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!

Revisiting Tainan, where Modern History of Taiwan Began

Earlier in the summer, we took a family trip to Taiwan.  My memory of Taiwan’s hot and humid summer weather had faded for some times as the last time I visited it during the summer was exactly ten years ago.  It did not take long for the old memory to come back once the plane landed.  The good news is as always, there are more family bond, friendship, things to do and places to go to divert one’s attention and overcome the punishing weather.

On this trip, we visited Tainan 台南, the oldest city and the first capital (1683-1887) of Taiwan Perfecture which is easily reachable by high speed rail about 180 miles south of Taipei.  As the place where the modern history of Taiwan began, Tainan no doubtedly is the ideal place for anyone who wants to take a fresh or renewed look of the modern history of Taiwan.  

Prehistory of Taiwan is an active research topic with multiple propositions.   What we do know is that the island was connected with the (Asia) mainland till the Holocene period about 10,000 years ago when sea level rose and Taiwan Strait was formed.  Thus it is not surprised that it shares with the mainland some similar artifacts dated back 10s of thousands of years.  We also know that today's Taiwanese aborigines speak a language which belongs to the Austronesian languages family found across much of the Southeast Asia and Pacific.   As a large island off the Asia mainland, one thing seems clear: there have always been some human activities, migrations and settlements for last few thousand years but none significant enough to attract the attention of major powers in the region, China included.

The situation began to change when European colonial powers showed up in Pacific in 16^th century, competing for trade advantages in Asia.   The first arrival - Portuguese - settled and set up a trading post in Macau in 1550s’.  Portuguese ships did sail by Taiwan and named the island Ilha Formosa.  The name stuck but Portuguese were too busy to stop.  Dutch arrived at Asia a little later after Spaniards who were focusing on Philippine islands.  The Dutch first set up a trade post at today’s Jakarta, Indonesia in late 16^th century.  After a failed attempt of taking Penghu islands away from Qing dynasty of China, the Dutch East India Company fleet turned to Taiwan, landed at Tayouan in 1624 and began constructing Fort Zeelandia (aka AnPing Fort 安平古堡) in today’s Tainan.  It marks the beginning of the modern history of Taiwan.  

Incidentally, I am embarrassed to say that on this trip I finally learned where the name Taiwan came from. Can you imagine? It is the place I was born and the land I lived throughout my childhood and early adulthood!  It turns out that Tayouan (大員), where Fort Zeelandia was located, was the name (in sound) given by the resident (indigenous) PingPu tribe people平埔族.   Following the locals, early immigrants from Southern Fujian of China called the place the same which, when translated back into Mandarin, became “Taiwan”.  The name was eventually used to call the whole island.

Touring Fort Zeelandia or AnPing Fort and its neighboring areas easily makes up a pleasant outing of half day or more.  While there is only little of the original fort left (see photo to the right), the museum and its displays provide the visitors sufficient details to appreciate what the life, the architecture and construction techniques were like during the Dutch Colony days nearly 400 years ago.  The change of the landscape of the area is also amazing.  As one approaches the fort from Tainan city center at the east, what used to be the Taijian Inner Sea台江內海had been pretty much lost to silt reclaimed by land over the centuries.  Now there are only a few canals/creeks left and the old sea port had been relocated south.  The strategic reason for Dutch to build the fort to control the channel into the inner sea has long vanished. 

The Dutch was forced out of Taiwan after 38 years of occupation.  General Zheng ChengGong鄭成功, aka Koxinga, a Ming Loyalist who was fighting against the new Qing Dynasty of the Manchus, laid a siege of Fort Zeelandia for 9 months with his 400 warships and 25,000 men.  On Feb 1^st, 1662, the Dutch Governor Frederick Coyett signed the Koxinga-Dutch Treaty with Koxinga and ended the Dutch colonization effort of Taiwan.  It would take however another 22 years before Qing Dynasty finally paid more attention to rid of the Kingdom of Tungning (founded by General Zheng in 1661) and made Taiwan a prefecture under the jurisdiction of Fujian Province.  It is fair to say that without General Zheng, it is not clear who would have control over Taiwan in last several hundred years. 

