And than he shall be riched ſo, That it may faile nevermo

As we stepped out into the awesome half-daylight of this monstrous cylinder-bottom—fifty million years old, and without doubt the most primally ancient structure ever to meet our eyes—we saw that the ramp-traversed sides stretched dizzily up to a height of fully sixty feet.

Everywhere on the mainland the defeated KMT was forced to retreat except in the Guningtou battle (Quemoy battle) of 1949 when the KMT won a rare victory in a key battle which prevented the Communists from liberating Taiwan by force. In the same year, after taking over Xiamen and Dadeng Island, the Communist Party attempted to take over Quemoy and attack Taiwan/Penghu.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree: / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea.