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National Park Service Promotes Battlefield Heritage Restoration – Kinmen's Jia Village Combat Training Site Officially Opens, Breathing New Life into an Old Military Camp

On January 27, the Kinmen National Park Headquarters (the HQ) of the National Park Service, Ministry of the Interior, held the opening ceremony for the Jia Village Combat Training Experience Site in Kinmen National Park. Director-General Wang Cheng-ji of the National Park Service stated that Kinmen National Park is Taiwan's first national park, established to preserve historical and cultural assets, commemorate military battles, and conserve the natural environment. The park has a wealth of battlefield cultural heritage. Since 2022, the HQ has collaborated with the Kinmen County Government to implement the "Kinmen Highlights Project." In December 2024, restoration of the Jia Village camp was completed, recreating the historical look and feel of military training grounds. The site now offers the public an immersive experience while also promoting local tourism.

Director-General Wang Chen-ji explained that the Jia Village military site, located within the national park, was originally constructed in the mid-1960s by the ROC Army as a mock village modeled after Viet Cong settlements. The area was used for village combat training, combining military assaults with psychological warfare loudspeaker tactics to simulate battlefield conditions —a unique feature of that time. The restored Jia Village Combat Training Experience Site now features a zeroing range, an NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) training exhibition center, a gas exposure chamber, a house-search training zone, underground tunnels, a terrain and object usage area, and a grenade throwing area. It also features a live-action puzzle-solving game and is now open to the public, offering both free visits and event applications.

Director-General Wang emphasized that since 2022, the HQ has also hosted various dynamic military-themed experience events to support tourism development, such as airsoft survival games, shooting education programs, "Little Soldier Diaries" children's military experience camp, 823 Night March commemorating the August 23 Artillery Battle, and the 75th Anniversary March of the Battle of Guningtou. In 2024, the HQ partnered with the Kinmen Airsoft Sports Association to organize the "One Island, One Destiny – Battle for Kinmen" survival game at the Runan Third Camp in Zhongshan Forest. These initiatives, involving both civil organizations and private businesses, help create themed activity zones to attract more tourists and boost the local tourism industry.

Guests attending today's event included: Wang Cheng-ji, Director-General of the National Park Service; Dong Jia-wei, Director of Legislator Chen Yu-jen's Office; Lee Wen-liang, Deputy Magistrate of Kinmen County; Wu Tseng-yun, Executive Director of the Executive Yuan's Kinmen-Matsu Joint Service Center; and Tan Yi-qun, Deputy Director of Political Warfare at the Army Kinmen Defense Command. Also present were volunteers and staff from the HQ, all celebrating the launch together.