Concept

Matsu Islands

Summary
The Matsu Islands (UKˌmætˈsuː or USˌmɑːtˈsuː), officially Lienchiang County (ljɛnˈdʒjɑːŋ), are an archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the East China Sea governed by the Republic of China (Taiwan), situated alongside the southeastern coast of mainland China. The archipelago forms the smallest county in the ROC-controlled territories by area and population, as well as one of two counties that is a part of the nominal Fuchien Province. The current Lienchiang County of the ROC was once part of an intact Lienchiang County of Fujian before its effective partition in 1949 following the Chinese Civil War, which resulted in the mainland portion of the county being controlled by the People's Republic of China (PRC), while the offshore islands of Matsu remained under ROC control. The circumstance has made the county the only former geographical unit with the same name which is now divided between the administrations of the ROC and the PRC. Lienchiang County, Taiwan (R.O.C.) uses the traditional Chinese characters name (連江縣) and the romanized name Lienchiang which is derived from the Wade-Giles romanization (Lien2-chiang1) of the Mandarin pronunciation for those Chinese characters that also refer to Lianjiang County, Fuzhou, Fujian in mainland China. Lienchiang has also been written as Lien-chiang and Lienkiang and by a postal romanization of the local language pronunciation Lienkong. The term Lienchiang can also refer to the homophonous Lianjiang in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China. The Matsu Islands are named after the main island, Nangan (Nankan). Nangan is also named Matsu Island because of a temple on the island which is supposed to be the burial site of the similarly named goddess Mazu (媽祖). Matsu is the Wade-Giles-derived romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation (Ma3-tsu3) for the Chinese character name (馬祖) of the islands. The Matsu Islands are also known by other Chinese-language names including and 馬祖島; Foochow Romanized: Mā-cū dō̤).
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