Remnants of military conflict surround Zhang Zhongjie’s cafe.
This coffee shop is located in an abandoned military fortress, with the entrance surrounded by rusting tanks.
It is a scene familiar to the people of Taiwan’s remote Kinmen Island. The only thing separating the cafe from mainland China is nine miles of rolling ocean and a line of anti-intrusion spikes along the beach.
Despite long-standing tensions between Taiwan and China, mainland tourists have been the cafe’s main source of income since it opened in 2018.
“In the beginning, we had regular group tourists coming. There were probably at least two or three buses from travel agencies every day,” Zhang said.
But after five years, things have changed dramatically.
The coast of Kinmen Island is lined with spikes to prevent intruders, and mainland China can be seen in the distance.
Source: Jean Kamenzind Bloomby
Although China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, Chinese tourists have been prevented from visiting the island for years.
In August 2019, the Chinese government banned individual travelers from visiting Taiwan, citing deteriorating cross-strait relations. Tour groups were prohibited from visiting in 2020 due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
For many people on Kinmen Island, the decline in Chinese tourists is devastating.
“We haven’t had any tourists from the mainland for years,” Zhang said. “Kinmen’s tourism industry has been heavily dependent on Chinese tourists for many years, so the impact will definitely be significant.”
From tanks to sightseeing
In the mid-20th century, Kinmen Island was at the forefront of the conflict between China and Taiwan.
Soldiers trained on beaches, anti-communist propaganda filled the streets, and air raid shelters secluded in gardens.
The streets of Kinmen are lined with shops that are not open.
Source: Jean Kamenzind Bloomby
However, as the military presence on Kinmen Island weakened, the island turned to tourism.
Residents were not ashamed of the island’s conflict-filled past. Like Mr. Zhang, many others have opened cafes in former military forts, sold “war rations” in restaurants, or made special “bomb knives” from old Chinese artillery shells.
just a short boat ride away
Kinmen is about 2.9 miles from China but more than 110 miles from mainland Taiwan, according to the Kinmen county government.
As a result, “business in Kinmen generally relies heavily on connections with mainland China,” said Chen Huasheng, a local tour guide. The 30-minute boat trip between Kinmen Island and China has resumed, but it is now filled with mostly Taiwanese passengers since Chinese tourists were banned from visiting Kinmen.
Many hoped that these ships would bring Chinese tourists back to Kinmen once the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
However, on February 14, tensions escalated after a collision between a Taiwan Coast Guard vessel and a Chinese vessel killed two Chinese nationals.
Chinese tourists are currently visiting some of Taiwan’s remote islands, but the return of tourists to Kinmen Island has been delayed. The number of Chinese nationals entering Kinmen Island by boat has fallen from more than 400,000 in 2019 to less than 18,000 in 2023, according to statistics from the Taiwan Mainland Affairs Commission.
For Wu Zhengyun, CEO of the government’s Kinmen-Matsu Joint Service Center, the drop in tourists is being interpreted as punishment from the Chinese government, he said.
struggle under pressure
Local business owners are feeling the effects of a decline in Chinese tourists, who previously contributed nearly $200 million to Kinmen’s annual economy.
Bedi Chan, a noodle shop owner, said Chinese tourists used to make up 80 percent of her customer base. In their absence, she said, she is now looking to export her products overseas.
Companies like Wu Tseng-yun, whose family once made Kinmen “bomb knives” and sold them to tourists, have moved their operations to mainland Taiwan.
“If we don’t have tourists from the mainland, we will stop doing business,” Wu explained. “We regularly hold events at department stores across Taiwan.”
But some people weren’t so lucky.
After former restaurant owner Lu Wen Siun closed down, he started offering fishing and boat tours to supplement his income. But this, too, was difficult, he said.
After Lu Wenxiun closed his restaurant on Kinmen Island, he turned to fishing and boat tours.
Source: Jean Kamensindo Bloomby
After the February 14 incident, the Chinese Coast Guard significantly increased its presence in the region, repeatedly intruding into the restricted waters of Kinmen, conducting military exercises in May, and conducting military exercises in Taiwan in February. I boarded a sightseeing boat.
Standing on a small boat in the narrow strait separating Kinmen from China, Lu said he experienced the escalation firsthand.
He showed a video taken with his cell phone of a Chinese Coast Guard ship approaching as he drove through the waters around Kinmen Island.
“There is some concern that if they are taken while they are in the ocean, they will be treated unconventionally,” Lu said, looking out over the waves.
lasting hope
In late July, Taiwan and Chinese authorities reached an agreement to allow the bodies of Chinese fishermen killed in the February 14 fishing boat incident to be returned to the mainland.
At the end of August, Kinmen Island’s local Legislative Councilor Chen Yuren traveled to Beijing to discuss restarting tourism to Kinmen Island. She was told that Chinese tourists would be back soon.
A military outpost on Kinmen Island, Taiwan.
Source: Jean Kamenzind Bloomby
According to local media, the first group of tourists from the mainland arrived in Kinmen in late September.
The 22 people arriving for the two-day visit does not mean a full-fledged return of Chinese tourists, but it is a start. However, some Kinmen residents are skeptical that the situation will return to the way it was before.
But local guide Cheng is optimistic, he says.
“We hope that mainland Chinese people will visit Taiwan and Kinmen again to promote the economic development of both sides.”
— Translators Alex Huang and Edison Tseng contributed to this report.