The Penghu or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 64 islands and islets in
the Taiwan Strait between China and Taiwan. The largest city is Magong,
located on the largest island, which is also named Penghu. Covering an area of
141 square kilometers, the archipelago collectively forms Penghu County of
Taiwan. It is the second smallest county in the country after Lienchiang.
Name The traditional English name of the
islands, the Pescadores, comes from the Portuguese name Ilhas dos Pescadores.
The Portuguese pronunciation is [pɨʃkɐˈðoɾɨʃ] but, in English, it is
typically closer to or . The islands have also been called Pehoe.
Pescadores was also the name given by the Spanish expedition of Hernando de
Grijalva in 1537 to the Micronesian atoll Kapingamarangi.
History Finds of fine red cord-marked pottery
indicate that Penghu was visited by people from southwestern Taiwan around
5,000 years ago, though not settled permanently.
Han Chinese from southern Fujian began to establish fishing communities on the
islands in the 9th and 10th centuries, and representatives were intermittently
stationed there by the Southern Song and Yuan governments from around 1170.
The islands are described in some detail in Wang Dayuan's Dao Yi Zhi Lue.
= Ming dynasty = In the 15th century, the Ming ordered
the evacuation of the islands as part of their maritime ban. When these
restrictions were removed in the late 16th century, fishing communities were
re-established on the islands, giving rise to its Portuguese and then English
name. The Ming established a military presence in 1603, repelling a Dutch
attempt to establish a base on the islands in 1622.
Ming-Dutch War The Dutch East India Company tried to
use military force to make China open up a port in Fujian to trade and demanded
that China expel the Portuguese from Macau, whom the Dutch were fighting in
the Dutch–Portuguese War. The Dutch raided Chinese shipping after 1618 and
took junks hostage in an unsuccessful attempt to get China to meet their
demands. The Dutch were defeated by the
Portuguese at the Battle of Macau in 1622. That same year, the Dutch seized
Penghu, built a fort there, and continued to demand that China open up
ports in Fujian to Dutch trade. China refused, with the Chinese Governor of
Fujian Shang Zhouzuo demanding that the Dutch withdraw from the Pescadores to
Formosa, where the Chinese would permit them to engage in trade. This led to a
war between the Dutch and China between 1622 and 1624 which ended with the
Chinese being successful in making the Dutch withdraw to Taiwan and abandoning
Pescadores. The Dutch threatened that China would face Dutch raids on Chinese
ports and shipping unless the Chinese allowed trading on Penghu and that China
not trade with Manila but only with the Dutch in Batavia and Siam and Cambodia.
China wasn't persuaded by these threats. After Shang ordered them to withdraw to
Taiwan on September 19 of 1622, the Dutch raided Xiamen on October and
November. The Dutch intended to "induce the Chinese to trade by force or from
fear" by raiding Fujian and Chinese shipping from the Pescadores. Long
artillery batteries were erected at Amoy in March 1622 by Colonel Li-kung-hwa as
a defence against the Dutch. On the Dutch attempt in 1623 to force
China to open up a port, five Dutch ships were sent to Liu-ao and the
mission ended in failure for the Dutch, with a number of Dutch sailors taken
prisoner and one of their ships lost. In response to the Dutch using captured
Chinese for forced labor and strengthening their garrison in Penghu
with five more ships in addition to the six already there, the new Governor of
Fujian Nan Juyi was permitted by China to begin preparations to attack the
Dutch forces in July 1623. A Dutch raid was defeated by the Chinese at Amoy on
October 1623, with the Chinese taking the Dutch commander Christian Francs
prisoner and burning one of the four Dutch ships. The Chinese began an
offensive on February 1624 with warships and troops against the Dutch in Penghu
with the intent of expelling them. The Chinese offensive reached the Dutch fort
on July 30, 1624, with 5,000 Chinese troops and 40-50 warships under General
Wang Mengxiong surrounding the fort commanded by Marten Sonck, and the Dutch
were forced to sue for peace on August 3 and folded before the Chinese demands,
withdrawing from Penghu to Taiwan. The Dutch admitted that their attempt at
military force to coerce China into trading with them had failed with their
defeat in Penghu. At the Chinese victory celebrations over the "red-haired
barbarians", as the Dutch were called by the Chinese, Nan Juyi paraded twelve
Dutch soldiers who were captured before the Emperor in Beijing. The Dutch did
not expect the subsequent Chinese attack on their fort in Penghu since they
thought of them as timid and from their experience in Southeast Asia as a
"faint-hearted troupe". After the Dutch defeat and expulsion
from the Pescadores in the 1622–1624, they were totally driven off China's
coast when they were decisively defeated by Chinese forces under Admiral Zheng
Zhilong at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay in 1633 and then in 1662 they were defeated
and driven off Taiwan at the Siege of Fort Zeelandia by Chinese forces under
Zheng Chenggong. = Qing dynasty =
For a period in the mid-17th century, Taiwan and the archipelago were ruled by
the Koxinga kingdom, which was overthrown by the Qing dynasty in 1683
after the Battle of Penghu. The Penghu archipelago was captured by
the French in March 1885, in the closing weeks of the Sino-French War, and
evacuated four months later. The Pescadores Campaign was the last
campaign of Admiral Amédée Courbet, whose naval victories during the war had
made him a national hero in France. Courbet was among several French
soldiers and sailors who succumbed to cholera during the French occupation of
Penghu. He died aboard his flagship Bayard in Makung harbour on 11 June
1885. = Empire of Japan =
Defeated in northern China by the Japanese in the First Sino-Japanese War,
the Qing government ceded the islands to Japan along with Taiwan in the
Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki of April 1895. The Japanese suspected that
they might meet resistance when they attempted to occupy Taiwan, and their
invasion of Taiwan, hastily launched in late May 1895 in response to the
proclamation of the Republic of Formosa, was preceded by an attack on Qing forces
on Penghu in March 1895, in which the Japanese defeated the Chinese garrison
of the islands and occupied Makung. The Japanese occupation of Penghu prevented
more Chinese troops from being sent to Taiwan, persuaded the Chinese
negotiators at Shimonoseki that Japan was determined to annex Taiwan, and
helped to ensure the success of the subsequent Japanese invasion of Taiwan.
