The Underground History of Kinmen

TaiwanPlus News

In 1958, during what’s known as the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, China fired over 450,000 artillery shells at Kinmen in just 44 days.    After that crisis eased, China said it would continue shelling Kinmen for 20 years. But they only attacked on odd-numbered days of the week, with shells containing propaganda leaflets. The underground shelters left behind serve as a reminder of Kinmen's time as the front line of the conflict between Taiwan and China.    Watch the full story on Kinmen and its underground shelters on YouTube.    Reporter: Cadence Quaranta  Videographer: Alex Chen  Video Editor: Alison Nguyen   #TaiwanPlusNews #History #China #Taiwan #Kinmen

Transcript

00:00China once tried to invade Dimmen but failed,

00:29and subjected them to periods of heavy artillery fire.

00:32In 1958, during what's known as the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis,

00:36China fired over 450,000 shells at the island in just 44 days.

00:42After that crisis eased, China would continue shelling Jinmen for around 20 years,

00:47but only on odd-numbered days of the week, with shells containing propaganda leaflets.

00:53Because of this, many residents of Jinmen learned to live their lives constantly on edge,

00:58and often underground, as many Jinmen homes had underground shelters to protect residents.

01:04It was the way to survive, and it became somewhat of a routine.

01:08Basically, we're going to spend a lot of time in the morning,

01:11the majority of the people in the morning are going to take a little bit of food.

01:15It's called the time to go to the parking lot.

01:18In the middle of the night, you can play a game,

01:19or you can play a game, or you can play a game in the middle of the night.

01:22If you listen to the time, you hear a game, then you can come out.

01:27This is a piece of paper, you can come out and take it out.

01:30This is a piece of paper, you can take it out.

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