For a place squeezed up against a hostile adversary and that's often referred to as the "front line of democracy," the mood in Kinmen is notably chill.
Tourists from mainland China are the top visitors to this outpost of Taiwan, usually arriving by ferry from the Fujian city of Xiamen, just a few kilometres across the bay.
The top attractions here are former war sites and relics that collectively tell the history of these islands -- located more than 300 kilometres west of the Taiwanese capital Taipei -- which have been the site of conflict several times since the 1949 Chinese civil war between nationalist and communist forces.
"What you see from those military attractions are meant to let people remember the cruelty of war," said Jerry Wu, a taxi driver and tour guide, who said the conditions on Kinmen's beaches during the battles of 1949 were similar to those of the Normandy landings five years earlier.
To this day Beijing claims Kinmen, and the rest of democratically governed Taiwan, as its own territory, and the communist leadership has not renounced using force in its quest to bring them under its control.
With U.S. President Donald Trump expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Gyeongju, South Korea on Thursday, the future of Taiwan is certain to figure prominently.
U.S. intelligence has suggested that Xi has told his military to be ready for an invasion of Taiwan by 2027.
While for decades the United States has been Taiwan's unshakable military backer, Trump has added a sense of unpredictability to the relationship. He has already reportedly paused a $400 million arms transfer to Taiwan.
The U.S. president's at times haphazard approach to China -- slapping on tariffs one moment, only to reverse them later -- has left many Taiwanese nervous that their islands' status could be a bargaining chip for Trump to secure a favourable trade deal with Xi, although U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently denied that's the case.
China's leader is reportedly pushing Trump to disavow Taiwan's independence. That would represent a significant break from previous administrations, which have simply advocated for maintaining the status quo.
For decades, Kinmen has been viewed by many within Taiwan as a patriotic symbol of resilience and defiance against mainland China. For others, the islands represent the potential for a more peaceful and integrated relationship with their neighbours.
In 1949, during the Chinese civil war, retreating forces of the Republic of China piled into Kinmen and used its two principal islands as a buffer against the advancing Communist army that eventually controlled the mainland.
As many as 100,000 troops were once based here. At one point during the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis, mainland forces shelled the islands for 44 continuous days.
On Kinmen's sandy beaches, decades-old anti-tank stakes stick out of the sand at low tide; concrete bunkers with artillery mounts point toward the mainland and pockmarked buildings bear the scars of two ill-fated attempts by communist forces to take the islands.
But Wu, the taxi driver, who is also a reservist, says despite the mainland's proximity, many feel the military threat remains distant.
"People in Kinmen have seen much worse tensions in the past," he said.
"There are people who are nervous, but there are also people who are not nervous. Some people from China are married to locals in Kinmen."
In one of Kinmen's markets, made up of fishmongers and fruit sellers, Lin Ming-li, 71, said she believes talk of war is exaggerated.
"The closer people live near one another, the closer they become. We often say here that Xiamen and Kinmen are one big family," she said.
The islands get much of their drinking water from the mainland, which is pushing for even more interconnectedness -- including trying to build a bridge and electrical transmission lines to Kinmen.
At the same time, China's military stature has become undeniably more aggressive toward Taiwan. Almost daily, ships and aircraft from the mainland patrol on or near the median line down the Taiwan Strait.
Its military has also embarked on a major buildup featuring key components that could be used to support an amphibious assault on Taiwan, including D-Day style landing barges.
It's also expanding its fleet of civilian vessels, which could quickly be converted into troop carriers.
And a British military think-tank says it believes Russia is helping China train paratroopers and airborne assault troops.
"The types of exercises that China has done look more like a rehearsal for an invasion," said Philip Shetler-Jones of the Royal United Services Institute in London.
"China has also exhibited some capabilities that appear designed for getting heavy equipment onto the island of Taiwan. So there is really only one way of understanding that equipment, which is to do an amphibious invasion."
Still, Shetler-Jones says because a blockade or an invasion of Taiwan would require such immense resources, he believes it's unlikely the mainland's military will be ready by that reported 2027 timeframe.
"That's because they still lack certain key capabilities that you would need: the ability to move a large number of troops across the Taiwan Strait; the ability to protect the sea lanes and undersea domain from American or other attempts to disrupt an invasion."
Other analysts suggest when you add in persistent reports of dissent in the Chinese military and purges of top generals -- as well as the potentially huge hit to the economy that an invasion or attack could incur -- the timeframe gets pushed even further back.
"I don't see the possibility of war being high," said Ronan Fu, an assistant research fellow with Academia Sinica in Taipei.
"There are a lot of things domestically that Xi Jinping and the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] have to deal with," he said.
Still, Taiwan's independence-leaning government is preparing for the worst.
Last year, compulsory national service was extended from four months to a year for all young Taiwanese men.
Taiwan's defence budget is set to rise to five per cent of GDP by 2030 and during National Day celebrations earlier this month, President Lai Ching-te announced plans to build a sophisticated missile defence system, known colloquially as the "T-dome," to thwart potential attacks.
Taiwan has also invested heavily in courses to make the population more resilient in the event of war.
CBC News visited a refresher course in Taipei for reservists, where people practise firing airsoft guns to keep their shooting skills sharp.
Viola Yuan, 22, a nurse who handled the first aid part of the training, said Taiwan has lived with the threat of a military attack from the mainland for so long that it's hard to convince people to take it seriously.
Still, with China's recent aggressive posturing she says she has noticed more people coming out to the courses.
"Due to the imminent threat from [mainland China] to Taiwan, people here have come to the realization that the danger may be real, so they are gradually placing emphasis on these issues," she said.
"I've also come across, for example, young couples , young men with their girlfriends, coming here to experience [the class]."
While seizing Taiwan's main island would be an immense military undertaking, taking over the Kinmen islands would be relatively straightforward.
One reason why that hasn't happened already may be that the islands are a stronghold of the opposition Kuomintang party, which advocates for closer connections with mainland China.
Analysts told CBC News that Kinmen's conquest would yield little strategic advantage yet would almost certainly galvanize Taiwanese society against the mainland and give war preparations a major boost.
That's why Jerry Wu, the taxi driver and tour guide, says he believes war will not return to his home soon.
"They won't rush any move yet -- but they will keep harassing us," he said.