????{Trip} LITTLE LIUQIU, small, but beautiful island (小琉球)
My first time on this island in southern Taiwan. It was very hot and we had fun riding scooters around the island, taking in the sight, going on a tidal zone eco exploration tour and just enjoying being there.
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Music by: Nihilore (
We stayed at:
Hao He E Minsu (好喝ㄟ民宿)
Add: No. 176, Zhongshan Rd., Benfu Village, Liuqiu Township, Pingtung County (屏東縣琉球鄉本福村中山路176號)
Tel: (08) 861-4148 / 0988-290-629
Website: (Chinese)
More info about the Little Liuqiu at:
Gear used for this video
Camera:
Panasonic Lumix GH4:
Lenses:
PANASONIC LUMIX G X Vario Lens, 12-35mm:
PANASONIC LUMIX G Vario Lens, 100-300mm:
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8:
Panasonic DMW-MS2:
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Also watch the latest video on this channel: {Trip} LALASHAN on the Northern Cross-Island Highway (北橫拉拉山)
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Travel in Taiwan (9/10, 2016)
By Rick Charette
Little Liuqiu is 25 minutes by ferry from Donggang. Just 6.8 sq. km., with just 13,000 inhabitants, it’s made almost entirely of coral and is well known for its wondrous, imaginatively named coastal formations, such as Wild Boar Trench, Vase Rock, and Black Devil Cave.
Your constant companions here will be the sounds of wind, wave, and birdsong. The island’s income has long been predominantly hauled in from the sea, with an ever-bigger catch today hauled in from tourists.
As your ferry approaches Baisha, the main town, and enters Baisha Tourist Harbor, you’ll see a large and lovely arcaded Western colonial-style building high on the slope to its right – the Little Liuqiu Visitor Center. Buy tickets for the island’s boat and glass-bottom boat tour outings here, get practical help for snorkeling experiences, etc., and enjoy the sweeping vista from the wide outdoor scenic platform.
The center is right beside the top tier of the grand, ornate Lingshan Temple, which rides up the cliffside here in three tiers. One of two key deities in this sumptuous yet dignified complex is Lady Linshui (“Lady by the Water’s Edge”), a goddess of fertility and protector of women and children. One of the resident Buddhist nuns explained to me that the goddess is important to islanders because “the men also worry so much about family when out on the sea.”
Vase Rock is right off the temple’s foot on the rocky coast. This huge chunk of exposed coral has a thin base and oversized head topped with stubborn weeds and thistles. It is the island’s most iconic coastal feature, and most photographed attraction. Many come here for the sunsets, the sun dropping down neatly between flowerpot and cliff. During daytime you’ll also see many tourist-snorkelers here; snorkeling has become a big draw in the past few years. Liuqiu’s waters offer 20 types of coral and 300 fish species.
After Vase Rock, the three most popular natural attractions are Beauty Cave, Wild Boar Trench, and Black Devil Cave, encountered in that order along the island’s west side, all beside its coastal ring highway. These are the island’s only three paid-entry tourist attractions; NT$120 gets you an all-inclusive ticket.
Beauty Cave is another forceful example of the sea’s power to erode limestone and coral. Inside/outside this seaside cave, you’re presented with an elaborate layout of side caves, grottoes, cliffs, and tidal platforms.
No, no pigs at Wild Boar Trench. What is here are narrow, twisting passageways through massive uplifted-coral crags strangled by gravity-defying cliff-hugging old banyans, and the lush jungle-like flora that thrives in Liuqiu’s harsh nutrient-starved conditions.
There are many tales about the Black Devil Cave name. Most academically sound is that the Dutch, who controlled Taiwan 1624~1662, took revenge on the dark-skinned indigenous Siraya-tribe inhabitants for killing the crews of two Dutch shipwrecks, exterminating many who were hiding in the cave, using burning oil. Today’s islanders, wary of angry spirits, still burn incense here.
The White Lighthouse, on the island’s south summit, was built during the Japanese colonial era in 1929. As well, visit the impressive nearby Century Old Banyan, taking the short path behind it to a majestic clifftop eagle-view prospect. If here toward sunset, head to the close-at-hand ocean-clifftop Sunset Pavilion, where Liuqiu’s premier sundowns are to be seen.
English and Chinese
Baisha Tourist Harbor 白沙觀光港
Black Devil Cave 烏鬼洞
Beauty Cave 美人洞
Century Old Banyan 百年老榕樹
Lingshan Temple 靈山寺
Little Liuqiu 小琉球
Little Liuqiu Visitor Center 小琉球遊客中心
Sunset Pavilion 落日亭
Vase Rock 花瓶岩
Wild Boar Trench 山豬溝
White Lighthouse 白燈塔