Kinmen Airport

Kinmen Airport or Shang Yi Airport (Chinese: 金門尚義機場; Chinese: 金门尚义机场; pinyin: Jīnmén Shàngyì Jīchǎng) (IATA: KNH, ICAO: RCBS) is a civilian airport serving Kinmen, Fujian Province, Republic of China. It is located at Jinhu Township of Kinmen County. It was authorized to become a C-class airport under the direct supervision of Civil Aeronautics Administration, Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Executive Yuan.

It serves an average of 1.2 million passenger every year.

With the direct Cross-Strait flights between mainland China and Taiwan being expensive compared to domestic fares for each side respectively. This makes travel via Kinmen with an hourly short thirty-minute ferry ride to Xiamen's Wutong Ferry Terminal, close to Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, very popular. Check-in facilities for Kinmen Airport flights exists within the Wutong Ferry Terminal to assist in travel from the mainland to Taiwan.

History

Kinmen Airport was originally established in 1949 in Sihung Village. In June 1951, the Ministry of National Defense ratified TransAsia Airways to launch its first flight to Kinmen and a once-a-week scheduled flight began to operated. On 23 August 1958, the flight was cancelled due to Second Taiwan Strait Crisis with the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The airport was then moved to Shang-i where it is now located, taken over by the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) in consideration of the war with PLA.

Kinmen

Kinmen or Quemoy (/kɪˈmɔɪ/; see also "Names" section below), officially Kinmen County (Chinese: 金門縣; pinyin: Jīnmén Xiàn), is an island group governed by Taiwan which located just off the southeastern coast of mainland China, including Great Kinmen, Lesser Kinmen, Wuqiu and several surrounding islets. It is one of two counties under the streamlined Fujian Province of the Republic of China. Only about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west to the Chinese city of Xiamen, its strategic position has reflected the significant change of Cross-Strait relations from the battlefront line to the main trading point between two sides. Due to the ongoing issue of the political status of Taiwan, The People's Republic of China (PRC) has continuously claimed Kinmen as part of its own Fujian Province's Quanzhou prefecture-level city.

Names

Kinmen was first named Jīnmén (金門; lit, "golden gate") in Chinese 1387 when the Hongwu Emperor of China's Ming dynasty appointed a military officer to administer the island and protect it from wokou (pirate) attacks. The name is pronounced Jīnmén in the official Mandarin Chinese and Kim-mûi in the native Zhangzhou dialect of Hokkien Minnan. The various names used in English for the islands derive from the Chinese counterparts.