Brewing Time in the Cracks of History—A Dragon Boat Festival Visit to Kinmen's Special Tea House

Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday of memories. It’s a time for commemoration, warding off evil, celebrating traditions, and nostalgia. The sense of ritual is hidden in the folds of zongzi leaves and in our gaze toward the past. If this Dragon Boat Festival you wish to escape the bustling markets and dragon boat races, and quietly converse with a piece of history, the Kinmen Special Tea House Exhibition Hall might offer you a unique holiday experience. The name "Special Tea House" may sound elegant, but it actually conceals a chapter of military history often spoken in hushed tones. Located on Wujiang Street in Jincheng Township, Kinmen, this mid-20th-century Western-style building was once part of the wartime governance system, serving as a military comfort facility. Today, it has transformed into a cultural exhibition space. The exterior is understated, with cream-colored walls and arched windows, while the interior preserves the original reception area, soldiers' rest zone, and dressing rooms for female attendants. Through text, photographs, and oral histories, the exhibition recreates this unique setting where "tea replaced alcohol." Stepping into the exhibition hall, you are greeted not by the clamor of military life but by an unusual tranquility. The exhibits gently narrate how female workers entered the system and interacted with stationed soldiers in Kinmen. During the Dragon Boat Festival, the hall occasionally hosts seasonal exhibitions, such as "Military Seasonal Cuisine" and "Recreating Comfort Tea Snacks," which use historical recipes and fragments of memories to tightly weave together the themes of tradition and human connection. After your visit, consider sitting down at the small tea corner within the hall. While zongzi isn’t served here, you can order a cup of local sorghum red tea paired with Kinmen specialty snacks—taro strips, tribute candy, or replicas of soldiers' favorite peanut cookies. Simple yet touching. As sunlight streams through the windows and 1950s military songs play softly in the background, time seems to rewind, prompting reflection on how those young soldiers and female attendants, who often found Dragon Boat Festival particularly lonely, sought solace in this tea house. Here, the Dragon Boat Festival requires no noisy ceremonies or bustling crowds. Instead, it extends the meaning of the holiday into a gentle retrospection: we not only commemorate Qu Yuan but also remember the everyday lives that were forgotten and silenced in the tides of history. Kinmen Special Tea House allows us to see another side of military memory and imbues the Dragon Boat Festival with deeper texture and warmth.