Postcard Getaway

Discovering the Best Beaches, Delicious Seafood, and Hidden Gems in Penghu During an Island Escape

Written by Kaelie Piscitello

My first domestic flight in Taiwan to Penghu was one of the easiest flights I have ever taken. Nobody stood before me while I entered security at Songshan Airport’s domestic gate.

From the skies, Taipei twinkled at me. I had front-row seats to the impressive skyline and could pick out Taipei 101 and its neighbors. I had forgotten how massive it is. When I’m standing under it, I sometimes believe the illusion that some of the other buildings stand almost as tall as it. Peering down, I could see how wrong I was. No other tower in the city comes close to matching its size and grandeur. 

The flight took 50 minutes, and by the time the flight attendants served us a juice box, I already needed to buckle my seatbelt and prepare for the descent into Magong. After an set of flights that tallied up to 18 hours in the air back to Taipei in February after vacation, this felt like the easiest flight ever.

Our Caring Greeter

Once I arrived at the airport, my boyfriend and I waltzed through the gates and sailed past luggage pick-up because we only brought a backpack each. We found our homestay host waiting for us right outside the exit, and he knew us right away.

Our host was friendly and spoke to us in a mix of Mandarin and English. He explained everything we needed to know about staying in Penghu for that weekend, including how the scooter company would deliver the rental to our homestay the following morning.

After we arrived at our homestay, Coastland B&B, our host provided us with maps in both English and Chinese to show us the highlights of our surrounding neighborhoods. The furthest point in the connected islands was a 40-minute scooter ride, making the archipelago easy for tourists to access.

After arriving, I unpacked and then went to a bar called Island for a few hours. I liked Island for its tasty cocktails, including one my favorites, a daiquiri. Then we chose to walk the 30 minutes back to our accommodation since the weather stayed clear and comfortable.

Riding to the Beach

My boyfriend and I decided to have a beach day first and scootered south to Shanshui Beach. The temperature lingered around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, giving us perfect beach day weather. Once we arrived, we pleasantly discovered its emptiness.

Shanshui Beach has beautiful waves in an aquamarine color and stark white sand with many interesting rocks and shells scattered across it. We found many pieces of hardened coral and couldn’t help but pick them up and examine the differences in colors and textures.

That first day. I noticed how different Penghu’s architecture is compared to the rest of Taiwan. Mainland Taiwanese architecture resembles blocks built to withstand earthquakes. Penghu, however, strongly resemble American suburbia with modern homes and colorful paints decorating them. it has wide roads that we felt scootering down as novices.

Tasty Eats

On the first day, we set out to try seafood because it wouldn’t be an island getaway without a nice piece of fish. We ate sashimi for lunch on our first day at a small shop called Penghu Sashimi. 

The sashimi tasted great, and I loved sampling new types of fish I had never tried before. While I enjoyed the raw bites, my favorite part of the meal was the large grilled fish of the day!

Later in the day, we tried Penghu’s famous sweet potato vermicelli for dinner at a restaurant on the way back from the beach. While I liked it, I prefer wet noodles served in a broth.

Before I came to Penghu, I did not know cactus ice cream existed, but I knew I must try it once I arrived. The ice cream had a deep magenta coloring resembling that of a purple dragon fruit. This unique ice cream had a creamy, sweet, and unique flavor. Penghu has cactus ice cream everywhere and it’s easy to find.

Biking North

On Sunday, I had the whole day in front of me because my flight to Taipei did not leave until 9 p.m. Unfortunately, rain came down hard on Penghu the night before and left strong gusts of wind in its wake that rattled the homestay. Luckily, the rain stopped early in the morning so we could explore the Island. I felt glad that I chose to go to the beach the day before because i would have missed out otherwise.

We scootered north and started in Baisha because I read about the town’s interesting temples online. I loved the tree-grown temple at the edge of town. However, Baisha is a small village, and almost no one lives there. We couldn’t find a restaurant to eat lunch, so we wandered around a beach. 

This beach did not look as lovely as Shanshui. It had the same glistening sand and sparkling water paired with giant pieces of trash littered it from one end to the other. Many of the bushes had large pieces of styrofoam nestled inside, and we saw a large metal pipe peeking out behind one. The beach also had a large stretch of dead coral heaped together in a line near the ocean. It seemed forgotten.

On the way back to our scooter to leave Baisha, we heard booming firecrackers in the distance. The closer we walked closer to our scooter, the closer the noises sounded,. Then, finally we saw the colorful streaks in the sky and a small parade of people walking by. We learned later the people celebrate Mazu Festival, a holiday for a sea goddess, at this time of year and they likely set off the fireworks for that. I loved the surprising bursts of color in the sky and felt grateful to peek into traditional Penghu culture.

Xi Yu

After exploring Baisha, we scootered north to Xiyu to see Whale Cave. Whale Cave had gorgeous rock formations. I loved looking at them. They all had interesting shapes and consisted of dark, almost black stone contrasting with the bright blue ocean.

On the way back from Whale Cave, I noticed a sign for a traditional village not too far away. My boyfriend veered us off course and we walked around the preserved cultural space for about a half hour. The people who once lived there constructed their homes with dead coral stones and decorated with beautiful red colors. The town was beautiful and had many places to buy souvenirs and coffee.

Before leaving, my boyfriend and I ate at a place called Mr. Squid and loved the fresh octopus balls and sea urchin fried rice we tried. An older couple runs Mr. Squid, and they decorate the restaurant with photos of their family’s travels. Of course, we couldn’t leave without enjoying one final homemade cactus ice cream.