From the air they look a bit like leaves scattered by the wind on the surface of the sea. These are the islands of the Pescadores or Penghu group in the Straits of Taiwan between the Republic of China's island province of Taiwan and the China mainland. There are 64 of them, varying greatly in size and colored green, gold or brown, depel1ding on the season. The larger ones are veined with the black of roads and stone walls.
The Penghu archipelago lies astride the Tropic of Cancer separating the North Temperate and the Tropic zones. The 64 islands provide only 50 square miles of land but are spread out over 500 square miles of the Straits. Forty-three are in habited. More than three-fourths of the population of 120,000 lives on the largest island of Penghu and three nearby neighbors connected by bridges and causeways.
The way the wind blows at times, especially in late fall, winter and early spring, one may feel the islands were actually scattered on the sea like leaves. For centuries the Penghu have been used as stepping stones by would-be Taiwan invaders and by pirates preying on shipping off the China coast. Today they are an important link in the Republic of China's defense system and sentinels watching over the Taiwan Straits. Islands and people also make important contributions to the free Chinese economy.
Pescadores is the name given the archipelago by Portuguese navigators. It means "fishermen." The Chinese name of Penghu means "coral" Boats operating out of Pescadores ports bring in large quantities of seafood. And in waters off Penghu shores is found some of the world's most beautiful coral.
To pay a visit to the islands, my wife, Elinor, and I bought a "package" deal from Zion Tours of Taipei. Several other travel agencies make similar offers. A group tour has advantages as well as disadvantages. The price is often lower than you would pay going individually. More attractions may be seen in a brief time. We paid NT$1,600 each (US$41.89) for three days. This included round-trip travel by air-conditioned bus from Taipei to Kaohsiung near the southern end of Taiwan; ferry transportation from Kaohsiung to the islands; return by plane to Kaohsiung; hotel accommodations at Kaohsiung and Makung, the main island town; a bus tour of the four bridge linked islands; and all meals. Our party included a friend, Prof. Josephine Chen of the College of Chinese Culture faculty, and her son and daughter, David and Agnes.
The travel agency found itself unable to deliver one part of the promised package - the trip by sea from Kaohsiung to Makung aboard the ferryboat Tai Peng. We had reservations but were "bumped" by an overseas student tour with a higher priority. So we traveled to and from the islands by plane but were given some added sightseeing in the Kaohsiung area.
The boat trip is understandably popular in the summer. The accommodations are good and the price is right. The 1,991-ton Tai Peng makes a round-trip voyage over the 91-mile route every day during the summer and every other day for the remainder of the year. The time is 4 1/2 hours each way. There is room for 666 persons. The one way fare is US$2.11 for deck passage to US$4.21 for a double cabin that includes a bunk. The direct airfare from Taipei to Makung is US$16.10 each way. The Kaohsiung-Makung airfare is US$9.
Coming in for a landing at Makung Airport, we had the impression of a bleak and barren landscape, although we could see many fields marked off into cultivated squares. Actually, this impression of barrenness is not quite correct. There is much of interest to be seen along island roads.
Trees are few. More are being planted as rapidly as possible by military work crews and the people. Island nurseries are growing the stock of such species as tamarisks and Australian long-leafed pines, both of which thrive in the Penghu climate. But it will be a long time before results can be compared with those of Kinmen, the small island fortress just off the China mainland coast that we visited earlier. The planting of more than 75 million trees in the last quarter century has converted once-barren Kinmen into a lush green park.
The islands that make up Taiwan province's Penghu county have one tree that is a conversation piece. It is a banyan - the tree that spreads out and keeps spreading. This one is near a beach on the island of Paisha (White Sand Island). As the story goes, it was washed ashore from a wrecked ship nearly 300 years ago and planted by the islanders. The banyan thrived and spread. Branches touching the ground took root. Today there are 28 separate trunks. Leafy boughs seem woven together to form a dense shade overhead. The tree covers more than half an acre and attracts admiration and interest. Reference to the tree as "sacred" seems to have no particular basis except for age and size. However, a Buddhist temple about as old as the banyan stands just behind the tree.
