evidence: "Kinmen was still a well-manned fortress, but there was an optimism in the air, a feeling that better times were coming," says Li. [...] Although Taiwan and Kinmen have been part of the same territory since 1949, the experiences in both places have been markedly different, Shui points out. [...] Kinmen is also not without importance to Taiwan’s military. It is home to a string of surveillance stations that monitor activity in the surrounding sea.