The one landing strip in the Matsus, and good for light aircraft only, was on the second largest island, Peikan. Between Nankan and Peikan lay the Matsu Straits, a twisted riptide-torn channel, boasting freak winds and bouldered shores. It was on this seaway that amphibian aircraft landed, wind and sea permitting.
A preliminary PLA attempt in late September to land forces on Peikan T'ang island (one of the Matsu group) was beaten back by the island's defenders and counterattacked by ROC bombers, which claimed to have sunk five motorised junks and damaged six others, out of a total fleet of forty to fifty.]
As Reece Overhalt spoke to the President, the first reports came in of China’s invasion of the Taiwanese island of Peikan, just off the coast of Fujian.
The 7km journey by boat between Nankan and Peikan takes either 10 or 40 minutes depending on which vessel you take.
2000 May, Keyuan Zou, “Redefining the Legal I Status of the Taiwan Strait”, in The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law[5], volume 15, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 247:
The main island of the complex is Nankan, more commonly known as Mazu, from the name of the major port of the island. It is 114 nautical miles north-west of Keelung, the port city on the northern tip of Taiwan, and is the same distance north of the Jinmen Islands. Other major islands of the group are Peikan, Kaoteng, Tungyin, Hsiyin, Tungchu and Hsichu.
2000 November 1, “The Last Shangri-la”, in Taiwan Today[6], archived from the original on 29 September 2022:
The airport on Peikan Island, the second largest in the Matsu chain, is currently being upgraded at a cost of NT$700 million (US$22.6 million).
2003 January 24, “Matsu's second airport inaugurated”, in Taipei Times[7], archived from the original on 29 September 2022[8]:
UNI Airways is the only airline running flights between Taipei and Matsu's two airports. The airline operates six flights from Taipei to Nankan and six flights from Nankan to Taipei daily, while running three flights from Taipei to Peikan and three flights from Peikan to Taipei per day.
2003 July 30, “President Chen Inspects the Matsu Defense Headquarters and Various Development Projects”, in Office of the President, Republic of China (Taiwan)[9], archived from the original on 10 September 2022[10]:
During the meeting, the private association members also came up with many suggestions, including building a bridge linking Matsu island group's Nankan and Peikan islets, expanding its airport capacity, setting up an offshore shipment center, allowing Taiwan people to travel to mainland China via Matsu and building large tourist vessels to attract Taiwan tourists to Matsu.
The first mention of Matsu in the historical record involves an incident of piracy that took place in 1617. This was during the Ming Dynasty, when the seas around China were lousy with pirates. Pirate legends are still told in Chinpi, the most traditional village on Peikan Island.
2017 December, Jing-Yuan Chen et al., “Ages and petrogenesis of Jurassic and Cretaceous intrusive rocks in the Matsu Islands: Implications for lower crust modification beneath southeastern China”, in Journal of Asian Earth Sciences[12], volume 150, Elsevier, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC:
For the massive granite (sample Ms01) from the Peikan Island, fifteen spots were analyzed from 15 zircons and give ages ranging between 87 ± 2 and 98 ± 2 Ma.
PEIKAN TOWNSHIP (běigān xiāng) 北竿鄉 Peikan Township consists of three groups of islands, of which Peikan (běigān) is the largest and the only one open to visitors.
