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The Penghu ( , Hokkien POJ: Phîⁿ-ô͘ or Phêⁿ-ô͘ ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and in the Taiwan Strait, about west of the main island of Taiwan across the Penghu Channel, covering an area of . The archipelago collectively forms . The largest city is Magong, on the largest island, which is also named Magong.
The Penghu islands first appear in the historical record in the Tang dynasty and were inhabited by Chinese people under the Southern Song dynasty, during which they were attached to Jinjiang County of Fujian Circuit. The archipelago was formally incorporated as an administrative unit of China in 1281 under Tong'an County of Jiangzhe Province in the Yuan dynasty. It continued to be controlled by Imperial China with brief European occupations by the Dutch Empire (1622–1624) and Second French colonial empire (1885), until it was ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895. Japan’s surrender in 1945 ended its colonial rule over the Islands, which has since then been governed by the Republic of China (ROC). Under the terms of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the subsequent Taiwan Relations Act between the ROC and the United States, Penghu is defined and geographically acknowledged as part of Taiwan.
Penghu Islands rely solely on sea and air transportation, with air transport having a significant role in outside access. The islands are served by three local domestic airports: Penghu Airport, Qimei Airport, and Wang-an Airport. The Penghu National Scenic Area comprises most of the islands and islets of the archipelago. It is also renowned for its unique natural feature of columnar basalt landscape. Tourism is one of the main sources of income to the county.
According to the official Penghu County Chronicle, Penghu's original name had been "Pinghu" (平湖), but as "Ping" (平) sounded similar to "Peng" (彭) in Hokkien, "Pinghu" (平湖) was also written as "Penghu" (彭湖), and ultimately the consensus, is to write "Penghu" (澎湖). The islands have also been called Pehoe from the Southern Min name Phêⁿ-ô·. (2025). 9789576380839, Kegan Paul. ISBN 9789576380839
The name "Pescadores" comes from the Portuguese name Ilhas dos Pescadores ("Fishermen Islands"). The European Portuguese pronunciation is but, in English, it is typically closer to .
Finds of fine red cord-marked pottery at Guoye, Huxi, indicate that Penghu was visited by Austronesians from southwestern Taiwan around 5,000 years ago, though not settled permanently.
In 1225, the Book of Barbarian Nations anecdotally indicated that Penghu was attached to Jinjiang, Quanzhou Prefecture. A group of Quanzhou immigrants lived on Penghu.
Wang Dayuan gave a detailed first-hand account of the islands in his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349).
At this time, the Dutch East India Company was trying to force China to open a port in Fujian to Dutch trade and expel the Portuguese from Macau. When the Dutch were defeated by the Portuguese at the Battle of Macau in 1622, they seized Penghu, built a fort there, and threatened raids on Chinese ports and shipping unless the Chinese allowed trading with them on Penghu and that China not trade with Manila. In response, the Chinese governor of Fujian demanded that the Dutch withdraw from Penghu to Taiwan, where the Chinese would permit them to engage in trade. The Dutch continued to raid the Fujian coast between October 1622 and January 1624 to force their demands, but were unsuccessful. In 1624, the new governor of Fujian sent a fleet of 40–50 warships with 5,000 troops to Penghu and expelled the Dutch, who moved to Fort Zeelandia on Taiwan.
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 in the war had made him a national hero in France. Courbet was among several French soldiers and sailors who died of cholera during the French occupation of Penghu. He died aboard his flagship in Makung harbour on 11 June 1885.
Penghu County was then called the Hōko Prefecture by the Japanese government of Taiwan. In World War II, Makō (Makung) was a major base for the Imperial Japanese Navy and the embarkation point for the invasion of the Philippines.
In 1944, Penghu was extensively bombed in the Penghu air raids.
Following the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur issued General Order No. 1, which directed Japanese forces to surrender to the Allied Powers and facilitate the occupation of Japanese territories by the Allied Powers. The Office of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers ordered Japanese forces in China and Taiwan to surrender to Chiang Kai-shek, who the Allied Powers delegated to accept the surrender. On 25 October 1945, Governor-General Rikichi Andō handed over the administration of Taiwan and the Penghu islands to the head of the Taiwan Investigation Commission, Chen Yi.
The Republic of China and Japan signed the Treaty of Taipei on April 28, 1952, and the treaty came into force on August 5, which is considered by some as giving a legal support to the Republic of China's claim to Taiwan as "de jure" territory. The treaty stipulates that all treaties, conventions, and agreements between China and Japan prior to 9 December 1941 were null and void, which according to Hungdah Chiu, abolishes the Treaty of Shimonoseki ceding Taiwan to Japan. In the 1956 Japan v. Lai Chin Jung case, it was stated that Taiwan and the Penghu islands came to belong to the ROC on the date the Treaty of Taipei came into force.
