Records 新紀錄

(Moving faster!)

A little while ago, when Daan and Taipei South congregations were just splitting, I mentioned that it was a time of great inner conflict for most of us. One the one hand, splitting into two congregations was a good thing; it proved we're having success in the ministry, it opened the way for future success, and it made the elders' jobs easier, as they have fewer people to look after. On the other hand, it meant we'd be seeing a lot less of many of our friends, as our schedules, service arrangements and meetings changed.

We officially split at the beginning of last month, which means that only about six weeks have passed- and already, at this early date, it has been overwhelmingly worth it! Although our publisher count has dropped to only about 85 (from 170-something when we were one big congregation), we have an average attendance for last month of 130, and we had 192 people attend the Memorial! Both congregations average bible studies have gone up; more people are pioneering, although that could be influenced by the Memorial as well; even the table we have set up at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial hall broke its record not one, but twice! It's clear that Jehovah is blessing these new arrangements and helping us to move ever faster as time goes on.

I want to mention again the two times CKS broke its record, because I think it's really cool. 

As does Sr. Shen 神姊妹!

The first time was nearly a month ago, when in one seven-hour day the Witnesses manning the cart placed 70 books and 40 brochures, with three people applying for Bible studies. Wonderful! That was a record-breaker, but not by all that much; although on an average day we usually place only 20-30 books and brochures combined, we've had good days before that weren't that much lesser than this first record breaker. The second one came last week, last Monday in fact, when in one day we placed- get this- 193 books and 146 brochures, with seven people requesting a Bible study! I was there for the first three hours of the day, and while we were there I had to leave CKS twice to quickly ride to the hall and back with more literature, because we had run out!

At CKS, we predominantly talk with Mainland Chinese tourists who've come on vacation to Taiwan. Although China is officially the least religious country in the world, with many religious groups under heavy restrictions or outright banned- Jehovah's Witnesses included- it's easy to see that many of the Chinese people still have the spiritual need that Jesus mentioned in his Sermon on the Mount, and it's important that they too get the opportunity to learn the truth about the Bible.

Having a smaller territory is a bit more convenient for our regular door-to-door work, as well, since most of us don't have any kind of motorized transport- it's all bikes and feet!

The all-important coffee break, with Chongren studiously ignoring the camera

A small amount of the increase in publishers is because a few people have returned to Taipei South after a period of absence. For instance, Giancarlo has come back after being in Panama for six months. What was he doing in Panama for so long, you might ask? Good question- he was marrying his beautiful bride Sarah!

Seen here travelling in great style to lunch

Also, we've finally gotten through to Marco- he's been attending our Family Worship for a few months now, which is all in Chinese (well, Chinglish), he's attended a few meetings, he's even come with us to the assembly, and now he's finally moved from Taipei English to our Chinese hall. Good job man!

Also, he's not that tall, this door is just really short

Not only that- look who it is!!

Jerry!! (And me and Kuanzheng)

...unfortunately, Jerry didn't move back yet, he's still doing his Substitute Military Service. They moved him down to Chiayi, apparently, and he says his new job is incredibly, crazy boring. He's the manager for all the other guys doing civil service instead of the mandatory draft, and he says unless someone has a problem- which isn't often- he just goes outside and sweeps the sidewalks all day. Still, he's already a third of the way through (it's 18 months long), and he's in good spirits- he's doing it for a very good reason, and he knows it.

Afterwards, we went out for some Xinjiang food- try the "fried evil"!

A few days after taking that picture, Terry got really sick- he says he's got walking pneumonia or something- so he's had to call in a lot of us as substitute teachers lately. Personally, I filled in for him at a rich kids' high school out in Keelung for one day this week, which was a really interesting experience. Up until now, my biggest class has had fifteen kids in it, and I usually teach 7-13 year olds. This school, on the other hand, had classes of fifty or sixty kids, all 15 or 16 years old. Since I was a substitute, they had all the classes planned out for me already, and all I needed to do was get the kids through the material and tests without anyone dying- and in that I succeeded! Teaching one person is so different than teaching an entire classroom, you need a whole new set of skills... Terry deserves his reputation as a good teacher.

High schoolers asking their Confucian predecessors for help

And for one last record, our Family Worship has been growing. Now we're up to seven people in regular attendance; we're all single brothers and sisters who don't have families in Taipei, so we made our own! It was a bit difficult to stick to the schedule when we first started doing this in Taipei, but it's really paid off... Tuesday night is always fun now. 

Knights of the Red Table

And it helps when we order pizza and the pizza place slightly burns our pizza, so they give us the burnt ones for free on top of what we ordered! Double pizza night!! It wasn't badly burnt, easily still edible, but man... we were eating that for the rest of the week.

