For residents of Matsu, the idea that anyone would want to visit their tiny archipelago in the Taiwan Strait is strange. During the Cold War, their home -- a tiny island group situated between mainland China's Fujian province and Taiwan -- was nothing but a hardship post dreaded by Taiwanese soldiers, far from the home but close to the enemy. Separated from the mainland by only 9 miles at its closest point, it was close enough for Nationalist and Communist gunners to lob shells at one another on alternating days of the week. It was the geopolitical maelstrom of the Chinese Civil War, from 1946 to 1949, that irreversibly broke Matsu's traditional ties to the mainland and bound its fate to that of distant Taiwan. For 40 years, Matsu stood as a sentry on the fault line between the “Free World” and the Communist bloc....