However, in 1954, the United States denied that the sovereignty over Taiwan and the Penghu islands had been settled by the Treaty of Taipei. In the following year, the United States also stated its position that Taiwan and Penghu were handed over to the Allied Powers, and that the Republic of China was merely asked to administer these territories for the Allied Powers pending a final decision as to their ownership. In the 1960 Sheng v. Rogers case, it was stated that, in the view of the U.S. State Department, no agreement has purported to transfer the sovereignty of Taiwan to the ROC, though it accepted the exercise of Chinese authority over Taiwan and recognized the Government of the Republic of China as the legal government of China at the time.
Boat people fleeing Vietnam in the 1970s and 1980s who were rescued by Taiwan's ships in the South China Sea were sent to Penghu.
On 25 May 2002, China Airlines Flight 611, a Boeing 747-200 aircraft flying from Taipei 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.
| City | Originally Mazu Temple (媽宮) |
| Rural townships | White Sand |
| Seven Beauties (大嶼) | |
| Lake West | |
| Hope Safe (網垵) | |
| Western Isle |
The main island (comprising Magong City and Huxi Township), Baisha Island and Xiyu are the three most populous islands and are connected via bridges. The Penghu Great Bridge connecting Baisha and Xiyu is the longest bridge in Taiwan. Two shorter bridges connect Huxi and Baisha via the small island of Zhongtun.
In 2016, the bureau placed a ban on the harvesting of due to their declining population. The ban was partially lifted in 2017, with catches limited to only specimens larger than in diameter.
Under a wind power development project approved in 2002 by the Executive Yuan, the ROC government plans to set up a total of 200 wind turbines in Penghu within 10 years. However, only 14 turbines have been set up . On 1 October 2015, Taipower announced the construction of another 11 new wind turbines across the island, of which six will be constructed in Huxi Township and five in Baisha Township.
The current total desalination capacity of the county to provide clean water to its residents is 15,500 m3 per day. To reduce its groundwater use, in November 2015 the county secured a contract of building an additional desalination plant with 4,000 m3 capacity per day, construction of which is expected to be completed by May 2018.
Historical sites include Central Street, Erdai Art Hall, Tianhou Temple, Four-eyed Well, Penghu Reclamation Hall, Qimei Lighthouse, Xiyu Eastern Fort, Jinguitou Fortress and Xiyu Western Fort. Museums in the county are Chuwan Crab Museum, Ocean Resources Museum, Chang Yu-sheng Memorial Museum and Penghu Living Museum. Other attractions in the county include the Double-Heart of Stacked Stones, Fenggui Cave, Little Taiwan, Whale Cave, Xiaomen Geology Gallery and South Penghu Marine National Park.
Since 1 January 2015, tourists from Mainland China can directly apply for the Exit & Entry Permit upon arrival in Penghu. This privilege also applies to Kinmen and the Matsu Islands as a means to boost tourism in the outlying islands of Taiwan.
The county welcomed 1.8 million tourists in 2018 with an average annual growth of around 10%.
In 2016, Chou Meng-hsiang (周盟翔), chief prosecutor of the Penghu District Prosecutors Office, "led an investigation team in Taiwan, including officers from the Coast Guard Administration, in a bid to bring (a) drug trafficking ring to justice." A joint investigation with Philippine and Chinese authorities spanning one and a half years resulted in the seizure of "22.6 kilograms of amphetamine, 11.4 kilograms of ephedrine, and about 40 kilograms of calcium chloride" with an estimated value of NT$123 million. Eight suspects were arrested in Cagayan, a small island in northern Philippines, but no Taiwanese nationals were charged in relation to the importation scheme.
In 2017, media reported "the biggest-ever haul of drugs in the county's history" when 506 kg of ephedrine was seized from a Chinese fishing boat off Penghu "as part of an ongoing crackdown on the area drug trade". Ephedrine smuggling has increased in recent years as it has a similar structure to amphetamines and can be easily converted into methamphetamine. According to a Focus Taiwan report, "(It) can then be sold for ten times the price, in this case that would be more than NT$1 billion (US$33.33 million)."
Despite the size of the drug seizure, only the five crew members of the Chinese fishing boat were detained in the operation, with authorities "unable to find the Taiwanese ship which should have turned up to take delivery of the drugs". It was unclear from media reports how the Taiwanese side of the smuggling operation knew to abort the rendezvous. The suppliers of the shipment also evaded capture. It was believed that the drugs were destined to be transported from Penghu for distribution on Taiwan.
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