I'm going to Macau tomorrow for a visa run, I'll try to do another post about that interesting city soon! Who knows, maybe I'll break another record...

Energy 精神

(Spent and gained!)

This time of year is always full of energy. All around the world, the campaign to invite people to the memorial of Jesus' death is in full swing, nd Taiwan is no exception. Not only have the requirements to pioneer been reduced for this special activity- allowing more people to try it out- here in Taipei, we've been having an extra one or two meetings for field service each week, and we're really working to cover as much of our territory as we can!

Look at us go!

Of course, there's no way we'll really cover it. Especially now that the congregation has split, there are only about 90 publishers in Taipei South, and about 300,000 people in our territory. Still, last year we had about 350% attendance for our Memorial meeting, and I have a feeling this year will be even better!

Come on... you know you want it...

Besides the campaign work, we also had our Circuit assembly last weekend! It's held in a suburb of Taipei called Tucheng, in a rented Jr. High School's gym.

We covered up the basketball court markings this time

It was a very encouraging program, all about pursuing peace- both how important it is, and how we can accomplish that goal. It was also encouraging to realize that I could understand every single talk! I find that it's difficult to pay attention during long meetings such as assemblies without taking notes, and I can't write in Chinese characters very quickly, so I took notes in English- basically translating the main points of every talk. To my surprise, I had hit them all! There were a few words here or there that I didn't understand, of course, but I can't help comparing this assembly to the first one I attended in Taiwan more than a year ago. Taiwan has definitely been good for me- my Chinese has improved, if nothing else!

But of course, there are a lot of other reasons why Taiwan is so good- like these guys:

Joe is much better at selfies than I am

And speaking of those guys, besides all the preaching and assembling we've been doing, we somehow managed to find time for a bike ride down to the Xindian River! Joe had seen a place you could rent paddle boats down there a while ago, and we finally got around to making plans to try them out.

On the ride down

So, bikes. I didn't really know how to ride a bike before I came to Taiwan. I mean, when I was younger- like, eight years old- I remember my mom teaching me how to ride one, but after that I don't think I got on a bike more than twice in the intervening fourteen years. Obviously, bikes are incredibly useful here in Taipei- they take a 30-minute walk and transform it into a 5-minute ride, and when you've got to travel between people's houses spread out all over the city for both preaching and work, that really adds up quickly. When I first arrived in Taiwan, I was a bit afraid to ride a bike; the roads are a lot more crowded that I was used to, and the traffic laws a lot more lax. Still, I forced myself to try the city's rental bikes, and after a few weeks of mild terror I found myself relaxed enough to actually start enjoying the ride, and now I consider my bicycle to be an absolute necessity.

Yang Jie posing on my bike while out in the ministry- he doesn't quite fit

Of course, I have crashed a couple times. When I was first riding around on Taipei's rental bikes, I hit walls a couple times, and people a couple more times- 對不起! A couple months ago, I got cut off by a motorcycle coming out of a side alley without looking and went flying- amazingly without being hurt beyond bruises, but my poor bike had to have both its wheels replaced and its front fork bent back into shape- not quite good as new, but not bad either. 

And unfortunately, minutes after taking the above picture with the flowers, I crashed again. This time it was pretty bad- the bike's front fork was already weakened, and now it was bent so far backwards that it was impossible to turn anymore- the wheel would hit my feet! The front shifter was out of alignment so I couldn't shift up, the rear one had completely fallen apart, and in the fall I sprained my right elbow. We were close to our destination, however, so I limped onwards until we arrived at the Xindian docks.

The boats are down there, I swear

I was considering leaving and going to get my arm checked out, but I was about 95% sure it was just a sprain, and if it was just a sprain the doctors would probably just give me some pain meds and tell me to take it easy. I decided to tough it out and get in the boats with my friends.

Unfortunately, there were seven of us and the paddle boats only seat four. Also, they're paddle boats, which means you have to pedal them very quickly if you want to move. Also, they gave the guy with the sprained right arm- me- the helm of our boat, which was steered by pulling on a lever to my right. That hurt. Still, it was pretty fun and really good exercise- next time, we're going to eat before we get on the boats, not the other way around!

Friendly rivals

All together, myself, Cary and Amy were in our boat, and our opposite number was comprised of Alix, Joe, Lise and Yunya. It was difficult keeping up with them- they had four people after all, and we only had three!- but it was a cool time. Sea shanties were sung. I may have accidentally grounded our boat once.

The Taiwanese cycle keeps working- Amy has already left Taiwan for Korea, and Lise will be leaving us this Monday. We'll miss you guys! Keep up the good work!

Also, recently the Dalai Lama visited Taiwan I believe, because at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall there were banners up all over the place with his face and this rather large temple in the middle of the square:

Their god looks scary! Look at that guy!

