Visiting Leiyu Island, Kinmen/ Charles Chuang

Visiting Leiyu Island, Kinmen/ Charles Chuang A young staff at Wanhwa new immigrants center where I discovered a free Internet use helped me to check the schedule to fly to Kinmen, the old frontier; therefore, the next morning at 5:30 am I went to Dingsi station to take the first bus to Songshan airport. Someone advised me to wait till 6:00 am to take the first subway was better. I took the subway and changed at Chunshaw Fushin station and arrived at the airport very quickly. This airport was the one which I took off to the U.S. 39 years ago. It was very different in feeling in my mind. During 1971-1973, I was in the mandatory army service and my division stationed at Leiyu Island, Kinmen where in the cold war era was considered as the frontier. I always want to re-visit this island because of the hardship of life during those two years. After taking off, the aircraft flew over Taipei high rises and entered the Formosa Strait. It is the beauty of Taiwan. We landed at Sanwai airport one hour later. 42 years ago, our transporting ship landed the harbor right after midnight and our Battalion marched to the barracks at Sanwai on foot. I waited outside of the Airport for bus to Gincheng Township to be transferred to another bus to Shuitou Harbor to take a ferry across another strait between the big and small Kinmen. Along the highway, I could see the improvement of highways and buildings at the island which was very much different from another midnight march from Shanwai barracks to Shuitou harbor 42 years ago. At that time we took an old amphibious boat across. I took another bus to Houtou Village where I thought that I could walk to if necessary. It is all different now, it is much prettier. The village has been expanded a bit with new homes. They are very colorful. I asked a man who was washing a car for my old friend’s phone numbers in Taipei. He was very surprised for my effort coming all the way from the U.S. just attempted to get this information. He stopped his chore and find his i-phone without any success. He directed me to an old restaurant which had been closed and changed to a residence. They are relatives. The relative directed me to another relative who managed the abandoned house. One after another direction, finally I got the phone numbers. Before I left, I found the old barracks which had been abandoned for years and took some pictures. I was ready to leave. I ran into Mr. Bean curd a little bit away from the bus stop. Our company used to purchase bean curd from Mrs. Bean curd; she would come back to our kitchen to get our left over food to feed her hogs; we purchased her two hogs for the Lunar New Year feast etc. He invited me to their new house to meet Mrs. At their home, He called my friend in Taipei and verified me. They are relatives as well. My friend recognized me instantly. He remembered that he visited me at Huwei in 1974 and I visited him in Taipei in the same year. I took his youngest baby daughter as my adopted daughter at that time. She should be age 42 now. Mrs. Bean curd invited me for lunch and had some more conversation about the acquaintance at the village. She prepared a plate of vegetable. She also encouraged me to visit the younger daughter of a village head who resided at Shuitou harbor. She still ran a grocery and her husband was a retiree of an elementary school. I said farewell because that I did have an itinerary to follow before going back to Taipei that night.