The Kinmen County Government’s culture bureau has started hosting a series of activities with the goal of attracting more tourists to Dadan (大膽) islet, a former frontline fortified outpost, slated to open to tourists in 2017.
Activities are to include guest artists creating works featuring the local landscape and people, bureau officials said yesterday, adding that 50 painters, photographers and writers visited the islet last month and their works are to be collated and published by the bureau as guidebooks.
The works are also to be displayed in bureau exhibitions, the officials said.
No civilians live on Dadan or Erdan (二膽) islets, which were the focus of battles against Communist Chinese forces in 1950 and again in 1958.
Just over 4km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, the islets are known as “the front line of the front lines.” Their distance from the main island of Kinmen is nearly three times as great.
The islets were turned over by the Ministry of National Defense to the Kinmen County Government in June after the Executive Yuan gave the permission for the move in 2013.
Dadan has an area of 0.79km2 and Erdan has an area of 0.28km2.
As a focal point of cross-strait tension during the Cold War era, Dadan islet’s natural environment has been well preserved, along with historical and military relics, making it a tourist destination.
The two islets also served as frontline military outposts during the Cold War.
The number of tourists to Kinmen County has risen to a record 1,265 million last year, the county government said.
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