There are some 240 large and small temples in the Pescadores. The men who go down to the sea in ships to seek their living are aware of the danger as well as the bounty. Most tillers of island soil are also part-time fishermen. They and their families often turn to the Heavens for help. We saw a number of crosses marking Christian churches. The proportion of Christianity is said to be about the same as in Taiwan - around five per cent, evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants.
One of the largest and most distinctive temples is Wai-An. It stands against a Hsiyu (East) Island hillside overlooking the sea and a harbor dotted with fishing boats. Coming down the hill at the rear, we were just above the curved roof with its gold-colored tiles and elaborate colored glass representations of dragons, phoenixes, flowers and birds. As we left the temple, descending steps to the dock, women were selling products of the sea, many of them dried. We bought small packages of dried shrimp and crabmeat. Some members of our party bought and carried along with them plastic-wrapped, flattened dried fish three feet long and a foot wide.
On Penghu Island we saw the oldest temple in Taiwan province built in honor of Matsu, the Goddess of the Sea and patroness of Far Eastern fishermen. It dates to 1624. Not far away is the Goddess of Mercy Pavilion, which is much newer but attracts many pilgrims. It was built in 1885. A temple honoring Confucius was built in 1767.
We regretted missing (because it is on one of the smaller, outer islands) the Tomb of the Seven Virgins. During the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644) Japanese pirates often raided the Pescadores to seize and carry off pretty women. During one such raid, seven young women chose to save their virtue rather than their lives. They jumped into a well and were drowned. Shortly thereafter a beautiful tree (amaphalis yedoensis) with seven branches grew out of the ground close to where the seven virgins were buried. The tree flourishes there to this day. Beside it is a stone marker commemorating the deed of seven virgins on Seven Beauties Island.
Pirates visited the Pescadores Islands in earliest historical times. The first settlers came from Fukien province about the beginning of the Ming dynasty. Many later migrated eastward to Taiwan, which offered greater resources. Naval operations by Admiral Yu Ta-yeau cleared the last of the pirates from the Pescadores in 1564. Regular mainland trade with the islands began at that time.
The flagship of Admiral Van Warwijk of the Netherlands, en route to attack the Portuguese colony of Macao on the mainland near present-day Hongkong in 1603, put into the Pescadores to escape a storm. The admiral was impressed by the strategic location of the islands. Twenty-one years later, in 1624, the Dutch returned to build a fort and add both the Pescadores and Taiwan to the Dutch East Indies.
Cheng Ch' eng-kung, the Chinese soldier-hero known in the West as Koxinga, mounted an offensive from Fukien, Kinmen and the Pescadores that drove the Dutch from Taiwan in 1662. His premature death at 39' ended his attempt to make Taiwan into a base for an attempt to oust the Manchurian conquerors of the mainland and reestablish the Ming dynasty.
France briefly held the Pescadores and a foot hold in northern Taiwan during a dispute with the government of the Ch'ing dynasty over the boundary between China and French Indo-China in the 1880s. Admiral Courbet, impressed with the location of the Pescadores, urged his government to establish a permanent naval base there. But the French withdrew from both the Straits and from Taiwan under a treaty signed in June,1885.
Both the Pescadores and Taiwan became Japanese property for 50 years under the treaty that ended the Sino-Japanese war of 1895.
A chartered bus was waiting for our group when we alighted from the Far Eastern Transport plane at Makung Airport. Our first stop was Lintou Park, a beautiful beach on Penghu Island. Many trees have been planted. There are refreshment stands in the shade - and many vendors of coral and seashells in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors, as well as of beads and other novelties made from shells. We bought as much as we wanted to carry at prices which seemed reasonable. It is possible to pick up shells and sea-worn pieces of coral on Pescadores beaches but a visitor needs to get out early and move fast to beat the local beachcombers.
