Nankan

See also: nánkān and nánkàn

English

Etymology

From Mandarin 南竿 (Nángān), romanization: Nan²-kan¹.

Proper noun

Nankan

1. Alternative form of Nangan (rural township)
   • 1992, General Report of the Council of Agriculture‎^[1], number 7, →OCLC, page 17, column 2:

     (viii) The Chukuang and Nankan township administrative offices were renovated.

   • 2009 July 5, Annie Huang, “Taiwan islands blossom as China tensions ebb”, in San Diego Tribune‎^[2], archived from the original on 10 September 2022‎^[3]:

     Since 2001, islanders and their immediate Chinese neighbors have been able to take the 90-minute boat ride between the Chinese port of Mawei and the Matsu town of Nankan, allowing people with the same ancestry to reunite after generations of estrangement. Now any Chinese or Taiwanese can make the trip.

   • 2021 March 18, Ming-Te Tang, “Army Command issues a press release stating that "an armoured vehicle of the Matsu Defense Command was slightly damaged when it hit a slope. The driver and passengers were not injured."”, in Ministry of National Defense, Republic of China‎^[4], archived from the original on 10 September 2022‎^[5]:

     ROC Army Matsu Defense Command states today (18th) that a CM21 Armored vehicle of the Nankan Garrison Brigade had accidentally and for unknown reasons bumped into a slope when it was going through drills for armored vehicles driving in the morning as it drove through Central Avenue and Shengtian Road of Nankan Township this morning (18th).

   • 2021 April 27, George Liao, “Taiwan’s Matsu turns off street lights to see ‘blue tears’”, in Taiwan News‎^[6], archived from the original on 27 April 2021‎^[7]:

     Nankan Township has even used light control measures in the daytime at certain sections of Jieshou Village, Fuxing Village, Meishi Village, and Renai Village since April 9.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Nankan.
2. Alternative form of Nangan (island)
   • 1962, DeWitt S. Copp, “The Mudcats”, in The Odd Day‎^[8], William Morrow and Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 59-60:

     One hundred and fifty miles north of Quemoy on Nankan Island, it wasn't the sound of Communist artillery fire that awoke Lieutenant Colonel Carl Kueffer, but the persistent jangling of his telephone.[...]The one landing strip in the Matsus, and good for light aircraft only, was on the second largest island, Peikan. Between Nankan and Peikan lay the Matsu Straits, a twisted riptide-torn channel, boasting freak winds and bouldered shores.

   • 1973 November 4, “Matsu is strong, prosperous”, in Free China Weekly‎^[9], volume XIV, number 43, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2:

     There has been no attempt to mount an amphibious assault on Matsu, and with good reason. Nankan is almost straight up and down and nearly devoid of landing places. Embryo beaches are guarded by barbed wire and mines. Traffic in and out of Nankan is by landing boat and planking.

   • 1998, Robert Storey, “Islands of the Taiwan Strait”, in Taiwan (Lonely Planet)‎^[10], 4th edition, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 230, column 1:

     Nankan Island is sometimes erroneously referred to as 'Matsu Island' because it's the largest island in the archipelago.

   • 2000 May, Keyuan Zou, “Redefining the Legal I Status of the Taiwan Strait”, in The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law‎^[11], volume 15, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 247:

     The main island of the complex is Nankan, more commonly known as Mazu, from the name of the major port of the island. It is 114 nautical miles north-west of Keelung, the port city on the northern tip of Taiwan, and is the same distance north of the Jinmen Islands. Other major islands of the group are Peikan, Kaoteng, Tungyin, Hsiyin, Tungchu and Hsichu. Nankan is the largest, with an area of 10.4 square kilometres.

   • 2003 July 30, “President Chen Inspects the Matsu Defense Headquarters and Various Development Projects”, in Office of the President, Republic of China (Taiwan)‎^[12], archived from the original on 10 September 2022‎^[13]:

     During the meeting, the private association members also came up with many suggestions, including building a bridge linking Matsu island group's Nankan and Peikan islets, expanding its airport capacity, setting up an offshore shipment center, allowing Taiwan people to travel to mainland China via Matsu and building large tourist vessels to attract Taiwan tourists to Matsu.

   • 2020, Chung-Shin; et al. Yuan, “Spatiotemporal Variation and Chemical Fingerprints of Marine Fine Particles (PM2.5) at the Matsu Islands in Northern Taiwan Strait”, in Aerosol and Air Quality Research‎^[14], volume 20, Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2720, column 1:

     Furthermore, HYSPLIT was then used to plot the backward trajectories of air masses moving towards the Matsu Islands. For this particular study, 120-h backward trajectories starting from Nankan Island at three heights of 100, 200, and 300 m above the ground were plotted to simulate the transport routes of air parcels.

   • 2020 October 26, Andrew Ryan, “More than 100 Chinese boats gather in Taiwanese waters near Matsu”, in Radio Taiwan International‎^[15], archived from the original on 10 September 2022‎^[16]:

     Taiwan’s coast guard tells the ships that they’ve entered restricted waters and orders them to disperse.
     These ships began to gather in the early hours of Sunday morning, between the islands of Nankan and Juguang.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Nankan.

Further reading

• Matsu Island, also called Nankan, in Encyclopædia Britannica