Despite their very visible presence, or maybe because of it, this week has been absolutely incredible at CKS. This last Tuesday, over the course of just five hours, we placed 87 books, 92 brochures, and had five or six people sign up for a bible study. Five hours!

Sr. Huang showing a video to a pair of Mainland Chinese tourists

There is definitely energy in the air, and we can all feel it. Good things are happening, and although problems do come, they are far outweighed by the blessings we receive. At times it seems like things are moving very quickly, but as long as we put Jehovah's goals first, we don't need to worry about being left behind- we're just along for the ride!

Last Minute 最後一分 (Alishan 阿里山)

(The cycle continues...)

Here in Taipei, it seems like we're always doing things- if it's not going on a trip, it's organizing some event, or if nothing else just going out to eat or to the movies together. It's a fun kind of busy, but one of the biggest reasons we do this is because we always seem to have people coming and going. When we have a new friend arrive to help us out, obviously we want to have a party to welcome them, and when someone leaves, we naturally want to send them off well. It's a really good cycle we've got going here; people come, they learn Chinese, they get accustomed to Chinese culture, they make new friends, we make new friends, and then they go off, either to some new land or back to their home congregations, well equipped to expand their ministry and assist the congregations. That doesn't mean it's easy when someone leaves though- for anyone!

These past few weeks, we've had the cycle hit us pretty hard. Almost ten people have either already gone home or are going home soon, and we've been doing some last minute activities with as many people as we can! First, we had a group dinner/game night at Alix's house to send off Ayaha and Kiara- Ayaha going home for a time, Kiara going to expand her ministry in Australia.

I am not good at selfies!

Then we had another party, again with food, games and music, for Jessica, who has been here for over one year and is going back to her home congregation in England. Jessica actually lived underneath a sister's store- she has a huge basement that she's outfitted as a kind of hostel, with bedrooms and a common area, but only for Witnesses- so we got to invite more people to her party!

No party is complete without a game of Swedish Mafia or two...

She wasn't leaving fast enough, so we decided to carry her out

We'll miss all of you! No matter where your service takes you, I know Jehovah will bless you, and I hope your time in Taiwan has helped you. Come back any time you want!

People haven't just left, either; the cycle works both ways, and it has brought Harry Sparks back to our island!

The man himself! (Liang Teng was just visiting sadly...)

Harry came to Taiwan just a few days after I did, and we lived together for a good six months before he went back to the States to take care of some business and see some family. He's told me he plans to eventually retire in Taiwan and help in the Chinese field as much as he can, and he's taking steps to make that plan a reality! This time, he'll be here for three months, then will go back one more time in the summer to save up a little more money. After that, maybe the next time he comes will be permanent?

By the way, the picture above is when we went to a hot pot place 火鍋- some places call it Shabu Shabu, for a reason that no one can explain to me. It doesn't sound anything like that in Chinese, maybe it's a dialect or something? Anyway, it's amazing, and most of those places are all-you-can-eat. :-D

The major trip this time, however, was a trip I took with two sisters, Tomomi and Amy. We three have worked together at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall for five months now, every Monday morning for three hours, and have had many good experiences preaching together, not to mention the myriad conversations we've had during times when not many people were in the square. And sadly, this situation must change, for Amy is also leaving Taiwan! She's going back home to Korea, hopefully to come back one day...

We were talking, and she mentioned one place she'd never gotten to visit that she had always wanted to was Alishan 阿里山, a famously beautiful mountain in central Taiwan. So I figured, why not go?

We three made plans to take a Wednesday off work and service, wake up early and take the first train down to Chiayi, then board a bus up to the mountain and walk from there. The train ride was unremarkable, but as our bus climbed into the mountains, we all knew that this was already a good idea.

Getting higher...

Alishan is not particularly tall, as mountains go- only 7000 feet (2,400m) high or so- but considering how small Taiwan is it dominates the surrounding valleys. One day I'd like to climb 玉山 Jade Mountain, Taiwan's tallest at about 12,000  feet (3,900m)... but that will have to wait, as there aren't any buses to the top of Jade Mountain!

In fact, there was hardly a bus route to Alishan! There is only one small two-lane road up the mountain, and on our way up someone in front of us had an accident, which completely blocked traffic for about 90 minutes. At least the view was still pretty good.

There are worse places to get stuck... like Cleveland

But finally, after sitting in a bus for way too long, we arrived!

Since Alishan is so tall, it was quite a bit colder than Taipei! That day, Taipei was about 21 C, about 70 F, but on top of the mountain it was a chilly 2 C- about 35 F! In fact, we missed snow by only one week!

