金門國家公園英文網金門國家公園英文網

We wish this book guides you well during your visit to Kinmen National Park, and, by presenting a comprehensive overview, offers you an extensive experience and facilitates the understanding of our Park. With this guide book, we hope both residents and visitors would be able to carry on an intimate conversation with this island. We believe you will have fond memories and great impressions of Kinmen, and therefore Kinmen’s historic heritage and its ecological and environmental assets could show their inestimable values and be well cherished.

► Kinmen National Park

Kinmen Island is an island off southeast shore of China and out on the estuary of Jiulong River (九龍江), China. With the latitude similar as Taichung City (台中市), Taiwan, Kinmen (13,425 hectares) is 10 kilometers east of Xiamen Harbor (廈門港), China, and 227 kilometers west of Taiwan Island.
Kinmen National Park spans the center and parts of the northeast, northwest and southwest corner of Kinmen Island, and also round-the-island tank roads and the surrounding of Lieyu Island (also known as Little Kinmen). The area of the park is almost equivalent to one fourth of the total Greater Kinmen. The3,528-hectare national park is divided into five separate parks — Taiwu Mountain, Guningtou, Gugang, Mashan and Lieyu.

With a sense of purpose for preservation, research study and enjoyment, under the twelfth article of the National Park Act, Kinmen National Park is divided into areas based on four characteristics — significant scenic area, historic area, recreational area, and existing use area. The classification targets efforts at designing suitable conservation plans for each area, in order to well preserve each unique characters of Kinmen.
 
Although Kinmen is an island, it is close to the mainland. This means that its flora and fauna aer also similar to those on the continent. However, compared to Taiwan’s other small islands, Kinmen has many species of flora and fauna that cannot be found on Taiwan proper. There are more than 690 native species on Kinmen, including many not seen on Taiwan, such as the soft bollygum tree(Litsea glutinosa), the Chinese sumac (Strophanthus divaricatus). With regards to birds, many species easily seen on Kinmen are very rare on Taiwan or not found there at all. These include the greater coucal (Centropus sinensis), the striped kingfisher (Halcyon chelicuti) and the fork-tailed sunbird (Aethopyga christinae), of which there are on record sightings on Taiwan.

Because Kinmen’s environment is well protected, and because it is located in a position of convergence, organisms with a strong dispersal ability can easily appear there. This gives the island a relatively rich variety of different species. Kinmen’s position between the tropical zone to its south and the temperate zone to its north means that the island has quintessential tropical organisms such as bee-eaters (Meropidae) and sunbirds (Aehtopyga), as well as species typically found in cooler or temperate areas, including loons (Gavidae) and swan geese (Anser cygnoides). On the east-west axis, Kinmen also lies between the world’s largest ocean and its largest continent. This means that the island not only has both classic marine organisms such as short-tailed albatrosses (Diomedea albatrus) and frigatebirds(Fregata), but also has continental species like the common magpie (Pica pica) and collared crow (Corvus torquatus). In addition to this, the eastern coastal edge of the Asian continent is an important migration route for birds. Kinmen’s location in the south-eastern littoral of the continent therefore means that many species of migratory bird pass through the island or spend the winter there.
The coastal area of Fujian and Guangdong provinces is narrow and densely populated, and the natural environment protection in the coastal area is fairly poor, but Kinmen’s status as a battleground has allowed the island to enjoy “accidental” protection, turning it into a paradise for plants and animals. Thanks to the Kinmen National Parks Management Office’s 20-plus years of effort, in-depth and wide-ranging surveys have been conducted into the island’s biodiversity. This effort has ensured that, within the Fujian coastal region, Kinmen is the area whose flora and fauna have been most thoroughly researched. It has also helped retain a beautiful habitat and environment for the coastal region’s living creatures.

Kinmen National Park is small in area. The long history of human settlement leads to the lack of large-size wild animals. Located off the costal reign of the mainland China, Kinmen becomes a temporary home for many birds in their migrating journey to south. Fauna other than birds, the most distinctive species among mammals is Eurasian otter while horseshoe crab is representative for regional coastal creatures.
Birds are the richest and most characteristic form of fauna in Kinmen National Park. With diverse habitats and low population and located on migration flyway for birds from Southeast Asia, a high number of species and species diversity is observed in Kinmen. Today, there are over 300 bird species that occurs in Kinmen, including resident and migratory. Among them, 74 percent are migratory birds, including winter visitors, summer visitors and passage birds, which outnumber resident birds (13 percent) and stray birds (13 percent) by large. Every year from end of autumn till spring of the next year large numbers of shorebirds including geese, cormorant, birds of the gull and plover habitat in Ci Lake(慈湖), Jinsha Reservoir(金沙水庫)and Lingshui Lake(陵水湖)areas, forming a thrilling spectacle. Other distinct types of birds, mostly different from those commonly seen in Taiwan, such as Common Crow-Pheasants, Magpie Robins, White-throated Kingfishers, Lesser pied Kingfishers, Black-shouldered Kites, Blue-tailed beeBee-eaters, Koels, and Oystercatchers have attracted flocks of bird-lovers annually.

Since the most immigrants to Kinmen in the early days came from southern Fujian, China - Zhangzhou(漳州)and Quanzhou(泉州), Kinmen’s architectures and customs were similar to theirs. The 40-year military administration hindered the progress of urbanization in Kinmen, which had accidentally preserved its cultural traits. Kinmen now enjoys the rich cultural assets from its traditions.
Kinmen’s residential communnity was built out of practical concern. At the beginning, the immigrants chiefly considered an easy water access and a warm location from the wind; therefore, the majority of the villages were built as lower in the front and higher at the back, facing the water and backs to the mountain or hills. The houses in this communal cluster all have the same arrangement, facing toward the same direction; the unique pattern of such conformity is labeled in Chinese as “Combs Layout”.
Each old-style residential community in Kinmen has its own social and public order, especially since the villagers mostly have the same family name. There is a major ancestral shrine built in the center of each traditional community; the minor shrine, in contrast, is the center of each sector of the village (jiatou(甲頭) in Chinese). This traditional hierarchy puts an emphasis on patriarchal ethics, with which the family-village can achieve a social unity (as a family). Through rituals and activities, family (social) values are carried over to the next generation. Srine Festivals are conducted by the respected elders of the clan in every spring and autumn, praying to ancestors for blessings on the offspring and the descendents to come. These rituals serve as the occasions for community gathering, and cultivate the kinship of the clan. Architecturally, these shrines were built according to the southern Fujian traditions. They are usually of two compartments and bigger than regular residential buildings. On the ridge of the roof, there sits ceramic dragon ornaments (or longyin[龍隱]in Chinese) upright as a peculiar signifier of shrine architecture.

Remarkably, religious activities take place with a particularly high frequency in Kinmen owing to harsh life conditions confronted by the locals. With so many difficulties and warfare-ridden land, the Kinmenese, out of reverence and need of consolation, turn to spirituality and accentuate religious practice. The Grand Rituals of a temple, or zuojiao(作醮), of each village in particular has an eminent influence on the lifestyle and rules of conduct of local residents. At annual Grand Rituals, participants march in procession around the village to “settle the five cardinal points”. Interestingly, the ritual defines not only the area protected by supernatural power but, ultimately, the boundary of a village. As opposed to single-family-name villages, towns composed of residents of different surnames are usually constituted near seaports and harbors, centers of commerce and settlements of military and defensive purposes. Given the diversity of family origins, villagers  in multiple-clan towns are able to form a unity through attending same temples.