Penghu fishermen hunt valuable coral as well as fish and hope to develop the cultivation of pearls. (File photo)
The best coral - rock-like formations built up over the centuries by the remains of billions of tiny insect-like sea creatures is found in deep-water beds off several of the islands. No really satisfactory method of harvesting coral has been developed. Strong currents and the depths make the waters too hazardous for divers. An attempt to gather coral with a small submarine proved impractical.
The usual system of Pescadores fishermen, who hunt coral as a sideline, is to lower large stones tied to the ends of long ropes. The boat drags the stones across the coral beds. The stones are then hauled in and a fishing net is dragged across the coral. Some of the pieces broken loose by the stones are caught in the net.
White coral is the most common. The colored variety is more valuable. Pink coral is the most highly prized with red coral ranking second. Whole coral "trees" are the prizes and of this unique sea harvest. Value increases with the size and number of branches. Fishermen of Penghu are now experimenting with pearl culture. The area abounds in pearl oysters and the water is free of the pollution that is ruining the Japanese cultivation of pearls. One pearl may be worth as much as US$250.
The islands of the Pescadores archipelago were raised from flows of liquid basalt rock beneath the surface of the sea millions of years ago. Erosion and weathering made the soil. The isles are low-lying. The highest point has an altitude of less than 500 feet.
Part of the scenic appeal of the islands is in the way the black basalt has been used to build windbreaks. No other material was at first available to protect crops, people and animals against the strong prevailing winds. Some of the rock fences are over five feet high. Some have partially fallen into rubble.
Rock also was used in building most of the earlier island houses. Some appear to be several hundred years old.
Because of their geographical location and their low elevation, the Pescadores Islands receive less rainfall than any other area in Taiwan province from 16 to 40 inches a year. The Taipei area gets about 100 inches a year and some other parts of Taiwan much more than that. Cultivation-of crops requiring large amounts of water - rice, for example - would be impossible in the Pescadores. But there is a considerable production of crops not requiring much water and growing low enough or being tough enough to survive the wind.
Peanuts do well. Many shops offer peanut candies as specialties. The islands also produce sweet potatoes and cantaloupes. Kaoliang, a tasseled sorghum cane plant that bends unharmed with the wind, contributes to the Taiwan manufacture of Kaoliang "wine," a potent distilled product which foreigners call "liquid dynamite."
There is some raising of livestock. Cattle, sheep and goats are pastured on the grassy hills.
The Pescadores have no rivers. All fresh water comes from wells - some of them as deep as 500 feet. Islanders like to boast that their water is the best in Taiwan province. The winds make the islands ideal for windmills. Some of them provide household power in addition to pumping water.
When President Chiang Kai-shek visited the Pescadores in 1964, he remarked that the most obvious need was better transportation by way of bridges connecting the most populous islands. The result was a remarkable feat of engineering. A major stop of every sightseeing bus tour is the archway over the end of the inter-island bridge. It is the longest of its kind in the Far East and has been featured in a series of pictorial postage stamps.
Work on the bridge started in 1965 and continued for 5 1/2 years. A causeway connects the largest island of Penghu with the islet of Chungtun. It has one-way traffic controlled by automatic lights. A second one-way causeway connects Chungtun to Paisha.
The main bridge and biggest project connects Paisha and Hsiyu. A crew of about 200 men worked on this bridge. Strong winds and currents made it impossible to work more than seven months a year. Currents were so powerful that at times only two hours a day could be devoted to building forms and pouring cement for the piers. President Chiang visited the site five times during the course of construction.
Foundations for the piers of the 76 arches of the Paisha-Hsiyu bridge are dried an average of 3 meters (about 10 feet) into the seabed. Where stress is greatest, drilling goes down 13 meters (about 42 feet). The tallest pier from base to bridge level is 23 meters (about 77 feet), sufficient to clear fishing boat traffic. The main bridge is 2,160 meters long (about a mile and a half). It has passing zones at intervals of 200 to 300 meters and can handle two-way traffic moving with caution.
Aware that for centuries the Pescadores have been important to the defense of Taiwan, the ministry of defense specified that all spans be strong enough to support a 35-ton tank.
