Travel with Makiko

It was already day 41 when I arrived in Fuzhou. Next stop on my travel list was Nankan Island. The only ONE online guide found mentioned about ferry service between Fuzhou and this small island. As I was struggling with the hotel receptionist in Chinese, suddenly a guy, who was sitting on the couch next to the counter, said, “Do you want to go to Nankan?” in his weird Chinese accent.

Soon, I found myself so nervous and agitated.
This big and serious looking guy suddenly appeared next to me with so much determination trying to convince me that he could bring me to Nankan the next day. I was not ready to follow a stranger while traveling alone.

The next day, however, I managed to buy a ticket with the help of a girl from the bakery shop, next to the hotel. My heart was not fully settled when I realized that I was alone in the old van I boarded at the pick-up point. After about an hour ride, I finally saw the ferry terminal.

“Finally, I am going to Taiwan.”
The ferry ride was short. Apparently, I was the only foreigner passing through the immigration for passport check. I almost had no clue about the island. So, when I was given a complete English guide and map about Nankan as well as the entire Matsu archipelago, I smiled.

An hour later I found myself walking a very tiring and difficult road. My intention was to walk across the island, heading towards Jinsha village. It was only 1.5km but I ended up walking for 3 ½ hours. At first it was refreshing, trailing the wooden walk path alongside the sea. After 45 minutes I began scaling up an extremely steep road, with nothing next to it except for bushes, trees and abandoned small building painted in smudge green. The road was so empty. Each car that passed would slow down and the driver smiled with a thumbs-up showed. It was indeed a challenging route, with more climbs than descending down hills. Occasionally I could hear shooting sounds from behind the bushes and trees. The whole journey, I exchanged smiles with so many people in military uniforms as I passed by all military training stations along the route.

I began to worry. Then I saw houses, like shown in the guide, downhill. The view from that last edge of the climb was magnificent - open sea right in front, lush green on both sides of the hills and then rows of brown and grey buildings smacked in between the valley. I quickly walked down the hill heading to the village and I was greeted by a friendly woman, “Hello there, where are you from?”