- Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 — here we go!
- Enjoying a few days in Hong Kong
- A day in Kaohsiung and Tainan, Taiwan
- A quick trip to the Penghu Islands
- Two Days in Taipei, Taiwan
- Naha, Okinawa
- Two days in Beijing
- Two days in Incheon and Seoul, South Korea
- Jeju Island, Korea
- Busan, Korea in a day!
- Nagasaki, Japan
- Arita, Japan
- Miyajima and Hiroshima, Japan
- Kyoto’s Bamboo Forest and Rock Garden
- Matsushima, Japan
- Hakadote, Japan
- Kushiro, Japan
- Dutch Harbor….er, Unalaska, Alaska
- Kodiak, AK
- Homer, AK
- Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, AK
- Sitka, AK
- Klawock and Craig, AK
- A Nanaimo, BC, Canada drive by
- Vancouver BC, end of trip, and final thoughts
Okay, how many of you have ever heard of the Penghu Islands? Neither had I, but being from an island in the middle of a massive archipelago, I wanted to see these islands. The archipelago here contains 90 islands, with the main island called Magong with a population of less than 65,000. Similar to the San Juan Islands, the four main islands make up three townships with Magong being more or less the County seat. Unlike the San Juan Islands, Magong is connected to the three other islands by bridges (gasp — you will never see that in the San Juans!). Having been ruled by both China and Japan, the culture, architecture, etc. here seems very mixed (read: eclectic).
The first thing that we saw coming into town was the old city wall. It was the last defensive structure built built during the Qing Dynasty. The wall has six gates that provide excellent views of the port. Beyond the wall, there is a lot of hustle and bustle in the downtown area and the juxtaposition between the new and old is striking. There is a lot of new construction going on in the area as the government here has decided to move beyond their traditional fishing economy to add a strong tourism segment. We immediately headed to the south on the main island to stop in the fishing village of Fongguei. There is a lot of basalt in the area and the constant battering they have taken over the years have eroded a long, narrow cave in the rocks. When large waves from the southeast hit them, it creates a blowhole with accompanying whistling sound. We climbed down the rocks to see the cave, but with no big waves, we saw no action. The local temple there was built after several fishermen died. It is truly beautiful and ornate — not sure what impact it has had on the fisherman mortality index.
From there we went to Shi Li Beach, a lovely sandy beach and little village next to it. Some of our fellow travelers jumped into the water, but it was colder than I thought (around 75 degrees), so we did a bit of wading and Deb collected shells. We also sampled some of the local delicacies, including cuttlefish balls and cakes and milk pudding with cactus topping (I think it is like prickly pear). I wandered down and saw the two pagodas and mini temple by the beach. It’s there that I saw something interesting — there was a burner in the mini temple and a woman was lighting something on fire there. It turns out that people burn money there as an offering when they either need or are thankful for something. Burn money you say (I sure did)!? It turns out that you buy some fake money that you burn. But if you have to pay real money for the fake money, you still are burning money. Anyway, I don’t claim to understand these things.
From there, we headed back to visit the old part of the city and Zhongyang Street. It is the oldest street in Penghu and dates back to the Ming Dynasty which is evidenced by the architecture (e.g., red brick walls and doors, decorated windows). We enjoyed walking around the narrow alleyways, looking into the various shops and learning the history of the area. In addition to burning money, it turns out that bathing and/or drinking from a particular well in the area would bring health. In fact, babies would be washed with the water to ensure a long life. We also stopped by a cake shop where we tried a local cactus cake that is actually a stack of crepes with cream in between with the cactus jelly topping. Yum! We also wandered around a local art gallery to see some of the artisans working.
We thoroughly enjoyed our guide, Sandi. She was very knowledgeable and a lot of fun. We are now off to Keelung, gateway to Taipei!
This entry was posted in Cruising, Penghu Islands, Travel