From left: Tomomi, me, Amy

Alishan fully deserves its reputation for beauty. The flowers were just opening, the small plants were green with new life, and the trails had been very artfully made.

So close to the Chinese New Year, there were unfortunately a lot of tourists from Mainland China, who are not known for their great respect for others' space or their exceptional manners, but we solved that problem pretty easily. The Chinese usually like to travel in large groups, with a tour guide wielding his megaphone directing them around and continually yelling at them not to destroy the park or the plant life, so they're pretty compact. Any time we heard one coming- and you could hear them from a long way off- we just ducked into the forest until they left. Problem solved!

Just go over there and look at flowers for a few minutes. Easy!

It's a bit of a shame how paved all the 'hiking' trails were. When I checked online and saw that you could hike in the Alishan National Park, I thought hiking meant, you know, dirt trails and fording creeks, not so much walking across artfully designed bridges and along white granite pathways. They do make for good pictures, though...

There wasn't really a whole lot to do in Alishan besides walk around and appreciate nature, but there's nothing wrong with that. Nature is beautiful! Taipei is a particularly green city, even compared to an American city like Sacramento known for its trees, but this forest was quite different than Taipei's. Taipei is more of a rainforest, lots of ferns, moss and mushrooms... Alishan, probably because it's colder, reminds me more of redwoods than rainforest.

This one looks fake, doesn't it? It's completely real, I promise.

About an hour along the path, there's a feature called the Sisters Lake. According to a sign, the local legend is that long ago, before the Chinese came to Taiwan, there was a tribal chief of the nearby tribe who had two beautiful daughters who were soon going to be married to two sons of another nearby tribe, and everyone hoped that would bring the two tribes closer together. Sadly, before they could be married, the two tribes fought about something, and their two future husbands were both killed by members of their own tribe. Overcome with grief, the two sisters came here, and cried themselves to death. Their tears formed the Sister Lakes, and their love makes them beautiful.

The story probably isn't true, but the lakes are nonetheless very beautiful!

Big Sister

Little Sister

...and then another few Chinese tour groups came through, so we went off the trail into the forest to wait for a while.

Surprisingly comfortable, actually

Probably less comfortable, but definitely cuter!

As the day grew later, it also grew colder, and a fog began to roll over the mountain. This made for some amazingly beautiful scenery.

This looks like the backdrop to a movie...

But sadly, far too soon the time came for us to go. One of the problems of going somewhere with only one brother and two sisters is if you stay the night somewhere, people might get stumbled by it (or at least start talking), so we decided that although it would be awesome to stay the night and see the sunrise over Taiwan- a glorious sight if the Internet can be believed, and from what I've seen of Alishan, I believe it- it would be best for us to get back to Taipei that same day. So, before the sun had even set, we headed back down the trail-

-without passing up photo opportunities, obviously-

-and headed back to the bus stop, where we boarded a bus back to Chiayi (fortunately with no delays this time), then the high speed rail back to Taipei. Although it was short, it was definitely worth it to go, and not only to make Amy happy- Alishan is gorgeous, and if I can I'd like to camp there for a few nights next time I go!

Although, look at those happy faces!

That's the third or fourth time I've gone somewhere in Taiwan and I've thought "man, I should really camp here". I should probably actually camp somewhere one of these days! I wonder where I can get a tent...

One of the beautiful things about Jehovah God is that there are so many ways to make him happy. No one is limited to only one course of service; there are many, many ways to serve our God, and none of them are better than the others. Bethelites, missionaries, pioneers, circuit overseers, Kingdom Hall construction workers, and publishers are all equally important, and all receive an equal amount of approval from Jehovah; and similarly, no matter where you go to fulfill your ministry, you can be useful in the field and to the local friends. Although some people must leave Taiwan to fulfill their own ministry or to further their own spiritual goals, Taiwan will always be OK. We have plenty of new people coming in, from across the seas and from inside the country as new ones get baptized, and the preaching work is progressing at a pace never seen before.

As for me, who knows what the future holds? I originally only intended to be in Taiwan for six months, but it's been nearly 18 now and I'm still finding new reasons to enjoy it here. Still, I know there are areas that need even more help than Taiwan does. Who can say for sure? One thing is certain: in Jehovah's organization, the horizon is bright.

Kinmen and Xiamen 金門和廈門

(A little trouble in Big China...)

If someone had asked me a couple months ago where Kinmen is, I probably would have just stared at him blankly- like probably the majority of my readers, I knew nothing about Kinmen, and in fact I hadn't even heard of it until I moved to Taiwan. So I'll start this post with a very important question, that shapes the entire rest of the article: Where is Kinmen?

Here. Kinmen is here.

