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Hengchun is a township located on the southern tip of the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County, Taiwan. It is the southernmost township in Taiwan. Hengchun is also the only urban township in the southern part of Pingtung County. Hengchun has a land area of and has a population of 29,702 as of February 2024.
The city of Hengchun is the entryway to Kenting National Park, the southernmost National Park in the country. With pristine beaches and a vibrant tourist industry, the Hengchun area often attracts more travelers than local residents. The city itself was once completely surrounded by a city wall; now about half of the wall remains intact, as well as the four city gates. On weekends, the streets of nearby Kenting are filled with cars and tour buses.
The 2008 Taiwanese film Cape No. 7, the top-grossing film in Taiwan's film history, features Hengchun.
The Qing viceroy Shen Baozhen noted the equitable climate during his 1875 inspection of Taiwan Island, with the area's crops staying "green and prosperous" year-round. He began calling the area Hengchun ("Always Spring") before he left, and the name has remained ever since. Under Japanese Taiwan, the area was known as Kōshun, from the Japanese pronunciation of the same name.
In response to the 1871 Mudan Incident, wherein shipwrecked sailors were massacred by the locals, Imperial Japan America's exampleundertook a punitive expedition in 1874. The Japanese landed in Longkiau Bay and pushed north from there.
Now aware of the danger of foreign interference and colonization posed by the Qing Empire's refusal to take responsibility for the actions of Taiwan's aborigines, the viceroy of Liangjiang Shen Baozhen toured Taiwan in 1875 in preparation for reform of the island's administration. He ordered attacks against the still restive tribes and began a building program in the southern half of the island which included the fortified lighthouse at Cape Eluanbi. He memorialized on behalf of building a new city in Longkiau (which he gave the more propitious Chinese name "Hengchun") to accommodate and protect foreign sailors. This request was granted: the portion of Fengshan County south of Fangliao's river became the new Hengchun County and its officials fortified a village south of the old Longkiau as their new county seat. The old location continued to be known as Longkiau..
Taiwan Prefecture originally covered the entire island as part of Fujian Province. When the island became its own province in 1887, Hengchun County formed part of Tainan Prefecture.
On December 26, 2006, a 7.0–7.2 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter off the southwest coast of Taiwan occurred (approximately 22.8 km southwest of Hengchun). It caused damage to many houses in Hengchun, including fifteen historical buildings in the historic center of the township. 恆春古城 城倒15座, UDN, Taiwan, 2006-12-27 Two casualties were reported, with many more injured. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Hengchun in one hundred years. 2 KILLED IN STRONGEST EARTHQUAKE IN HENGCHUN IN 100 YEARS , Central News Agency, Taiwan, 2006-12-27
In 2025 an astroid discovered in the area was named "Hengchun" and put on display at the Pingtung County Library.
Hengchun's spring-like climate is very much dictated by its location surrounded by the ocean, resulting in a noticeably smaller difference between the day and night temperatures than most other townships of Pingtung. Hengchun is usually cooler than other townships in the county during daytime and warmer than others during the night, especially during the winter months, when daily lows usually hovers around 18–20 degrees Celsius at Hengchun and around 15–18 at Pingtung city, while daily highs usually hovers around 24–26 degrees Celsius at the township and 25–28 at Pingtung City. Temperatures dips below 15 degrees Celsius on average once every 3 years, mostly on early mornings of January when Taiwan is affected by a cold front.
The climate is also supportive of tropical rainforests (tropical monsoon rainforest) which occupied the entire Hengchun peninsula, while palm trees and other tropical vegetation grows on the coastlines, much like the rest of Pingtung.
The Hengchun Peninsula experiences strong .
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The "Hengchun Old Town" (恆春古城) is one of the best-preserved historical towns in Taiwan with four gates intact and about half of the walls remaining. It was built during the Qing dynasty in the 1st year of the Guangxu Emperor (1875) and completed in 1879. It has a north, east, south, and west gate and the outer circumference of the moat measures 880 zhang (about ). In 1988, an actual measurement of the length was conducted, showing that the length in total amount to .
The peak season of tourism in Hengchun usually lasts from April to late October when daytime temperatures are usually hot, while the off season lasts from November to March of the following year, with the exception of the week of the Chinese New Year holiday which usually takes place during late January or February, when large amount of tourist from around the whole country, mostly from Northern Taiwan travels to Hengchun and Kenting for the peninsula's warm weather.
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