Qionglin Settlement Introduction
Located in the central part of Kinmen Island, Qionglin is predominantly inhabited by the Tsai clan and is known as the largest ancient house settlement in Kinmen. In the past, due to the emergence of talented individuals and significant achievements in the civil service, the name "Qionglin" was bestowed upon the village by the Ming Dynasty's Emperor Xizong. At that time, whenever someone passed the imperial examinations, a ancestral hall would be constructed, resulting in a total of more than six ancestral halls in Qionglin, referred to as "Seven Halls and Eight Ancestors." These include the Tsai Family Ancestral Hall (Dazong), the Liu Shi Zhu Xi Gong Ancestral Hall, the Shi Shi Bai Ya Gong Ancestral Hall, the Liu Shi Le Pu Gong and Shi Shi Ting Fu Gong Ancestral Hall, the Liu Shi Qian Ting Fang Ancestral Hall, the Shi Yi Rong Sheng Gong Ancestral Hall, and the Shi Liu Tsai Shou Yu Ancestral Hall, making it the settlement with the most ancestral halls on Kinmen Island. The Tsai Family Ancestral Hall serves as the focal point of the Qionglin settlement and the pride of the Tsai clan. The lion guardian statue embedded in the back wall of the ancestral hall has become a popular attraction for many visitors and is currently designated as a historic site. The flower tile wall is a new artistic landscape of the Qionglin settlement, located on the wall of a residential house behind the Qionglin Protective Temple's theater. Local artist Wu Dingxin, in collaboration with community residents, created a mural using traditional brick kilns to produce flower tiles that depict the vivid appearance of the cotton tree flowers found in Kinmen County, flourishing throughout the seasons!