Kinmen is the highlighted yellow island on the left side of that map above. It has three names; Kinmen is English, Jinmen is the transliterated version of its Chinese name 金門, and Quemoy was the name the Portuguese gave it- Quemoy is from the same time that Taiwan was called Formosa, so you won't be able to find the name Kinmen on older maps. In the middle of the map is the Penghu Islands, also called the Pescadores; to the right is, of course, Taiwan itself. But those things aren't as directly relevant to Kinmen as the body of land to its northwest is: Mainland China.

(This post might be a little history-heavy; I'll try to intersperse the history with my trip, to keep things interesting.)

Kinmen is only about two kilometers away from Mainland China, barely one mile; you can see it from the beaches. Its position dominates Weitou Bay, which is fed by the Nine Dragons River, stretching into Fujian Provice. On the opposite sides of the bay, Kinmen is faced by three cities: Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Xiamen. This last city, Xiamen, is actually why I decided to visit Kinmen two weeks ago. The last time I was in America, I obtained a visa to Mainland China (People's Republic of China- PRC from here on), and as I still need to leave Taiwan (Republic of China- ROC from here on) every three months, I figured I would give Xiamen a shot.

It's difficult to get directly from Taipei to Xiamen, of course. So the plan was: fly from Taipei to Kinmen, then hop a ferry across the bay.

Songshan Airport- much more convenient!

The flight was less than an hour long, and was quite cheap- not even $50 US dollars! On a side note, some of you may have heard of the plane crash a few days ago here in Taipei- if you hadn't, briefly, a plane flying the same route I flew- Taipei to Kinmen- had a catastrophic engine failure, clipped a bridge with one of its wings and crashed into the Keelung River. Of the 50 people on board, only about 13 or 14 survived, but happily no one else was injured by the accident- the plane actually struck a taxi with its wing as it was going down (!!), but even the driver and his passengers are ok. Unfortunately, as if the accident itself wasn't sad enough, one of those killed in the accident was one of our brothers, a Taiwanese brother who lived in Hualien.

The airline that owned that plane is called TransAsia Airlines; fortunately, Knight and I booked tickets with Mandarin Airlines, so we weren't in much danger. On this blog, I often post pictures of Taipei and other big Taiwanese cities, and they usually look something like this:

Lots of grey, a little green

But when Knight and I landed in Kinmen, we were greeted by this sight:

A little grey, but look at that green!

Most of Kinmen looks like that nowadays: lots of rice fields, countryside and pasturage, with a few towns of around 10,000 people scattered around. We also have one congregation of 30 publishers on the island, just formed in 2013! This is not why Kinmen is such an important place, however.

Let's go back in time over one hundred years. The year is 1895. The Qing Dynasty has just lost a war with Imperial Japan, and has formally ceded control of Formosa. Ceding Formosa stopped the war, but the Qing were worried about Japan's future intentions toward China (rightly so, it turns out), so they proceeded to build a state-of-the-art naval base on the island of Quemoy- Kinmen. Its purpose was to be able to lock down the Taiwan Strait if Japan ever attempted to invade southern China from Formosa, and it was effective enough that it wasn't until World War 2- after almost a decade of fighting, and after Japan seized Kinmen- that Japan ever made advances in southern China.

The ROC was an ally of The Allies during World War 2, so after America joined the fight and defeated the Imperial Japanese, Japan was forced to give China back all of the territory it had captured- including Kinmen, and, of course, Taiwan. However, the ROC immediately had problems, as Mao Zedong's Communist forces, now that the Japanese were out of the picture, turned on the ROC's army with full force. The president of the ROC, Chiang Kai-Shek, realized there was no way he was going to keep control of all China, so he took as many citizens, artifacts, and money with him as he could, and completely retreated to Taiwan... with two exceptions.

The first exception is the island chain of Matsu, far to the north of Taiwan. There isn't much going on there, and it was never a source of much contention between the ROC and the newly-formed PRC.

The second exception is- wait for it- Kinmen. That naval base that so effectively kept the Japanese out could also protect the main island of Taiwan from direct invasion. Kinmen would have to fall before Taiwan could, and therefore defending Kinmen was a very high priority. Although tensions have settled between the PRC and the ROC of late, for most of the last fifty years Kinmen has been absolutely full of soldiers- at times over 90,000 troops were stationed on the island, and that has left its mark.

For instance, all the roads are flat, straight and well-maintained for military use.

When Knight and I first arrived in Kinmen, the first thing we did was drop our things off at our hotel, then go into the biggest town in Kinmen, Jincheng. We were originally planning on renting a motorcycle for our time on the island, since it's big enough that you'll probably want your own transportation... but Knight isn't 18 yet, so can't drive in Taiwan, and I forgot my CA driver's licence back in Taipei. The one time it would ever be useful in Taiwan, and I forgot it! Anyway, we had to catch a bus into town instead.

