers on the beach had long dried out and washed away, only a lone fisherman was there (see photo to the right).  We stayed at a traditional guesthouse 古厝民宿for two nights at the local Lin village林厝聚落.  Combined with modern in-room facility, this restored 250+ years old house retained the magnificent Southern Min 閩南architecture and layout with added comfort and convenience (see photos below). An evening after-dinner tea at the courtyard and the front yard is a perfect way to end the day.  Light breeze over the lotus pond wipes away the heat of the day and rejuvenizes one’s body.

Of course, there are a number of well-maintained old traditional houses on the islands.   The popular and most photographed is a cluster of 18 houses, family shrine included.  It belongs to a Wang Family and is located at ShanHou village山后民俗文化村 (see photos below).  One can also find other interesting architectures on the island as well.  In particular, the island has several large two story western style houses that are often seen in Southeast Asia.  They were invariably built by those merchants who immigrated from Kinmen to Southeast Asia.  Sending home the needed fund and blueprint of the house for it to be constructed was a clear declaration and celebration of their successes. 

 

For skyscrapers, one needs to look westward across the sea however.  There stood Xiamen, one of the largest and most populated cities on the southeast coast of mainland China.  Standing at CiTi 慈堤 facing west, one can see the skyline of Xiamen behind the antique tanks used during the battles 60 years ago (photo to the right).  On the beach, defending the amphibian assault are arrays of poles made of rail woods that pointing at an degree towards to the sea and sky.  They still serve a vivid reminder of the war however primitive they may look.  The military conflict had been replaced with trades and tourism but political tensions of two vastly different systems continued.  Now Kinmen residents can take a convenient 20 minute ferry ride and spend weekends in Xiamen to enjoy city life with entertainments and shopping.   Not surprisingly, despite the deep cultural and economic ties with China, Kinmen residents reject overwhelmingly both Taiwan-independence and communist rule.

Kinmen had suffered much as the frontline during decades of military conflicts between Nationalist and Communist China.  A new direction for economic development began to take shape when martial law and military rule of Kinmen ended twenty years ago in 1992.  In 1995, a significant portion of Kinmen islands was designated as a part of the new Kinmen National Park that helped provide the focus and resources needed to transform Kinmen.  Thanks partially to the revenue generated by the highly profitable Kinmen Distiller for its Sorghum Liquor 金門高粱酒, Kinmen is now ranked the happiest place to live in Taiwan according to a recent survey by the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum. When you visit Kinmen, don’t forget to bring home and me some Kinmen specialties like its hand-made ultra-thin pasta麵線, Peanut GongTang 花生貢糖, and Sorghum liquor.  Cheers to Kinmen and its people!

Talk to you soon!