Penghu County was then called the Hōko Prefecture by the Japanese government of
Taiwan. In the Second Sino-Japanese War, Makō was a major base for the Imperial
Japanese Navy and embarkation point for the invasion of the Philippines.
= Republic of China = In the Cairo Declaration of 1943, the
United States, the United Kingdom and China stated it to be their purpose that
"all the territories that Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Formosa
and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China". On 26 July 1945,
the three governments issued the Potsdam Declaration, declaring that "the terms
of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out". In the Treaty of San
Francisco, signed in 1951 and coming into effect in 1952, Japan renounced
sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu, but left their final disposition unsettled.
The archipelago has been administered by the Republic of China since that time.
In the early 1990s, the Penghu National Scenic Area that comprises most but not
all of the islands and islets of the archipelago was created. Tourism has
since become one of the main sources of income of the county.
On 25 May 2002, China Airlines Flight 611, a Boeing 747-200 aircraft flying
from Taipei to Hong Kong, disintegrated and exploded over the Islands. The
wreckage slammed into the Taiwan Strait, a couple of miles off the coast. All 225
passengers and crew on board were killed.
Starting 1 January 2015, tourists from Mainland China can directly apply the
Exit & Entry Permit upon arrival in Penghu. This privilege also applies to
Kinmen and Matsu Islands as means to boost tourism in the outlying islands of
Taiwan. Government
Penghu County is administered by Penghu County Government headed by Magistrate
Chen Kuang-fu of the Democratic Progressive Party and headquartered at
the Penghu County Hall. = County administration =
Penghu County is divided into 1 city, 5 rural townships. It is further divided
into 97 villages. Together with Lienchiang County, Penghu County has no
urban township. The county seat is located at Magong City where it houses
the Penghu County Hall and Penghu County Council.
The main islands of Magong City/Huxi Township, Baisha Township, and Xiyu
Township are the three most populous islands and are connected via bridges.
Two shorter bridges connect Huxi and Baisha. The bridge connecting Baisha and
Xiyu is the longest bridge in the Republic of China and is called the
Penghu Trans-Oceanic Bridge. Political dispute
Despite the controversy over the political status of Taiwan, both the
Republic of China and the People's Republic of China agree that Penghu is a
county in "Taiwan Province". However, geographically, the island of Taiwan
does not include Penghu, although it is closer to Taiwan than mainland China.
Thus, Penghu is listed separately from "Taiwan" in some contexts, e.g. the
Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu in the Treaty
of Shimonoseki, the Cairo Declaration, and the Treaty of San Francisco.
Education Education-related matters in Penghu
County is administered under the Education Department of Penghu County
Government. The county houses the National Penghu University of Science
and Technology. Energy
= Electricity = Penghu is powered up by its only major
power plant, the Chienshan Power Plant, a 140 MW fuel-fired power plant
commissioned in 2001. On 24 December 2010, the Taiwan-Penghu Undersea Cable
Project of Taipower was approved by the Executive Yuan to connect the electrical
grid in Taiwan Island to Penghu. = Renewable energy =
Under a wind power development project approved in 2002 by the Executive Yuan,
the ROC government plans to set up a total of 200 wind turbines in Penghu
within 10 years. However, only 14 turbines have been set up as of 2015. On
1 October 2015, Taipower announced the construction of another 11 new wind
turbines across the island, in which 6 will be constructed in Huxi Township and
5 in Baisha Township. Tourist attractions
= Historical sites = Historical sites in the county are the
Central Street and Qimei Lighthouse. = Museums =
Museums in the county are Ocean Resources Museum and Penghu Living
Museum. = Nature =
Penghu County is boasted with many nature attractions such as Penghu
National Scenic Area, Double-Heart of Stacked Stones, Little Taiwan and Whale
Cave. Transportation
= Airport = Penghu is served by its domestic Magong
Airport built in Magong City and Qimei Airport built in Qimei Township. Both
airports were opened in 1977. See also
Administrative divisions of the Republic of China
County List of cities in the Republic of China
Penghu National Scenic Area References
= Citations = = Works cited =
Further reading Cook, Harold John. Matters of Exchange:
Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age. Yale University Press.
ISBN 0-300-13492-4. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
Deng, Gang. Maritime Sector, Institutions, and Sea Power of Premodern
China. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-30712-1. ISSN 0084-9235.
Idema, Wilt Lukas, ed.. Leyden Studies in Sinology: Papers Presented at the
Conference Held in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Sinological
Institute of Leyden University, December 8-12, 1980. Volume 15 of Sinica
Leidensia. Contributor Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden. Sinologisch instituut. BRILL.
ISBN 9789004065291. OCLC 8767304. Li, Qingxin. Maritime Silk Road.
Translated by William W. Wang. China Intercontinental Press. ISBN
9787508509327. OCLC 781420577. Parker, Edward Harper, ed.. China, Her
History, Diplomacy, and Commerce: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day.
J. Murray. LCCN 17030891. OL 6603922M. Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en
volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, Volume 145. Contributor Koninklijk
Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. M. Nijhoff. 1989. Retrieved
10 March 2014. External links
Penghu travel guide from Wikivoyage Penghu County Government
Penghu Tour Official Website 澎湖研究學術研討會 第1-8屆論文輯全球資訊網-歷屆論文
Living Museum