Kinmen
From the attractive old town area of Ou Cuo, a concrete road leads 800m south to a superb, yet little frequented, sandy beach with small rocky islands visible in the distance. The only facilities are toilets and a tap.
Just across the scrubby dunes to the east, an even longer beach (泗湖沙灘 Sìhú Shātān) leads to the more developed seafront park at Houhu.
Bus 3 stops on the edge of quaint Ou Cuo village. Bus 8 drives to Houhu.
1.42 MILES
Blasted out of solid granite by soldiers in the 1960s, this V-shaped arc of sea tunnels was designed to protect boats from bombs during the war years…
4.88 MILES
Also known as Jiugong Tunnel (九宮坑道), this four-entrance network of wide sea tunnels was blasted out of the gneiss in the 1960s to provide bomb shelters…
2.41 MILES
Built in 1931, this is Kinmen's most famous 'western' building thanks to the 11m-tall gun tower in its yard, erected to ward off (or at least spot)…
15.66 MILES
This Buddhist temple complex on the southern side of Xiamen is one of the most famous temples among the Fujianese, and is also considered a pilgrimage…
25.59 MILES
This quirky temple is dedicated to Manichaeism, a religion originating in Persia in the 3rd century, combining elements of Zoroastrian, Christian and…
5.64 MILES
For domestic tourists, this is one of Kinmen's top sights due to the pivotal nature of a battle fought here over 56 hours in October 1949. For outsiders,…
1.9 MILES
This three-storey tower, built in classical Chinese form, is an iconic local landmark that has often featured on Taiwanese stamps. Yet it only dates from…
9.62 MILES
With a fine setting in a bowl of green slopes, Shanhou is one of the island's prettiest old villages with dozens of classic tile-roofed Fujian homes,…
0.98 MILES
All a-twitter with birdsong, Zhushan is Kinmen's traditional village core, chock-a-block with low-rise, tile-roofed homesteads built in archetypal Fujian…
1.42 MILES
Blasted out of solid granite by soldiers in the 1960s, this V-shaped arc of sea tunnels was designed to protect boats from bombs during the war years…
1.85 MILES
This small, hexagonal monolith was originally built in 1387 for the Ming emperor Hungwu as a place to honour the stars and celestial deities. It is…
1.9 MILES
This three-storey tower, built in classical Chinese form, is an iconic local landmark that has often featured on Taiwanese stamps. Yet it only dates from…
5. Memorial Arch to Qiu Liang-Kung's Mother
2.29 MILES
Kinmen's only national-level heritage site, this 1812 carved arch across Juguang Rd was built from Fujian granite and bluestone by a Kinmen native who had…
2.3 MILES
This charming little street is lined with attractive shops behind brick-arched facades dating back to 1924.
2.31 MILES
Backed by a couple of classic, if crumbling, western-style 1930s buildings, this 1836 pavilion-shrine to the god of literature is a dinky, hexagonal…
8. Kinmen Qing Dynasty Military HQ
2.36 MILES
The oldest surviving Qing government building in Taiwan, this three-courtyard structure doubles as a passably interesting museum explaining Kinmen's place…