Text and photos by Michael McCarthy
September, 2012 Vol. 16, No. 10
When the first barrage of anti-aircraft fire exploded next to my head, I jumped so hard I bumped my head on the roof of the tunnel. This wasn’t so hard to do, as the tunnel was only six feet high and I am taller than that. Then the lights in the tunnel went out, followed by the recorded sounds of another artillery barrage, this one a blast of vicious propaganda in a strange language that I took to be Chinese. I looked around for the hidden speakers, buried somewhere in the walls. The tunnels of the underground world of Taiwan’s Kinmen Island can be described in many ways, and authentic is certainly one of them.
“Everybody OK back there?” yelled our guide, Mr. Ho.
“No problem,” I yelled back. “Bring on Chairman Mao, I’m ready.”