| Lieyu and Kinmen are both typical mainland islands in the southeast coastline of our nation. Having no mountains on all sides, there are exposed laccolith surface, rugged hills, curvy coastlines, and beautiful white quartz sand beaches due to tidal activities that make up unique island terrains.
The most significant feature of Lieyu is the two hills on the northern and southern region that form the backbone of the island. The space between the two hills is an elongated plane. Nantang is a small basin encircled by the southern mountains, in which lakes and wetlands scatter around. The coastlines on all sides are smooth and are mostly sand beaches, and some areas have rocky coasts and beaches that are quite beautiful. The following is the detailed description.
1. Wave-shaped Hills on Northern Lieyu
On northern Lieyu, the area between Jiougong and Hujingtou is a wavy hill composed of granite gneiss which almost forms a straight line with the hill between Chihshan and Tashan, and the only thing cuts across is Jinlie Channel. As far as the nature of the rocks and geology, it is clear that Kinmen and Little Kinmen are inseparable.
Mt. Cilin (114m tall) is the tallest mountain in this area and is connected to Mt. Longpan (104m tall). Near the peak, the granite gneiss is covered by basalt molten rocks, which scatters around after weathering and results in the red soil we see. The hills basically run from northwest to southeast; many traditional villages are found on the southern side instead of the northern counterpart. This is probably because the settlers want to stay away from the fierce northeast monsoon and have a broad plane for farming, showing how much thought the early settlers have put into this.
2. Curvy Hills and Basins in Southern Lieyu
The hills in the southern area are consisted of the short hills from Donggang, Dashanding, Yangshan, and Shanglin, and are separated from the northern hills by the elongated plane. Yangshan joins Dashanding, and both peaks are covered in weathered basalt molten rocks on granite gneiss, and the thickness of which increases when getting closer to the peak. Certain areas (such as Nantang) have clay soil.
Located on Dashanding, the basalt layer of Nanlu is now exposed due to the road construction, showing a texture of flat slate. Looking at the southern coast from Dashanding, one sees islands such as Fuhsingyu, Menghuyu, Dadan, and Erdan. Also, the area between Nanshantou and Shasi in the southern coastline is rugged and weathered quite significantly.
Nantang is surrounded by short mountains; the northern side concaves down and forms a gap, making it a typical basin. Overall, the hills in southern Lieyu are shorter and curvier than the northern counterparts.
3. Plateaus and Plains
The plateaus in Lieyu are mostly found red soil plateaus between the north side of the northern hills and the coastline. With cultivation and settlement, the land appears even flatter, and the other plateaus are less significant and scatter around. The elongate plane is located between the northern and southern hills. Being the center of villages and farms, villages are usually seen in the intersections between the outskirt of hills and planes, including Donglin, Silu, Sifang, and Siwu where there are planes for farming. People in Houjing and Shuangkou usually settle on broader planes. Except for the above mentioned hills, the terrains here are generally quite flat.
4. Rivers and Lakes
Rivers in Lieyu are narrow and short with rapid currents. Most of the smaller rivers are formed by rainwater from nearby hills, and these rivers are mostly dry rivers in the sense that there are only flowing water when it rains. Stairway floodgates are built along the rivers (such as the upstream of Siangyu Pool) in order to allow aggregation, and lake reservoirs are built at the exits of rivers in order to store water. Cingyuan Lake in the southwest tip was originally a natural coastal lake, and a part of it is now an aquaculture ground. Located between Shangku and Shanglin, Lingshuei Lake was a coastal wetland in which the sea water would almost reach the village during high tides. From the Ming and Cing dynasties and Japanese dominance, Lingshuei Lake has been used for salt production. After stationing in Lieyu, our national defense forces built the inner, middle, and external dykes in 1963 for the sake of the public’s well-being, giving Lingshuei Lake its appearance as we know it today. However, years of sedimentation has resulted in the growth of grass, making this place a wetland. In the beautiful Lingshuei Lake, a large number of migratory birds spend the winter here during autumn and winter, and now this place has become a valuable bird conservation area of Kinmen National Park. Located between Shuangkou and Chungdun, Sihu stores the rainwater in the central area of Kinmen. Like Linghu and Lianhu in the northern region, these reservoirs store rainwater that contributes partly to tap water. However, the reservoirs are often dried to the bottom during the drought season. Between the south of Donglin and the coastline is a lake which is known as Donglin Lake in the earlier days.
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