History

The name of Kinmen, formerly called Wuzhou or Xianzhou, dates from 1388, when the Ming dynasty set up a one-hundred-household garrison post here. Before long, the Marquis of Jiang-Xia Zhou Xingde erected walls to defend the island. Situated off the coast of Fujian province, Kinmen safeguarded Zhangzhou and Xiamen (Amoy) up close and controlled Taiwan and the Pescadores from afar. Because of its peculiar geographical location and strategic importance, the island was dubbed Kinmen (literally, Gold Gate, the impregnable fort guarding the gate to the sea). Not until 265, as the five "barbarian" nomadic tribes from the steppe outside the Great Wall were overrunning the Central Plains (comprising the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River), did the six clans of Su, Chen, Wu, Cai, Lu, Yan cross the sea to Kinmen. In the Tang dynasty, Horse-raising Superintendent (a government post) Chen Yuan was stationed here to reclaim the land. Thereafter, residents of the Central Plains moved in large numbers to the island. They transformed the wildness into an earthly paradise, which came to be acclaimed as the "Celestial Mountain on the Sea" In the Song dynasty, Zhu Xi, the Neo-Confucianist philosopher and commissioner of Tongan prefecture, sailed to Kinmen to give lectures. During his sojourn, Zhu Xi indoctrinated the people with Confucianist ethics, thus purifying the social climate, and the island has ever since won the fame of "Offshore Center of Confucianism." During the Ming and Qing dynasties, a number of natives passed government examinations, many of whom climbed all the way to high-ranking positions. Meanwhile, many established themselves as famous generals after performing extraordinary aexploits. To the end of the Ming dynasty, Monarch Lu and Zheng Chenggong at one time trained their troops on the island, using it as a base for "expelling the Dutch to recover Taiwan, resisting the Qing dynasty restore the Ming dynasty." Natives of Kinmen joined Zheng's staff and forces in his campaign to take Taiwan, and, thereafter, many of them settled in Taiwan. From the historical perspective, the people of Kinmen and Taiwan are actually of the same blood. Kinmen can also be said to be the home of the Taiwanese.In 1949, the Nationalist government army retreated to Kinmen. After the Nationalist government army scored a couple of decisive victories here between the 1940s and 1950s, the island provided a defense for Taiwan. And Taiwan, the Pescadores, Kinmen and Matsu have ever since become a community of  a common destiny. On July 16, 1956, Kinmen was subjected to absolute military control under the regulation of the Battlefield Administrative Affairs. It was not until Nov. 7, 1991, when the regulation was scrapped following the lifting of martial law, that the military and civilian went separate ways. In the end of 1993, the county magistrate of kinmen, for the first time in history, was elected by popular vote, and in the spring of the following year, the election of the county council took place. These events marked the first milestone in the local autonomy of Kinmen.

Geographical setting

The total area of Kinmen is 150.456 square kilometers; it is narrow in the middle and wide on the eastern and western sides. In addition to the island proper, Kinmen covers another 12 smaller islands,  such as Dadan, Erdan, Dongding, Beiding and so on. These islands are scattered around Kinmen proper like the stars surrounding the moon. Taiwushan is the highest peak on the island, about 250 meters above sea level; and there are no rivers except the Wujing Brook and the Jingsha Brook. Kinmen has a subtropical marine climate. The average annual rainfall is approximately 1049.4 mm., and the precipitation concentrates between April and September. The island's oldest stratum is composed of granophyres gneiss; the soil   is primarily made up of sand and bare red earth. Agricultural development is rather limited due to poor natural conditions. Crops are restricted to such low-value drought-enduring products as sorghum, maize, peanuts and sweet potatoes. Kinmen has a population of more than 50,000. Most of the private houses  are Senheyuan (an n-shaped building complex which is comprised of a courtyard surrounded by houses on three sides) of traditional southern Fujian architecture. But, in recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in public housing.