The Penghu Archipelago

Stone fish trap on Jibei Island

All the accessible islands of the Penghu archipelago are described in detail on pages 17-61.

I dunno…. After two trips (seperated by a decade), I’m not sure how much I really like Penghu.     I still have a love-hate relationship with Taiwan’s largest set of offshore islands. For sure, Penghu looks wonderful in photos (as I hope my attempts here go some way to showing), and there’s no doubt about it, Penghu is an amazing place. I just wish its development had been handled with a bit more sensitivity.    The islands are a disconcerting mixture of strange beauty and thoughtless ugliness. Much of the culture for which they are famous has gone or has been heavily diluted in the understandable rush to make money on tourist custom from Taiwan. Two villages of traditional  houses remain (one each on Xiyu and Wangan islands) but the houses are moldering away after decades of neglect which is only now starting to be addressed. The coral walls which once protected farmers fields from the strong winds that sweep across the islands for half the year are largely gone in most places (although they survive fairly intact on little Xiamen Island), replaced with the kind of ugly, utterly functional kind of architecture familiar from Taiwan itself. Unsightly flotsom (such as polystyrene and empty plastic bottles), dropped overboard from ships in the Taiwan Straits washes onto the sand or shingle beaches of pictursque coves all over the archipelago.   Despite the photos gracing the tourist literature for the islands, Penghu is a very far cry from the rustic calm and unspoilt beauty of Lanyu or Matsu.

OK, perhaps we’re off to a bad start here; the often thoughtless development of the islands  disappointed me on both my visits, and it’ll  never be one of my favorite areas of Taiwan, but there’s plenty to see and do here, lots of beautiful corners, some fascinating cultural and culinery gems, and plenty of scope for the curious to get off the tourist routes and explore, which makes Penghu thoroughly worth three or four days of anyone’s time.

Forget the dull interior – the best of Penghu by far lies along the coastline of its 60-plus islands.      Penghu is justly famous for its glorious beaches. Kenting doesn’t stand a chance  – Penghu has far and away the best in Taiwan. I’m not really one for laying on the sand, but the long sand spit on Jibei island, the beaches of the southern and southeastern coast of the ‘main’ island (actually a string of islands strung together by a series of bridges), the magnificent long stretch of golden sands on the southern Wangan Island, and several small but enchanting coves on various other islands are really very, very nice.

   For more curious visitors, the extraordinary basalt cliffs that line the coastline of many of the islands offer almost endless opportunities for exploring. The Penghu coastline, at its best, is extremely beautiful, and second only among Taiwan’s outlying islands to beautiful Matsu, Green Island and Lanyu. In many places the volcanic basalt that makes up all but one of the Penghu group has cooled into cliffs of countless ‘columns,’ a striking formation that in Taiwan is found only here. The formations of Yuanbei, Bird Island, Tongpan and Hujing are probably the most impressive among the more accessible islands of the archipelago, but there are also a few fascinating areas on the main island.

    The island clifftops are often colonized by short, cropped grass or low-growing scrub, and there are countless bracing clifftop walks, with glimpses of dramatic cliffs of basalt columns and strange formations with names such as the Skirt Rock or the Ink Stone (both on beautiful, quiet Yuanbei island). The best view of some of the most impressive coastline around the islands is from one of the tourist boats that run daily sightseeing/water-sport daytrips around the so-called Northern and Eastern Seas in season, but in many places  the scenery can be easily seen from the clifftop above, and it’s possible to climb down safely in some places.

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So, that’s my impression of Penghu, after a pair of visits and seven days exploring twelve of the 64 islands in the chain. It’s probably not an idea shared by most who come, and I’ll be the first to admit there’s lots to enjoy here, and some wonderful scenery to boot. Try, however, to get away from the main islands and explore some of the smaller islets. Personal favorites are Yuanbei, Tongpan and the stunning east coast of Qimei, but for the adventurous there’s scope getting further off the beaten track (Hua Island, for instance, served by just three public ferries weekly).  Penghu, for all it’s failings, is the best place in Taiwan for an island hopping holiday. I’ll be back next year, and with another fifty odd islands left to explore, there’s still plenty left to discover!

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Beautiful coastal scenery on Yuanbei island

The scary precipice at Xilong Cave, the finest natural feature on Wangan Island, is often missed by visitors to nearby Mt Tiantai, which at 54 meters one of the highest hills on Penghu

Flowering prickly pear cacti are very common on Penghu, giving the landscape a very distinctive look

The Skirt Rock on Yuanbei Island

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A cove on Bird Island

The 800 meter-long sand spit at Jibei is remarkably unspoilt, considering one of Penghu’s most popular water sports sites is just up the beach

Close-up of the basalt columns that make up the Stone Inkslab, Yuanbei Island

Yueli Bay Beach on QImei Island

The rock formations at Fenggui, on the southwestern tip of the main island, are a famous and popular sight in Penghu; unfortunately, the area is backed by an ugly village, the houses coming right up to the edge of the rocks, which these days only look really good from sea level, as seen here

Wangankou Beach (an important egg-laying site for green turtles), on Wangan Island

Chixi basalt columns

Tiny Xiagang cove, on Qimei Island

The amazing basalt column cliffs on Tongpan Island, although not tall, are among the most famous in the archipelago

The Skirt Rock, Yuanbei Island