| Penghu County 澎湖縣 Abbreviation(s): Penghu (澎湖) |
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| County seat | Magong City |
| Region | Taiwan Strait |
| County Magistrate | Chien-fa Wang (王乾發) |
| Cities | 1 |
| Townships | 5 |
| Area | |
| - Total | 141.052 km² (22 of 25) |
| - % water | 0 % |
| Population | |
| - Total | 93,446 (January 2009) (23 of 25) |
| - Density | 662.49/km² |
| Symbols | |
| - County flower | Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella) |
| - County tree | Chinese Banyan (Ficus microcarpa) |
| - County bird | Small Skylark (Alauda gulgula) |
| Official websites | www.penghu.gov.tw |
| Penghu | |||||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 澎湖群島 | ||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 澎湖群岛 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Literal meaning | fishermen | ||||||||||||||||
The Penghu Islands, also known as Pescadores (from Portuguese: "fishermen") are an archipelago off the western coast of Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait consisting of 90 small islands and islets covering an area of 141 square kilometers.
The whole archipelago forms Penghu County of Taiwan, the archipelago along with the island of Taiwan, composed the former Japanese territory of Formosa.
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Peng-hu was first recorded in unofficial historical records and regional logs in 1171 during the Southern Song Dynasty.[1] From the middle of the 17th century to 1895, Taiwan and the archipelago were ruled by pirates, the colonial Dutch Empire (attempts at conquest from 1622 onward), the Koxinga kingdom (Tungning), and the Qing Dynasty, successively.
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.[2]
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.[3]
In the Second Sino-Japanese War, Mako (Makung) was a major base for the Imperial Japanese Navy and embarkation point for the invasion of the Philippines.
In the Cairo Declaration of 1943, the United States, 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, Japan renounced sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu but left their final disposition unsettled. The archipelago has been administered by the Republic of China.
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, Taiwan 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.[4]
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 (their own respective) "Taiwan Province" (Taiwan Province, Republic of China and Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China). However, geographically, the island of Taiwan does not include Penghu, although it is closer to Taiwan than the mainland. Thus Penghu is listed separately from "Taiwan" in some contexts, e.g. the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu (the official WTO name for the Republic of China); in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Cairo Declaration, and the Treaty of San Francisco (see above); and in the introduction to the Republic of China article.
| Name (Hanyu Pinyin) | Hanzi | Wade-Giles | Tongyong Pinyin | Hanyu Pinyin | Taiwanese (POJ) | Hakka Pha̍k-fa-sṳ | Literal meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City | |||||||
| Magong City | 馬公市 | Ma-kung | Magong | Mǎgōng | Má-keng | Mâ-kûng | originally Matsu Palace |
| Rural township | |||||||
| Huxi Township | 湖西鄉 | Hu-hsi | Husi | Húxī | Ô͘-sai | Fù-sî | Lake West / West of Penghu |
| Baisha Township | 白沙鄉 | Pai-sha | Baisha | Báishā | Pe̍h-soa | Pha̍k-sâ | White Sand |
| Xiyu Township | 西嶼鄉 | Hsi-yü | Siyu | Xīyǔ | Sai-sū | Sî-yí | Western Isle |
| Qimei Township | 七美鄉 | Ch'i-mei | Cimei | Qīmei | Chhit-bí | Tshit-mî | Seven Beauties |
| Wang'an Township | 望安鄉 | Wang-an | Wang-an | Wàng'ān | Bāng-oaⁿ | Mong-ôn | Hope Safe |
Altogether, there are 97 villages.
The main islands of Magong City/Husi Township, Baisha Township, and Siyu Township are the three most populous islands and are connected via bridges. Two shorter bridges connect Husi and Baisha. The bridge connecting Baisha and Siyu is the longest bridge in the Republic of China and is called the Penghu Trans-Oceanic Bridge (澎湖跨海大橋 Peng Hu Kua Hai Da Qiao).
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