See, Knight does exist!

By the way, Knight's name in Chinese is 阿德 Ad'e. He chose his English name because, to quote him, "I am very handsome". I'm grateful he decided to come with me on this little adventure- I'm capable of going places on my own, of course, but it's always more fun to have a friend along.

The ride into town was longer than it looked, and by the time we arrived the sun had set. According to our hotel, Jincheng had a night market that was worth seeing, so we decided to head down and see what it had to offer!

Main street of Jincheng

That arch- and many like it scattered around the island- are reported to be from the Ming dynasty, when the prince of the state of Lu decided to take a break from the hectic pace of court life, and came to Kinmen to meditate in peace for a few months. According to the local story, he traveled around the island, and when he came to a place with good energy, he would sit and meditate for a few weeks. After he was done, he would move on, and his attendants would build an arch on the spot he was meditating to commemorate the event.

I'm not sure how true that story is, but I do know one thing: these egg rolls were truly delicious!

Get it? Truly delicious? I crack me up.

They're really simple, too- just a special batter squeezed between two iron plates and heated over hot coals, then skillfully peeled off and quickly rolled- either around nothing or with meat and vegetables inside. Eating them warm from the fire was great, and they were super cheap too- only 70塊, $2 USD, for a giant bag!

Looking the other way

Jincheng seems like a nice place, calm and peaceful. I wonder if it's always been that way, as a retreat for soldiers on edge, or if it's only because of the pause in hostilities?

While walking around Jincheng, besides discovering lots of delicious seafood and noodle dishes, we also completely by accident ran into one of the places I had looked up before coming to Kinmen- a knife foundry!

Notice something odd?

"Wait," you might think, "those aren't knives, they're shells!" And you would be right. Before, I mentioned that if the PRC wanted to capture Taiwan- and they did, really, really badly, for a few decades- they would have to capture Kinmen first? Well, they tried. Several times. The first major attempt to seize the island was during the chaos of the initial retreat, in the the late 1940's, when the PRC landed 20,000 soldiers on the island, only to be repelled by the ROC's troops. After the initial defeat, the PRC retreated to the city of Xiamen- only 2 km away, after all- and began shelling the island with heavy artillery.

At this point, America stepped in again. Fearing the loss of Kinmen would lead to the capture of Taiwan and the complete destruction of the ROC- seen as not only an old ally from World War 2, but also as an important barrier against Communism's expansion- America parked a sizable portion of its Pacific Fleet in the Taiwan strait and warned any further aggression- by either side- would lead to an immediate declaration of war. The PRC was not prepared for a war with America by itself, and the Soviet Union informed them they would not help them, so they ceased the attack.

Three years passed. The ROC used the time well, fortifying Kinmen with bunkers and tens of thousands of troops, laying landmines along its beaches and preparing artillery of their own. A new president was elected in America, who decided to lift the blockade in the Taiwan Strait, which almost immediately lead to the resumption of war- both sides shelling each other almost nonstop for two months. During this time, the PRC successfully captured a few of the smaller islands around Kinmen- you might see on the above map, there are actually a few islands around the main island of Kinmen- and America got scared and threatened to use nuclear weapons on the PRC if they didn't halt the attack, which worked...

...until 1958, when the PRC attempted to overwhelm Kinmen once again. At the time, the ROC had over 90,000 troops on the island, but the PRC attacked with over 200,000 soldiers. The fighting was intense, but the ROC emerged victorious, mainly because what they lacked in manpower, they made up for in technology- they had the better equipment. It didn't help the PRC's efforts that they ran out of artillery shells, either.

That was the last time the PRC tried to actually invade Kinmen, although they did shell the island from time to time, whenever they felt like it basically, until 1979 when a treaty was concluded between the USA and the PRC, recognizing the government of Mainland China as the real China, and not the ROC, which was confined to Taiwan.

Anyway, I tell you that very long story to explain why this knife foundry is unique. The knives are made out of artillery shells, fired by the Communist Chinese in an attempt to invade Kinmen. Some lunatic blacksmith on the island had the idea to melt them down and reforge knives out of them, and it turns out that not only is the steel surprisingly high quality, but that crazy guy really knows how to make knives. They've become locally famous in Taiwan for their high quality and durability, and they have an amazing story- so I bought one.

Banana for scale.

After wandering through the night market for a couple hours and buying that artillery knife, Knight and I decided to check out some of the underground tunnels the ROC troops used as protection against the PRC's attacks. Most of them are off-limits, but they've opened up one for tourists, so why not?

Entrance to the tunnels

When we entered the building, we first went up some stairs to a waiting room, where they had a strategic map of Kinmen and Jincheng City spread out. They got upset when I tried to take a picture, so I didn't.

