Finally Penghu
I have heard so much about Penghu over the years from my friends and many suggested a visit to Penghu while in Taiwan is a must. Fresh seafood always come up in the conversation. Almost had an opportunity to visit Penghu a few years ago when a friend invited us while we were in Hualien for Jonathan’s wedding. Unfortunately, our tight schedule didn’t permit it. When talking discussing Taiwan with friends and relatives, Penghu and Kinmen are always brought up for one reason or another. Both are islands off the coast of Taiwan. My interest in Penghu is different from most people, I love to fish and fishing the Penghu area water would offer me a different kind of experience than the one I am accustomed to in Southern California.
Up until now, Penghu is just a remote island somewhere of the coast of Taiwan. I visualized Penghu as just a small piece of land protruding in the water with a small fishing community living an idyllic life. So I was excited when I found out that I will be able to make the trip to Penghu. Since Chanel was the one planning the trip, I did not want to imposed on her that I would like to go fishing if possible, but I mentioned it to Claudia to inquire about it. We did asked our Taiwanese friends and relatives about fishing in Penghu, but it sounded foreign to everyone. While under quarantine and having time to kill, I googled for Penghu to get a head start on what to expect and of course find out if there is and recreational fishing charters on the island. It
Penghu, to my surprise is a name for an archipelagoes of about 90 islands and islets located in the Taiwan Straits. It is not a small piece of “dirt” protruding in the sea. The largest island is Magong where the main city also called Magong or 馬公市. It is also the county seat for Penghu county. Penghu has a long history that dated back to the Tang dynasty and inhabited since the Song dynasty at least, which is almost 1000 years ago. It was last occupied by Japan after first Sino-Japanese War, or rather ceded to Japan. Japan interest in Penghu is due to its geographic location in the Taiwan Straits and its natural harbor.
Unfortunately, due to our schedule, we could only spend “3” days in Penghu and if you take away the 2 travel days, we have just one full day in Penghu. Ideally, you need about 3-5 full days if you plan on exploring what Penghu archipelago has to offer. With just one day, we are resigned to spend it like a typical tourist, riding the “bus/van” around the main island and snapping photos. Due to my initial perception of Penghu as being a single small island, I was surprised to see the numbers of big touring buses all over the Magong area which is the base for all visitors with its many hotels for all budget. Wonder how those buses and the many cars get on the island? Found the answer, thanks to the Tour guide. That ship is the answer.
Our day started after breakfast at the hotel when the tour guide picked us
up and headed to the first destination for all tourist in Penghu, the Great Bridge aka Trans-Ocean bridge. This bridge connect two islands and was rebuilt after the original bridge collapsed. These two island and the main island Magong form an “inner sea” as the local called it and if you drive across the Great Bridge, you will see the foamy white wave breaking the top to the west and the calm water to the east. This is a must stop for photo ops as many of the photos in the Penghu Photo 2022 gallery are taken. We are fortunate that the weather was beautiful and sunny. The ocean breeze was a nice and refreshing. The Great Bridge is sort of a gateway to Penghu tour. We spent the greater part of the day on Siyu Island. From the Great Bridge, we were driven to the famous Dagouye Columnar basalt in Pengu Marine park. If you search the internet, you will probably see this with a pool of water in the front like this one below right. Well, just my luck, this is not a rainy season and i got this (on the left). The pic below right, that is a facial expression when you realized there is no water below and you are in for a hard landing 🙂 It was still an experience being there in person to see the actual Daguoye Columnar Basalt.
After a tiring morning doing photo ops, we headed to a popular local restaurant for lunch and it was crowded with other tourists. Luckily we had “reservation”, this place served fresh seafood harvested locally and you can really taste the freshness in them. One of their specialty is the Shrimp, either deep fried with batter like those you fine in a Japanese restaurant (that’s where the similarity ends) or steamed. We chose the deep fried with batter and it is one of tastier fried shrimp i have ever had. These shrimp are large about 6 inches in length headless. I noticed every tables ordered them and there is one rule at this restaurant, you place you order once, no reordering. Also only one shrimp per person. We did tried ordering more but no luck.
After lunch we tour the area around Siyu including their old town village whose century old houses were converted into retail/residence building retaining their original structures. Funny thing I am sure some of you will experience taking “so much” photos during your travel is coming home and realizing that you didn’t actually take much photo worth showing :). At least that’s my experience – “Is that all, thought I took more that these?” I have posted more photos under Photography section Penghu Photos 2022 (<– click on this link or down below at the end of this article).
After a long day in the windy but humid weather, we headed out for dinner on the way back. Our tour guide had recommend this seafood restaurant for it’s no menu dishes. It was priced at NT$1,000. For the price, it sounded intriguing. Surprisingly, we were the only tables there even though we arrived early, but by the time we left, there were no other customers?? We were serve the following items: Steamed local crab, Sea urchin on steamed egg in sea urchin shell, lobster in rice soup, abalone in herbal chicken soup, fried shrimp topped with saute garlic, ginger, scallion. Below are a sampling of what we had.
We spent our travel day hanging around Magong area, had lunch at the Discovery Hotel and doing some last minute duty free shopping. We didn’t know that Penghu is a duty free zone.
For a pictorial tour of Penghu please visit below link