Of course, attempts by European colonial powers and later, the Imperial Japan to dominate Asia continued well into 20^th century.  A stone throw away, north of the Fort Zeelandia or AnPing Fort, one finds an intriguing Banyan tree house, now called AnPing Treehouse.  It used to be the warehouse of the British Tait & Company英商德記洋行who traded tea, camphor and opium.  It was used later by the Japan Salt Company during the Japanese occupation from1895 till the end of WWII.   The abandoned warehouse and the adjacent office building (now a museum) was built in 1867 when Qing Dynasty was forced to sign the Tianjin Treaty of 1958 after being defeated in the Second Opium War (1856–1860).  AnPing was one of the 11 ports included in the treaty to which foreigners were given free access.  Visitors can now walk up and down the viewing staircases at the exterior and through the interiors of the warehouse to get a fascinating live snapshot of how few Banyan trees takes over and posses a large structure.   Photos below give you a sense of the massive spread of the trees in 6 decades.  Not far from the British Tait & Company, there is the German Julius Mannich & CO德商東興洋行 of the same era.  With its outdoor café in the shade, it is a perfect place for an afternoon break.

 

There are several other popular historical sites in Tainan worth visiting as well.  They include Chikan Tower赤崁樓 (built in 1658 by Dutch), Tainan Confucian Temple 孔廟 (built in 1665 by General Zheng’s son) and the Eternal Golden Fortress 億載金城 (built in 1874 by Qing government), to mention a few.

For nature lovers, there are now ecological parks where one can enjoy the nature and watch their habitats.  Don’t miss the ecology tours at the Taijiang National Park台江國家公園 that was just established in 2009.  A boat ride through the SiCao Green Tunnel canal 四草綠色隧道 (photo to the right) is a pleasurable way to see some rare mangroves, psammophyte, and halophyte, and large monk crabs.

For food lovers, don’t miss the local milkfish虱目魚.  Prepared fresh, it seems you can never have a bad meal with it.  Of course, you must also try Taiwanese Tappas 台灣小吃。Being the oldest city and first capital, you should not be surprised Tainan is the place from where many of the Taiwanese Tappas originated.  One good place to start with is the famous Tu Hsiao Yueh 度小月 (see photo to the right).  Now a nicely decorated restaurant with 3 branches in Taipei, it was started by a fisherman on the street during the off-season back in 1895.

Before I go, I must mention the recently completed National Museum of Taiwan History 國立臺灣歷史博物館 (not to be confused with the old National Taiwan Museum國立台灣博物館 in Taipei) that is opened to public since end of last October.  Filled with models and visuals, the museum offers visitors a chance to complete the story of modern history of Taiwan systemically which we did.   Its permanent exhibitions are organized chronologically with the familiar periods and timeline.  After a brief introduction of pre-historical Taiwan and early residents, it discusses the foreign influences under Dutch rule (1624-1662), sinicization with significant immigration over time from mainland China during 200 years of Qing Dynasty rule (1683-1895), Japanization and the opposing nationalism under Japan rule (1895-1945), and finally the economic development, and democratization/localization under ROC (Republic of China) government from the time when Taiwan was returned to the Nationalist Government of China till this day.

While the exhibits and displays are objective, our knowledgeable museum guide seemed to have more agenda.  His view appears to echo the pro-Taiwan Independence argument that the Taiwan’s status is undetermined:  he repeatedly brought our attention to the fact that Taiwan had been occupied and ruled by different forces in history for its strategic location and resources.  He emphasized that Taiwan’s residents, while mostly decedents of people from mainland China, view the island as their true home.   It follows therefore Taiwan should not be ruled by "others" and Taiwan's future should be determined by its people alone.   I don’t know if this guide’s interpretation and expansion of historical facts was sanctioned by the museum but it certainly reflects the sentiment of a significant portion of people.  The issue is so complex that only time will tell.  Then, another chapter of modern history of Taiwan will be written.

Talk to you soon!