Kinmen National Park

Kinmen National Park ; 金門國家公園
	Coastal landscape in the national park
Location:	Kinmen County , Taiwan
Surface:	35,287 km²
Founding:	October 18, 1995
Visitors:	3.35 million (2016)
Address:	www.kmnp.gov.tw
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The Kinmen National Park ( Chinese 金門國家公園 , Pinyin Jīnmén Guójiā Gōngyuán , Pe̍h-ōe-jī Kim-mn̂g Kok-ka Kong-hn̂g ) is one of eight national parks in the Republic of China (Taiwan) . It is located on the islands of the Kinmen Archipelago off the coast of Fujian Province in the People's Republic of China . In 2016 the national park had 3.35 million visitors.

description

The national park consists of several, non-connected parts on the two main islands of the Kinmen archipelago, Groß-Kinmen ( 大金門 , Dà Jīnmén ) and Klein-Kinmen ( 小金門 , Xiǎo Jīnmén ). The area of the park is divided into five municipalities: Jincheng (578.20 ha), Jinhu (1,208.9 ha), Jinsha (643.2 ha), Jinju (910.4 ha) and Jinyu (379.0 ha). The park covers about a quarter of the area of the two islands.

Flora and fauna

The national park has a diverse flora and fauna. Fish, molluscs , coelenterates and crustaceans can be found in the intertidal zone . On the beaches are MUDSKIPPER , sand worms , fiddler crabs , stone crabs , crabs of the genus Mictyris , soldier crabs , sand crabs , oysters , barnacles , opisthobranch before, and seabirds. Especially in shallow waters off the north west coast, there are horseshoe crabs .

Of reptiles and amphibians, among others, find Yellow-Banded Krait and Anura black scar toad , Hylarana guentheri and Fejervarya limnocharis . Of the insects, it is worth mentioning Chilasa clytia , a species of butterfly that is found in South Asia but not on the island of Taiwan .

National park map

The bird world is considered to be the national park's most important biological treasure. Around 550 species of birds have been described throughout the Republic of China (Taiwan including Penghu , Kinmen, and Matsu ). Of these, more than 300 occur in Kinmen, so that the archipelago has the greatest abundance of birds in the entire republic. Kinmen's bird life differs significantly from that of the island of Taiwan. Some of the species that occur here, such as the blue-tailed pint , do not exist in Taiwan. For example, other species that are rare in Taiwan, Hoopoe , Elster , collar Crow , Pied Kingfisher , Brown Reads , can be found on Kinmen relatively frequent. Overall, Kinmen's bird life is much more similar to that of the nearby mainland than that of the island of Taiwan. The largest mammal to be found is the otter , which has become very rare on the island of Taiwan.

Due to the relatively poor, rock-based soil and the relative drought (despite the monsoon season ), a special flora has developed on Kinmen. According to the national park administration's surveys, 139 plant families , 476 genera and 820 species of vascular plants were found here . Among them were 22 families, 31 genera, and 52 species of ferns , one family, and one species of nudibranch , 92 families, 326 genera and 529 species of dicotyledon , and 24 families, 118 genera, and 238 species of monocotyledonous plants . Measured against the relatively small area of Kinmen, the flora is considered to be rich in species. The flora is also more similar to that of Fujian Province than that of Taiwan Island. Plants such as Litsea glutinosa , Strophanthus divaricatus , Junischnee , Breynia fruticosa , Lagerstroemia limii and Xyris complanata are found in Fujian and Kinmen, but not in Taiwan. Other plants that are regularly found on Kinmen, such as Drosera indica , Drosera burmanni , Utricularia caerulea , Utricularia minutissima , Pinus massoniana , Rhododendron simsii , Biancaea decapetala , Myoporum bontioides , Pyrus calleryana and Xyris complanata, are very rare in Taiwan.

Historical monuments

Of the 44 buildings and sites officially classified as “National Historic Monuments” on Kinmen, 12 are within the national park. These include shrines, pagodas, petroglyphs, temples, old houses, etc. There are also numerous exhibits in the national park that remind of the time when Kinmen was in a permanent state of siege against the People's Republic of China.