For the best view of Xiamen's skyscrapers, visitors stand on a beach where anti-landing spikes jut out -- a reminder of when the island was a battlefield front line after Chinese nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949.
More than 70 years later, China's communist leaders still vow to seize democratic Taiwan, which Beijing views as part of its territory.
Taipei-administered Kinmen is only five kilometres (three miles) from the Chinese mainland, compared to 200 kilometres from Taiwan island.
As Taiwan's president-elect Lai Ching-te, a staunch defender of Taiwan's sovereignty, prepares to take office on Monday, Taiwanese visitors to Kinmen hope he can avoid a conflict.
"We don't ask for much, but we hope we can have a peaceful relationship," said Huang Yueh-yi, 78, on Saturday as she visited a market on the tiny island famed for its temples and traditional brick houses.
"You live your life and we'll live ours, it's good for both sides, and don't go towards war," she said.
As the rift between China and Taiwan deepens, Beijing has been increasing military pressure on Taipei by regularly deploying fighter jets, naval ships and drones around the self-ruled island.
In recent months, Chinese coast guard ships have also started making frequent appearances in the waters near Kinmen.
Lai -- who has previously described himself as a "pragmatic worker for independence", enraging Beijing -- has more recently toned down his rhetoric.
In the run-up to his inauguration, he has made overtures to China for a resumption of high-level communications, which Beijing severed after current President Tsai Ing-wen came to office in 2016.
Chuang Cheng-tin, a construction worker from the central Taiwan city of Taichung, said it would be better for Taipei to "keep some distance" from Beijing.
"We have different systems so there would be conflicts if we were too close," Chuang told AFP as he wandered Kinmen's historic streets.
"We can't yield... otherwise we will be taken by them. We should keep a distance, be armed, so we can have a counterbalance against them."
- 'Peaceful reunification' -
On the verdant island of Pingtan, in the eastern Chinese province of Fujian, hundreds of tourists gather at a seaside site which is the closest place in mainland China to Taiwan.
Pingtan is about 125 kilometres from Taiwan island -- too far for visitors to see the other side with the naked eye.
Instead, they pose with sculptures representing the two shores and celebrating the nostalgia of the time when they were part of the same political system.
The site is intended to symbolise the historical links between the two sides, with the vast majority of Taiwan's 23 million people being of Chinese culture and having ancestors from mainland China.
"Chinese from the mainland need a permit to go to Taiwan and it's difficult to get one," Wang Lei, a 25-year-old student, told AFP as he took a photo of himself in front of a large granite frame sculpture of a postcard with the blue sea in the background.
"So coming here is a way of getting a glimpse of the island and its history."
While the tourists standing at the rocky site can only imagine Taiwan in the distance, some had clear views of its incoming president.
"Lai Ching-te is the scum of the Chinese nation" because he "promotes separation between Taiwan and mainland China," Jack Wang, 30, who works in international trade, told AFP.
"We aspire to peaceful reunification. But as the former Chinese leader Mao Zedong said, we can't renounce the use of force if it becomes necessary."
"Of course, the Taiwanese also aspire to reunification with the mainland," he added.
In fact, nearly 90 percent of Taiwanese wished to maintain the status quo, according to a 2023 poll by National Chengchi University in Taipei.
Less than two percent said they supported unification as soon as possible.
Some Chinese tourists who spoke to AFP were dismissive of the political developments across the strait, preferring to enjoy the sights of Pingtan.
"Lai Ching-te? We don't really care about Taiwanese politics, to be honest," Zhou Yongping, a 54-year-old tourist, told AFP.
"We just come here to visit, drink and eat."
Taiwan coast guard ramps up island patrols ahead of inauguration
Kinmen, Taiwan (AFP) May 19, 2024 -
Taipei's coast guard ramped up patrols over the weekend around its outlying islands that have seen increased presence of Chinese vessels, the agency said Sunday, the eve of Lai Ching-te's inauguration as Taiwan's new president.
China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, maintaining a near-daily military presence with frequent appearances of fighter jets, drones and naval ships around the island.
It has also in recent months sent in Chinese coast guard ships around Kinmen, an outlying island administered by Taipei located just five kilometres (three miles) from the Chinese city of Xiamen.
Taipei's Coast Guard Administration said on Sunday they have sent out personnel to "patrol all hours of the day and night" around Taiwan's three major outlying islands: Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu.
"In order to ensure the security of the sea area and border safety during the inauguration ceremony, the Ocean Affairs Council's Coast Guard Administration's Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Division once again implemented a powerful patrol operation... to closely monitor suspicious targets," it said in a statement.
"The Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Division said that the national security work will not slacken during the important celebrations," it added.
Kinmen has been the site of ramped up tensions after Lai -- who China has branded a "dangerous separatist" -- was elected in Taiwan's January elections.
A deadly fishing incident in February involving a Chinese speedboat kicked off a row between China and Taiwan, which has yet to be resolved.
It was carrying four people and capsized on February 14 near Kinmen while Taiwan's coast guard was pursuing it, leaving two dead.
Taipei's coast guard had defended its actions, saying the boat was within "prohibited waters" and zigzagging before it capsized, but Beijing has accused Taipei of "hiding the truth" about the incident.
China has since stepped up patrols around Kinmen.
At least five formations of official Chinese ships have briefly sailed through Kinmen's restricted waters this month.
On the eve of Lai's inauguration, Taipei's defence ministry said it had detected seven Chinese aircraft and seven naval vessels around Taiwan in the 24-hour period leading up to 06:00 am (2200 GMT) Sunday.
Across the strait in the Chinese seaside city of Pingtan -- also home to a military base -- AFP reporters saw at least two military transport helicopters fly overhead Sunday morning.
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