Beigan

Beigan Township

Beigan Township (北竿鄉; Báe̤k-găng-hiŏng), is one of the five major islands of the Matsu Islands, is officially administrated as Lienchiang County by the Republic of China (Taiwan). Beigan Township is located to the north relatively to the other islands and it is the second largest island of all five only after Nangan.

Beigan Township refers to the administrative subdivision that also includes the major island, Beigan island, as well as other smaller islands of Matsu such as Gao-dan island(高登島), Lian island (亮島).

This township served as one of the Three mini-links (小三通) to mainland China before direct links between Taiwan and the PRC were reestablished.

There is one official branch store of 7-Eleven on the island of Beigan and several other shops on the island. Commercial stores are limited, however, there is an official store of the National Taiwanese Army that is opened for all customers. The main source of income are tourism and spendings by the military personnel that serves to protect the island. There are about few hundreds to thousand soldiers located in the island roughly divided into five armed forces.

Transportation

• Matsu Beigan Airport set here as gateway between the Taiwan Island and the Matsu Islands.
• There are commercial boat rides from Nangan regularly, however, does not have boat rides directly to the main island of Taiwan.

Education

• There are one middle school and two elementary schools located on the island of Beigan.
• The library of Beigan opens daily from wednesday to sundays with the exception of national holidays.

• Area:7.1 km²
• Population: 1748 (2009)