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Penghu

The Penghu islands (, also known as Pescadores from the Portuguese, meaning "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, Taiwan Province, Republic of China.

History

Sino-French War
First Sino-Japanese War
Cairo Declaration
China Airlines Disaster

Sub-county divisions
See also
Notes
References
External links

History

'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, the Koxinga kingdom, and the Qing Dynasty, successively.

Sino-French War

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 Magong harbour on 11 June 1885.^[2]

First Sino-Japanese War

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]

Cairo Declaration

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 (Taiwan) and the Pescadores (Penghu), shall be restored to the Republic of China."

On July 26, 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 since the Retrocession Day (October 25, 1945) as part of its Taiwan Province.

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.

China Airlines Disaster

On May 25, 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]

Sub-county divisions

Subdivision of Penghu County

Magong City (???) (Heaven Queen City)
Huxi Township (???) (Lake West Township)
Baisha Township (???) (White Sand Township)
Xiyu Township (???) (Fisherman Township)
Qimei Township (???) (Seven Beauties Township)
Wang'an Township (???) (Hope Township)

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 Republic of China and is called the Penghu Trans-Oceanic Bridge (?????? Peng Hu Kua Hai Da Qiao).