Army veteran Peng Chuan-yong (彭泉湧) never thought he would have to do his mandatory military service on Matsu.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, young men across Taiwan drew lots to determine where they would be stationed. Tensions between Taiwan and China at that time made Matsu and other outlying islands the least desirable places to be sent, as personnel stationed on either Kinmen or Matsu were not allowed to return home regularly and were always on a high alert in case of an unexpected attack by China.
Peng, along with other young conscripts, arrived at Matsu’s Beigan Island (北竿島) in 1969 and became a member of the 51st division. Two months later, his division was ordered to start digging the Beihai Tunnel (北海坑道).
PHOTO: LEE WEN-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
For Peng, the project proved hazardous from beginning to end.
“Each day, about 100 soldiers would be dispatched to work on the tunnel. Some of them would use air compressors to drill holes in the granite. The construction had to continue day and night, and soldiers were required to take turns working,” he said.
Peng remembers that the air quality inside the tunnel was awful, but rather than facemasks, many soldiers simply used spare shirts to cover their nose and mouth.
“I was in charge of arranging the explosives to blast holes,” Peng said. “One of our deputy battalion commanders died while trying to determine whether any of the explosive devices hadn’t detonated.”
Serving with Peng in the 51st division, Chen Mu-kuei (陳木桂) also remembers the tunnel-digging project as being potentially lethal.
“One time, between 40 and 50 soldiers were crushed by falling rocks while eating lunch inside the tunnel … Those who died while drilling the tunnel were like ants, whose sacrifices seemed small and insignificant,” Chen said.
“Whenever I heard the steam whistle coming from the port, I became absent-minded and just wanted to go home,” he said. “Who would not want to go home?”
The tunnel was eventually opened in 1970.
The government also drilled large tunnels in Matsu’s Nangan Island (南竿島) and Dongyin Island (東引島), though these were still popularly know as Beihai Tunnels.
Retired major-general Lee Yung-kang (李永康) was a lieutenant in charge of drilling the Beihai Tunnel in Nangan.
“The tunnels were built to accommodate “ducks,” the name we gave for landing crafts.” Lee said. “There was really only one purpose behind the drilling of these tunnels: to reconquer the mainland.”
In Lee’s words, the construction process was simply “too ghastly to recall.”
“One time, 60 infantry soldiers went into the tunnel, but pretty soon 20 staggered out and received cardiotonic shots because they were on the verge of suffocating,” he said.
Lee said the tunnel-digging project was kept confidential during the martial law era. Nobody knew exactly how many people died, he said, adding that he left after the project was completed.
He returned to Matsu in 1991 and sought to find out if the tunnels still existed.
“I went to look out for the place myself. I went there on the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar, when there happened to be a low tide. I saw the tunnel, which looked good as new,” Lee said.
Lee later informed Matsu’s commander-in-chief as well as former Lienchiang County commissioner Liu Li-chun (劉立群) about the tunnels.
Liu had the tunnels remodeled and turned into tourist attractions. The Lienchiang County Government has since hosted several events, including kayaking and canoeing in the tunnels.
Tunnel 88, an abandoned military tunnel, is now a wine cellar for Matsu’s aged rice wine (馬祖老酒) and Kaoliang.
The tunnels, one whose walls patriotic slogans are still visible, outdoor spaces and seaports are now marketed as part of the unique Matsu experience.
As a result, an island that used to be a mysterious and restricted zone has been transformed into one of the nation’s most interesting scenic spots.
“The only thing preventing tourists from coming to Matsu is transportation,” Lee said. “It is not an easy place to reach.”
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the