A small Taiwanese island only a few kilometers off the coast of mainland China, a Cold War flashpoint and current military garrison.
Geography
Quemoy, known officially as Kinmen, lies in Xiamen Bay only about 2 km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, but roughly 200 km from the main island of Taiwan. The terrain is gently rolling and once heavily forested.
Bombardment
Quemoy was shelled by the People’s Liberation Army intensively from 1958 to 1979, in a campaign that fired nearly half a million shells. The crisis brought the United States close to using nuclear weapons.
Today
Many shells were melted down by local blacksmiths into the Maestro Wu kitchen knives now sold to tourists. A 5.4 km road bridge to Lieyu, completed in 2022, links Greater and Lesser Quemoy.
Find more islands by letter
Quemoy starts with Q and ends with Y. Browse other islands along the same letter.
Islands that contain a letter from "Quemoy":