Wentai Pagoda

Kinmen


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 loveably off-beam, divided into five wobbly stages. However, while it surveys an attractive park and is one of Taiwan's oldest surviving constructions in Taiwan, it's hardly dramatic and the location is jarringly backed by the huge KKL industrial distillery.

Almost identical, the Maoshan Tower near Shuitou is rather more impressive due to its setting on a high ridge that makes it visible from miles around.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Kinmen attractions

1. Zhushan Village

0.88 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…

2. Deyue Mansion

0.9 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)…

3. Jhaishan Tunnels

1.05 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. Ou Cuo Beach

1.85 MILES

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…

5. Juguang Tower

2 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…

6. Koxinga Statue

2.01 MILES

This stern, 9m statue of Koxinga (鄭成; Zheng Cheng) gazes towards China from a tiny islet connected to the rest of Kinmen by a pedestrian causeway, which…

7. Kuei Pavilion

2.32 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…