Many Penghu workers - on streets and roads and performing such tasks as carrying building materials and unloading fishing boats - are women. But we could not tell whether they were pretty or even guess their ages. Although the weather was warm, they were covered completely - from broad-brimmed bamboo leaf hats to gloves and shoes. Their faces were shielded by opaque veils except for the eye holes. They couldn't have been too old, considering the strength required for the work they were doing. The coverings are in fact intended to preserve the loveliness that is the heritage of most Chinese women. Veils and other coverings afford protection against the effects of hot sun and dry winds on complexions. Skin would otherwise be turned to leather.
Waters off the Pescadores teem with fish of many varieties. This is an area where the warm waters of the Japanese Current meet the colder China coastal waters. Hundreds of small fishing boats operating out of island ports bring in good catches. Each evening loaded boats gain the piers on either side of the large fishing terminal at Makung Harbor. Unloading of the boats is marked by much shouting and seeming confusion. Actually, there is much order in all this chaos. You have to get up early to catch the action, which begins at daylight. Most of the fish go to Taiwan for retail sale or processing.
The town of Makung is a combination of old and new. Some buildings are ancient and old streets are only four feet wide. Walking these thoroughfares, one doesn't have to worry about automobiles. Even on wider streets, pedestrians need not stick to sidewalks while strolling around town. With only a few miles of road on the four connected islands, there are relatively few cars and trucks. Bicycles and motorbikes are more common.
Makung has several hotels, none of them in the luxury class. The Bethel, which was included in our package deal, is small, but neat and clean. Makung restaurants offer seafood in infinite variety. We found it helpful to be accompanied by Chinese-speaking friends, although people who understand and speak some English can be found almost everywhere. Foreign visitors to the islands are not numerous. If the weather is clear - as it frequently is - sunsets are gorgeous.
Ocean fishing continues to be the major industry. Edible shellfish and other sea creatures are also found along the shores. "Farming" of the sea is becoming increasingly profitable. Shoals and lagoons are being turned into beds for clams and oysters and for growing a purple seaweed rich in iodine and much liked by Oriental peoples. Laver is used to wrap the Japanese delicacy known as sushi.
The Penghu county government maintains three experimental demonstration stations to serve sea farmers. Specialists at one station produced 480 kilograms (1,056 pounds) of laver annually from a bed of 216 square feet. At the average price, this would bring a farmer about US$1,350 a year. At another station, a clam bed of 158 square feet had an annual yield of 12,000 kilograms (26,400 pounds) of clams worth $7,000. An acre of oyster beds produced 12 metric tons of oysters worth US$10,000.
On a high point of Hsiyu Island overlooking the sea we visited a still sturdy stonework structure of many rooms called Hsitai Castle. It is a fort built to strengthen the defenses of the Pescadores and of Taiwan during the Ch'ing dynasty, Imperial China's last. Inside are four big rust covered cannon of the 17th century.
The old fort is now inhabited only by ghosts.The shouts of youthful visitors echo eerily through the empty rooms and corridors. Once it was a busy place, according to a Chinese inscription at the entrance, with some 5,000 troops stationed there at the time of the 1895 war between China and Japan.
According to a translation of this text:
"The construction of Hsitai Castle started in 1889 under the charge of Li Hung-chang, a high ranking official of the Ch'ing dynasty. More than 10,000 laborers took part. The castle was completed after nearly two years of hard labor."
Many Chinese marines were stationed at the castle. They received training in seamanship aboard vessels in the sea nearby.
Although the castle-fort was planned as an important link in the defenses of the Pescadores and Taiwan, it seems to have been of little if any use in the war with Japan. Today the place is deserted, remote and lonely, the relic of a bygone time. The headquarters of the Chinese forces defending the Penghu is at Makung in another fort that antedates the Japanese.
Near the summit of a hill near Hsitai Castle, we saw a cemetery where islanders of generations past are buried, their tombs facing the sea. This is one of many such graveyards in the Pescadores. Those who lived by the sea-and in many instances died at sea - now rest on windswept slopes within the sound of the sea.