Kinmen Folk Culture Village

The Kinmen Folk Culture Village is a cultural center in Jinsha Township, Kinmen County, Taiwan.

History

The culture village was designed by an architect from Jiangxi and built by Wang Kuo-chen, a successful businessman who created his wealth while he was in Japan. The construction started in 1876 and it took 25 years to complete all buildings in this area in the year 1900. During the martial law period, the village was renovated to become a folk culture village and later in 1995 was included into the Kinmen National Park. It was the first village in Kinmen which was turned into a tourist destination.

Architecture

The culture village has the most complete range Hokkien architecture on the island, consisting of 18 house buildings, including 16 symmetrical two-courtyard historic houses, an ancestral shrine and a village private school named Haizhutang. All of the buildings were built on the hillside of Mount Wuhu facing the sea in three orderly rows on a solid granite rock bed. It consists of three settlements, Shangbao, Zhongbao and Xiabao. Shanghao and Zhongbao belonged to the Wang clan while the Xiabao settlement belonged to the Liang clan.