Kinman (aka Jinman) Island

Yesterday, nearly all of us students took a long ferry over to Kinman Island that is actually part of Taiwan. But in China, they call it Jinman Island. Taiwan calls it Kinman Island... kind of funny. :) We had quite the adventure getting there since both of our taxis on Xiamen Island got lost trying to get us to the ferry terminal. We ended up going to two different ferry terminals and taking two different ferries. But we were able to hook up again on Kinmen - thank goodness for free wifi at the Kinmen Island ferry terminal so we could email each other via our phones.

Kinmen Island is apparently where Chiang Kei-shek of the Chinese Nationalist Party first escaped to in 1949 when he lost power of China to the Communist Party and consequently the island is where a lot of bombing took place between the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party. There was even more bombing in 1958 . . . so all of those artillery shells on the island . . . what to do with them? One enterprising man by the name of Wu used them to start making knives! He started his work in 1937 and passed it along to his son who still makes them today. We got to watch some of his workers take a piece of artillery shell and turn it into a cool knife in less than five minutes. So I had to buy a few Maestro Wu  knives!! :)

We also rented scooters and zoomed all over one corner of Kinman Island checking out a picturesque old part of town. We stopped by a beach and saw all the embattlements still on the beach. And we checked out some tunnels that were used as a naval base, and some more tunnels for other military uses. And saw a random parade that we have no idea what it was for, but it was cool!

The random parade with no spectators

The random parade

The naval base tunnels

Tank outside the other military tunnels

Maestro Wu knife factory

The crazy kinds of knives they make! 

Check out the cool grain on these knives that Maestro Wu makes