While members of the public are prohibited from taking up permanent residence on Pengchia Islet (
Born in 1950 on Pengchia, the lighthouse keeper, Peng Hsing-shih (
Peng has served in the lighthouse for 28 years, making him the most senior person on Pengchia.
PHOTO: CNA
With his family name (
During the Japanese colonial era, some Taiwanese residents are said to have relocated to the islet to seek shelter from Japanese rule.
They then gradually moved back to Taiwan proper after Japanese rule ended.
Given that Pengchia Islet remains a controlled zone under military rule , the public is not allowed to tour the island.
But more than 40 people are stationed on Pengchia, including officers of the Coast Guard Administration and marine corps, as well as personnel for marine radar observation stations and officials with the Central Weather Bureau.
There are seven lighthouse keepers on Pengchia, with one acting as the chief, four as regular keepers and the remaining two serving on a rotational basis.
But life for the lighthouse keepers can be boring.
Their wives and children are not allowed to stay live on Pengchia, and giving birth to a child on the island would be impossible.
But Peng said he is comforted by the fact that he has to work only two weeks a month.
When asked if his children will follow in his footsteps and one day serve as lighthouse keepers, the father of three daughters and one son said he is not sure.
Pengchia, also known as Tachihshan Islet (大峙山嶼), is located 55km from Keelung's harbor.
The islet is around 114 hectares in area and has a terrace-like topography, with precipices on the east, south and north ends.
A makeshift jetty on the southern shore allows boats to land. According to military servicemen, a walk around the island takes about two hours.
The islet is covered with wild grass but lacks trees, due to its thin layer of topsoil.
Pengchia depends on Taiwan proper for regular water supplies, while power generators provide only enough electricity to run the instruments at the weather station.
The government is planning to upgrade the electricity and water supplies to the islet.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods