Nankan

Nankan Township is the political and cultural center of Matsu. Most of the tourist sites are located in Nankan, which is where you generally go to buy the specialty products and foods that Matsu is best known for.

Sinorama

2001, 光華 [guānghuá, Sinorama], volume 26, Government Information Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15

Since 2001, islanders and their immediate Chinese neighbors have been able to take the 90-minute boat ride between the Chinese port of Mawei and the Matsu town of Nankan, allowing people with the same ancestry to reunite after generations of estrangement. Now any Chinese or Taiwanese can make the trip.

2009 July 5, Annie Huang, “Taiwan islands blossom as China tensions ebb”, in San Diego Tribune, archived from the original on 10 Sep 2022

We collected B. tabaci Q biotype samples from eight sites (Figure 1), six of which (TTS, TMJ, TTG, TNP, TYY, and TTF) were ornamental greenhouses, one (TTN) an ornamental plant trade market, and one (TLM) a small island in Nankan Township, Lienchiang County, Taiwan.

2011, Chia-Hung Hsieh et al., “Population genetic structure of the newly invasive Q biotype of Bemisia tabaci in Taiwan”, in Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, volume 138, number 3, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 264, column 2

ROC Army Matsu Defense Command states today (18th) that a CM21 Armored vehicle of the Nankan Garrison Brigade had accidentally and for unknown reasons bumped into a slope when it was going through drills for armored vehicles driving in the morning as it drove through Central Avenue and Shengtian Road of Nankan Township this morning (18th).

2021 March 18, Ming-Te Tang, “Army Command issues a press release stating that "an armoured vehicle of the Matsu Defense Command was slightly damaged when it hit a slope. The driver and passengers were not injured."”, in Ministry of National Defense, Republic of China, archived from the original on 10 Sep 2022

Nankan Township has even used light control measures in the daytime at certain sections of Jieshou Village, Fuxing Village, Meishi Village, and Renai Village since April 9.

2021 April 27, George Liao, “Taiwan’s Matsu turns off street lights to see ‘blue tears’”, in Taiwan News, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2021

No single island in the 19-islet group bears the name of Matsu[.] It is named after a harbor of Nankan, the main island of the group. Nankan is 114 nautical miles west of the northern Taiwan port of Chilung, and 114 nautical miles from Kinmen. Besides Nankan, other islands in the group are: Peikan, Kaoteng, Tungkun and Hsikun. Kaoteng is only 5 5 nautical miles from the closest mainland point and has been the occasional target of Communist gunners for years. The total land area is only 29 3 sq km. (11.3 sq. mi) Nankan alone has 4.03 sq. km. (10.44 sq mi.) of the total. Located in the fishing area of Fukien, the Matsus are naturally the home of a fishing population. On Nankan there are two good harbors, Fuyu and Matsu.

1959, Sampson C. Shen, editor, China Yearbook 1958-1959, Taipei, Taiwan: China Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 99

Following the sporadic shelling launched against Peikantang on May 11, the Communist artillery units opposite Matsu fired again today a total of more than four hundred shells at Nankantang and Peikantang within one and a half hours, according to a communique issued by the Ministry of National Defense.

[1959 July 1, “Chronology”, in Taiwan Today, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2021

One hundred and fifty miles north of Quemoy on Nankan Island, it wasn't the sound of Communist artillery fire that awoke Lieutenant Colonel Carl Kueffer, but the persistent jangling of his telephone.[...]The one landing strip in the Matsus, and good for light aircraft only, was on the second largest island, Peikan. Between Nankan and Peikan lay the Matsu Straits, a twisted riptide-torn channel, boasting freak winds and bouldered shores.

1962, DeWitt S. Copp, “The Mudcats”, in The Odd Day, William Morrow and Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 59–60

Nankan, the biggest island, is 20,000 meters from the mainland. Kaoteng is only 9,000 meters offshore. In the 1950s, when the Communists were shelling Quemoy, shells aimed at Nankan fell into the ocean. Since then the Communists have extended the range of their artillery.[…] There has been no attempt to mount an amphibious assault on Matsu, and with good reason. Nankan is almost straight up and down and nearly devoid of landing places. Embryo beaches are guarded by barbed wire and mines. Traffic in and out of Nankan is by landing boat and planking. No wharves have been built.

Free China Weekly

1973 November 4, “Matsu is strong, prosperous”, in 自由中國週報 [Free China Weekly], volume XIV, number 43, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, column 1

The presidential election will be held on 23 March. On 22 March, the Matsu defense headquarters conducted defense drills at fortified Positions on the garrison islets, as well as anti-landing exercises on Nankan Islet. As imaginary enemies broke through the fortified positions and captured higher positions, the Nankan Command Post swiftly sent mobile units to counterattack them.

1996 March 22 [1996 March 22], “Taiwan: Mobile Units on Matsu Stage Anti-Landing Drills”, in Daily Report: China, numbers 96-057, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, translation of original by Taipei China Broadcasting Corporation News Network, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 80, column 1