That year, I went to an outlying island for a work-exchange stay. The most poetic working environment — Kinmen

Text & photos by Fox Lu (卢啾啾), excerpted from "Let's All Go on a Passionate Work-Exchange Adventure!" published by Popular Wind Publishing

Kinmen, the most poetic working environment

Coming to Kinmen, if you don’t spend at least one night in a traditional Hokkien house or colonial-style homestay, then you’ve really come for nothing. The best way to understand a place’s local customs and culture is to chat with the locals. And also, staying in a building full of local history — a place where even the air is filled with stories.

The ridges, gables, swallowtails, and horsebacks of Minnan architecture all tell the story of the formation of an immigrant society from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. Colonial-style houses, also known as 番仔厝 (foreigner houses), come in various layouts such as five-footways, turtle-shell designs, or front-facing grand entrances. These majestic buildings need no introduction; just standing before them, you can almost see the once-glorious past of overseas Chinese merchants who returned home after making their fortunes abroad.

However, doing a work-exchange stay by the lakeside in Hushang Jiangnan was like opening a Kinder Surprise egg (laughs). Not only did I get to experience both Minnan traditional houses and colonial homes, but also, situated across Shuangli Lake, the Nanshan traditional house and Beishan colonial house — that is, the two homestays owned by Sister Lai — were my main workplaces.

Colonial-style homestays are quite rare in Kinmen, numbering fewer than ten. The best part of a colonial house is the greenery creeping up its walls, and the Beishan colonial house was even the command post of the Nationalist Army during the Battle of Guningtou.

Its two-story, five-footway colonial building, with the rear section integrating a traditional Hokkien horseback roof, has four rooms on both the first and second floors. The floors are connected by an old wooden staircase, and every creaking sound when going up and down not only adds character but also plenty of vintage charm (vintage enthusiast mode activated). The second-floor balcony is planted with flowers and plants, and watering them always comes with the scent of gardenias. There’s also a swing — just sit on it when the mood strikes.

Imagine being on the balcony of a colonial house, surrounded by flowers and plants, with coffee in hand. Warm sunlight filters through the leaves, forming little stars, while a breeze lifts your loose hair. With your heels against the ground, you gently sway on the swing. Your gaze slowly shifts beyond the greenery to a sea of traditional Minnan-style architecture. Red bricks stretch as far as the eye can see — everything seems so naturally perfect, as if it’s meant to be just this way…

Stepping into the Nanshan traditional house, the freshest and most natural wood fragrance greets you immediately. And I dare say, it has the strongest wood scent of any traditional house in Kinmen, because it was among the first group of traditional houses renovated by the Kinmen National Park Headquarters, using the highest quality reconstruction materials.

It’s a three-courtyard mansion. The front courtyard is a quadrangle compound with two halls, four rooms, and two side wings. The rear courtyard is a three-sided compound with one hall, two rooms, and two side wings. Cleaning while moving through the halls and courtyards offers a uniquely satisfying kind of busyness. It was precisely for this different work-exchange experience that I came to Kinmen and chose the famous traditional houses and colonial homes.

Back then, I used to tell my friends that I woke up every day to birdsong and floral scents. What a wonderful life it was.
☆ ,:*: '( ￣%剑?)/ ':* '°☆ *

But little did they know, those “birdsongs” actually meant that large numbers of birds would fly into the hall every day to poop and sleep. The first thing I did every morning was to slam open the hall door to scare the birds away, and then clean up the phosphorus-rich bird droppings that had landed on the tables and floor. Really, such a wonderful daily routine.

But please don’t misunderstand — I love every quirky thing I encounter during my work-exchange stays. That’s also the ultimate purpose of living life in a different place: to experience the true essence behind the poetic scenery. Ohoho.

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