Shuitou Village, Kinmen

Kinmen lies far off Taiwan's west coast and its architecture belongs to southern Fujian: single-storey courtyard houses of granite and red brick, with swallowtail ridges curving up at both ends of the roof. Shuitou is the best preserved of the villages. Alongside the traditional houses stand yanglou, mansions built in the 1920s and 1930s by families who had made money in Southeast Asia and sent it home, mixing colonnades, balustrades and moulded plaster with the local courtyard plan. The tallest of them, Deyue Lou, is a narrow brick lookout tower put up when the coast was troubled by bandits. Much of the village has been restored and a number of houses are now guesthouses.

What you actually see

• The swallowtail roofs - upturned ridge ends on the traditional granite houses.
• The yanglou mansions - 1930s houses mixing colonnades with the courtyard plan.
• Deyue Lou - the narrow brick lookout tower standing above the village.
• The old village school - a schoolhouse funded from overseas, now an exhibition hall.

When to go

October to April is dry and cool, and it is also when Kinmen's wind is at its strongest. Summer is hot and humid with very little shade in the villages. Flights are the only practical way in, and spring fog closes the airport with no warning, sometimes for a day or more, so leave slack in the schedule at both ends.

Honest expectations

Restoration has been thorough to the point where parts of the village feel newly built, and a good number of the houses are guesthouses and shops rather than homes. Several of the best buildings can only be seen from outside. Kinmen is expensive to reach and the villages are spread out, so a scooter or car is needed. There is little shade and few places to eat between villages.

Nearby

Jincheng's old market streets and the coastal villages of western Kinmen.