Up the stairs...

Inside the waiting room. The pillar says "One Hundred Years of Glory and Blessings for Kinmen"

We had to wait for a short while, as they don't just let you wander around- you're guided through the tunnels, and for good reason. For one, they're pitch black in places; for another, they're still in active use, and if someone was unsupervised (or up to no good), he could find one of the armories and potentially cause some trouble. Once a few people had gathered together, we watched a short video on Kinmen's history, and then descended into the depths...

Down we go...

The tunnels extend all around the island. The one they've opened up to the public is only about a mile long, but a mile is long enough for us to get the idea- it's very dark, and very narrow, and very short (too short for me to stand up straight), with water leaking down from the ceiling in places. Walking through these tunnels- seeing off to the sides passageways leading to armories, or barracks, or meeting rooms- made me realize that this is not just some war memorial. They're ready to be attacked again. Things are comparatively peaceful between the ROC and PRC these days, but Kinmen was under an artillery barrage for over twenty years, and that's not counting the times when they were actually invaded by China. China still wants Taiwan, and Kinmen is still protecting Taiwan. It's the front lines if anything goes down again. I've never been in a place with that atmosphere before.

After emerging from the tunnels and enjoying some fresh air, Knight and I realized- we had no idea where we were.

Despite that, we confidently set off in the direction we figured our hotel was... and after about an hour of walking, admitted defeat and asked a nearby restaurant to call a taxi for us. Good thing we did, too; we were walking the wrong way!

The next day, we woke up early, helped ourselves to the hotel's free breakfast (grilled fish, toast and peanut butter- hearty!), got our stuff together and prepared to do the previously unthinkable- board a ferry to Xiamen.

New Golden Dragon for a new age

Lately- since 2008- China and Taiwan have been doing more and more business together, although the primary sticking point- "who is the real China"- still remains unresolved, with both parties claiming the title. One of the first peaceful connections between China and Taiwan was the 小三通 "Three Small Links", ferry service between Kinmen and the three cities of Xiamen, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. Of those three, Xiamen is the closest city, so Knight and I bought tickets for Xiamen.

As we approached the Mainland, a fog set in, and I felt like we truly were in no man's land, but soon enough, shapes began emerging through the fog...

Xiamen

This was Knight's first time leaving Taiwan, so he was enraptured by basically everything!

Ooo... China...

And before too much longer, we had arrived. Going through customs was no problem- the visa I'd gotten in America worked no problem, and Knight had obtained the special document Taiwanese citizens need to go to the Mainland (it's not a passport or a visa, because that would mean China openly admits Taiwan is separate. They would never do that, so it's a special "movement permit"), so before we knew it were were loose in Xiamen!

Xiamen is an interesting place. It's the city China likes to hold up to Taiwan, to show Taiwan that, hey, joining us wouldn't be that bad! As a result, it's a lot cleaner than any of the Chinese cities I've been to before although just about as flashy.

Xiamen streets

Notice something? Or rather, the lack of something? Inside Xiamen's city limits, motorcycles and bicycles are illegal. You cannot own nor operate either one, and if the cops see you they'll confiscate it and fine you. Of course, I still saw a couple people with bicycles, but not nearly as many as Taipei or Kinmen. They say it's because cycles of any kind are too dangerous, to themselves and people around them, and everyone should just buy a car instead. Of course, they don't have an MRT like Taipei's, and their bus system... well, it has problems. (They don't have a map or bus schedule anywhere! How are you supposed to know which bus to get on?) That meant a lot of taxis.

The food was good, though.

Hooray dumplings!

I noticed Xiamen was much cheaper than Taipei. That dumpling place served us a huge plate of delicious dumplings for only 12 RMB- that's only about 60 kuai, or about $2 USD. The same thing in Taipei would cost 100 kuai at least! The taxis were cheap, too- in Taipei they'll stop for 70 kuai, and it's another 5 kuai every 30 seconds. That's cheap compared to America, but it's got nothing on Xiamen- half the price, at most!

I also noticed that a lot of Xiamen's stuff was actually Taiwan's stuff. They didn't hide it, either- they advertised Taiwanese pineapple cakes, Taiwanese dumplings, Taiwanese oyster omelettes, Taiwanese stinky tofu... I guess Xiamen is where you go if you need to live in China but you want to eat Taiwanese food?

Anyway, once we'd gotten all of our stuff dropped off at our hotel, we got to figuring out what we were going to do for fun. It was at this point I realized my phone is completely useless in China. See, I have an Android phone, and not just any Android, but a Google Nexus. My internet is Google Chrome, my search is Google Search, my maps- Google, my calendar- Google. And Google is banned in China. I couldn't open any of it. I couldn't even download new apps that weren't Google, because my app store? Google's. Makes me think maybe I shouldn't be so dependent on one company!

