Pescadores

Infobox ROC county
englishname = Penghu County
chinesename = 澎湖縣


emblem = Penghu_County_emblem.pngabbreviation = Penghu (澎湖)


county seat = Magong City
region = Taiwan Strait
countymagistrate = Chien-fa Wang (王乾發)
totalarea = 141.052
arearank = 22
percentwater = 0
totalpop = 92,415 (April 2008)
poprank = 23
density = 655.18
citiesno = 1
townshipno = 5
countyflower = Firewheel ("Gaillardia pulchella")
countytree = Chinese Banyan ("Ficus microcarpa")
countybird = Small Skylark ("Alauda gulgula")
website = penghu.gov.tw www.penghu.gov.tw

The Pescadores (zh-tptwp|t=澎湖群島|hp=Pénghú Qúndăo|tp=Pénghú Cyúndăo|w=P'eng-Hu Ch'ün-Tao|poj=Phêⁿ-ô·-kûn-tó, from Portuguese, "fishermen", pron. IPA2|pɨʃ.kɐ.ˈðo.ɾɨʃ) are an archipelago off the western coast of Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait consisting of 90 small islands covering an area of 141 square kilometers. They are administered as Penghu County, Taiwan Province, Republic of China.

History

"P'eng-hu" was first recorded in unofficial historical records and regional logs in 1171 during the Southern Song DynastyFact|date=February 2008. From the middle of the 17th century to 1895, Formosa (Taiwan) and the Pescadores (Penghu) were ruled by pirates, the colonial Dutch Empire, the Koxinga kingdom, and the Qing Dynasty (Manchu), successively.

The Pescadores were 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, who died at Magong on 11 June 1885.

The Qing Dynasty then ceded these islands to Japan in 1895 in the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki along with Taiwan.

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 and the Pescadores, 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 Formosa and the Pescadores but left their final disposition unsettled. The archipelago has been administered by the Republic of China as part of its Taiwan Province since 1945.

A disaster struck on May 25, 2002, when a Boeing 747-200 aircraft operated by China Airlines, as China Airlines Flight 611, flying from Taipei, Taiwan to Hong Kong disintegrated, and then exploded, over the Islands, and its wreckage slammed into the Taiwan Strait, a couple of miles off coast. All 225 passengers and crew on board were killed. CNN referred to the crash as the "Taiwan Tragedy." [" [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/05/27/taiwan.plane.company/index.html China Airlines safety record in the spotlight] ," "CNN"]

Sub-county divisions

* Magong City (馬公市) (Heaven Queen City)
* Husi Township (湖西鄉) (Lake West Township)
* Baisha Township (白沙鄉) (White Sand Township)
* Siyu Township (西嶼鄉) (Fisherman Township)
* Cimei Township (七美鄉) (Seven Beauties Township)
* Wang-an Township (望安鄉) (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 the Republic of China (Taiwan) and is called the Penghu Trans-Oceanic Bridge (澎湖跨海大橋 Peng Hu Kua Hai Da Qiao).

Miscellaneous facts

* The county flower is a chrysanthemum called "The Immortals" (天人菊).
* Professional diving fishermen dive with a simple hooka system. [cite journal |author=Lee HC, Niu KC, Huang KL, Tsai JD, Shyu RK, Shiraki K, Hong SK, Lin YC |title=Diving pattern of fishermen in the Pescadores |journal=Undersea Hyperb Med |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=145–58 |year=1994 |month=June |pmid=8061556 |doi= |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/2164 |accessdate=2008-06-19]

References

See also

*China Airlines Flight 611

External links

*wikitravel|Penghu
* [http://www.penghu.gov.tw/eng/00home/home.asp Penghu County Government Official Website]
* [http://tour.penghu.gov.tw/English/index.asp Penghu Tour Official Website]
* [http://www.phhg.gov.tw/chinese/intro/intro6-1.htm Complete list of villages' names] (Traditional Chinese)

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