Two open-water swimming events are to take place in Kinmen at the end of this month, the Kinmen County Government said.
One of the events is to take the swimmers on a 7km race from the county’s Lieyu Township (烈嶼) to Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province on July 31.
The race will be held for the eighth year, the county government said, adding that a total of 100 two-person relay teams are to compete for a prize of 300,000 yuan (US$44,956).
The race is held from Xiamen to Kinmen in odd-numbered years and from Kinmen to Xiamen in even-numbered years, the county government said.
The relay teams, consisting of 40 Taiwanese and overseas Chinese teams, and 60 Chinese teams, including participants from Hong Kong and Macau, qualified for the race after a selection process in May, the county government said.
Before the race, the county government is to hold a non-competitive swimming event in Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣) on the south coast of Kinmen’s main island on July 30, it said.
More than 2,000 people have signed up for the event, which will require participants to swim 1.5km out to sea before turning around and swimming back to the shore, the county government added.
The Liaoluo Bay event, in its 14th year, along with the race between Kinmen and Xiamen, were made possible after military restrictions on seaside activities were eased in the former battleground between Taiwan and China, the county government said.
In 2014, the military base on Kinmen announced the completion of a mission to clear tens of thousands of land mines on the islands.
Today, daily ferries run between Kinmen and Xiamen, and a project is under construction for Kinmen to receive water from Xiamen.
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