With an area about the same as Macau, Taiwan’s outlaying Matsu Islands that returned to civilian rule in 1992 after being a military outpost for about three decades has become a tourist hotspot among Taiwan people in recent years – and is ready for more.
The Matsu Islands are a 29.6-square-kilometre archipelago located in the north-west of Taiwan, and just 9 kilometres off the coast of the mainland.
The archipelago had been closed to outsiders when it was under military administration and 90 percent of its residents were soldiers. The islands returned to civilian rule in 1992, and since then, under the civilian administration of the Lienchiang County Government, the number of Taiwan’s armed forces there dwindled from 50,000 to just a few thousand now.
A rock inscribed with “Mazu in Matsu” is installed at the shore with the giant Mazu statue on the mountain overlooking the sea.
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