In any case, we finally decided we'd head over to Gulangyu, an island slightly off Xiamen that used to be the Foreign Quarter.

Xiamen can be pretty too!

Back during the Qing Dynasty, this part of Xiamen was purchased by the various Foreign Powers to be a place where they could have private residences, warehouses, churches, embassies, etc., with a little insulation from the surrounding Chinese culture. Of course, now that it's become kind of a holiday spot for Chinese people, some has crept back in... but it's still a cool place!

Old residences...

Private gardens...

It was like a little tiny piece of Europe, very cool! The food wasn't bad either! Here, no motorized vehicles of any kind are allowed, it's all walking. I gotta say, I really like being able to walk in a street without worrying about being run over all the time!

Gulangyu's coastline is pretty cool, too. Knight and I tried for about two hours to find an aquarium they advertised on the island, but all the streets go in random circles, and I think the signs actually disagreed with each other sometimes... so we didn't find it, but we did find this cool photo opportunity!

Very 帥!

My turn!

It was funny, actually- a lot of people in Xiamen, more than in Taipei, automatically assumed I couldn't speak Chinese. Even when I was speaking to them in Chinese, sometimes their preconceived notion that "foreigners can't speak Chinese" was so strong they would turn to Knight for a translation of my "English"! As a result, I got to hear a lot of people talking about us as we walked by, and the number one comment was- "Look, a foreigner carrying around a kid!" I don't know what reasons they came up with, but I bet it wasn't the right one!

Actually, in general I found Xiamen's people to be less polite than Taiwan's, and markedly so. That doesn't mean they weren't nice, just less polite; you know, they'd smile and help you as they spat on the ground in front of you, and be genuinely shocked when we thanked them in response. I get the feeling "thanks 謝謝" isn't something used a lot in China?

Anyway, Knight and I walked around the island for a while-

-ignore the pollution in the water, it's a nice beach-

-then got back to Xiamen proper to check out what the Xiameners consider a night market.

This!

Xiamen's night market was much, much bigger than any I'd seen in Taipei, but more spread out as well. There weren't the crowded stalls jutting into the street with motorcycles trying to get past the crowds that I've become used to- it was more like an American style strip mall, actually, except more walkable.

Speaking of American things:

I'm afraid they've invaded.

Yes, China has Walmart. No, I didn't go in. I worked in Walmart for a short period a long time ago, I've had enough of Walmart for one life, thanks!

Some of you may have heard that China's buildings are growing a bit faster than China's people- for an example, you could check out Ordos City, a city in Inner Mongolia that was built all at once for an expected population of one million people. It currently has 38,000 people living in it, and a whole mess of empty skyscrapers. Xiamen, it appears, is not exempt from this kind of development:

It's deserted!

Time will tell whether this was a smart move by the Chinese government. Will the cheap prices created by there being so many empty lots encourage growth and small businesses, or will it lead to urban decay and housing bubbles? Either way, it does have a kind of eerie beauty...

Knight and I bought some small gifts for people back home- dried sea urchin, weird olives- a special kind of cookie they have, stuff like that- and went back to the hotel to crash.

Well, first we saw these statues and couldn't resist playing with them. Then we crashed.

And that was pretty much the end of our excursion! It was short, but action-packed. The next morning, we woke up, got some breakfast pizza at Pizza Hut (because why not), and headed down to the ferry terminal...

...to discover that the ferry was stopped due to bad weather, and they didn't know when they would start up again.

Right...

We ended up having to wait over five hours for the next ferry! We though about trying one of the other ferries to Kinmen- there are three, after all, and although we would have to spend money on a taxi to another city (expensive) we had a flight to catch back to Taipei, and missing it would be more expensive! Sadly, it turns out that although there are indeed three ferries to Kinmen, foreigners- meaning me, not Knight- are only allowed on this one. He decided to stick with me, and although we did end up missing our flight, we did eventually get back home to Taipei in one piece.

Xiamen was okay. I felt like it was trying to copy Taiwan very hard, and although it did a decent job, it still wasn't the same. Perhaps one day if I live in China and I want some nice Taiwanese Beef Stew, I'll hit up Xiamen, but as long as I live in Taiwan I don't think it's worth it to visit Xiamen. Kinmen, on the other hand, is interesting, with a very unique vibe. There were still things left undone when Knight and I left- among other things, that's where Taiwan's special moonshine called Kaoliang is made, and I never got to check out the brewery! It's cheap enough, too. I might just go back to Kinmen sometime in the future.

To sum up: Kinmen: go. Xiamen: skip.