Turtle Island

--Guishan Island, also known as Guishan Island, is the largest island in Ilan County. It is also an active volcano in Taiwan. Named after the appearance of a turtle, Guishan Island was once listed as an important military area because of its prominent terrain and became a control area for the national army. On August 1, 2000, Guishan Island was officially opened for sightseeing.

--The special geology forms many spectacular sceneries, such as Qiushan Chaori, guidao Huangyan, Jingjing cave stalactite, turtle egg, turtle cliff, turtle hat, turtle tail and so on.

--The island is rich in natural resources, landscape, coral reef coast, and the most popular whale watching activities. Guishan Island was awarded the fifth place in Taiwan's ten earth scenery contest held by the forestry bureau of the Council of agriculture of the Executive Yuan.

Turtle Island

Guishan Island is located in the East Sea area of Taiwan Province of China, on the choppy Western Pacific Ocean about 12 kilometers east of Ilan County, administratively under the jurisdiction of Toucheng Town, Ilan County. There are two round peaks on the island. The small peak in the East looks like turtle's head, and the big peak in the west looks like turtle's tail. Another Korean island is Guishan Island.

geographical position

Guishan Island is a volcanic island, the highest point is south of the center, with an altitude of 401 meters. It is composed of pyroxene andesite and agglomerate, with pyrite and gypsum ore. The central part of the "turtle body" is mostly a cliff with a height of 40-80 meters, similar to tortoise shell. At the western end of Guishan Island, there is a stone dust protruding to the northwest, similar to tortoise tail. The island has a perimeter of about 9 km and an area of about 3 square kilometers.

From the beginning of the town, we can see Guishan Island in the open sea. Like the "turtle head" in the smoke, "turtle tail" in the left and right swing, the island around the zero rock gravel floating and sinking, like a turtle claw in the swimming. As a result, many people in the travel notes will call it "smoking tail of the Guishan Island.".

Why does Guishan Island, which is hanging alone on the sea, appear the phenomenon of smoking and swinging its tail? The so-called "turtle head" is actually a volcanic cone. In the past, there were still sulfur holes in the vent, forming a stream of smoke until it disappeared in mid air. From a distance, the head seems to be smoking; and the tail is a strip composed of andesite and pebbles, which becomes the natural breakwater of the island's fishing port, extending more than 1000 meters and 3 meters high. The pebbles above are very unstable. For example, when the south wind blows on the sea, the pebbles are often pushed to the north. If the north wind blows, the huge waves from the north will slowly push the pebbles to the south. In this way, it is difficult for the turtle's tail to stabilize in a fixed direction. Local fishermen call it a tail that can swing, making Guishan Island a living giant turtle that can spit smoke and swing its tail.

In April 2015, Guishan Island was rated as one of the coolest islands in the world. As the only active volcanic island in Taiwan, it is a rare place for whale watching. When the weather changes, the sky on the island is covered with clouds, which can be described as "Guishan wearing a hat, vast water".

geographical environment

Human history

Guishan Island has steep rocks and barren land, which is unfavorable to agricultural cultivation. Only at the junction of the western end of the turtle body and the tail of the turtle, the terrain is relatively flat, and some descendants of Zhangzhou people from Fujian Province live here. It is said that in the early years of Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty, more than ten families moved to the area with a head girth and began to fish. According to the statistics in 1970, there are more than 100 households and 650 people living here. In terms of administrative division, Guishan Island belongs to a neighborhood of Toucheng Town, which is called guishanli. In the late 1960s, local residents once opened Guishan fishing port, which connected the "turtle tail" with the ponds on the island to form a breakwater. However, after the completion of the fishing port, the breakwater was destroyed by the typhoon, and the channel was silted up, so the fishing boats could not enter the port for berthing. Since 1975, local residents have had to move to the big fishing port in order to survive. Now there are houses, temples, schools and other buildings they lived in on Guishan Island.

Surrounding environment

In the southwest of Guishan Island, there is a small group of Yanyu islands, which is quite close to the tail of Guishan Island and looks like turtle eggs, so it is called turtle egg island. In the sea water around the turtle egg Island, there are some large rocks that are not exposed to the water. According to folklore, these are the eggs laid by giant turtles. These rocks in the sea have become reefs, so fishermen are very careful when they drive their boats through this area to avoid accidents caused by hitting the "turtle eggs" in the sea.

topographic features

When the morning sun rises, standing on the coast of Toucheng Town, looking at Guishan Island, it is like a giant turtle walking towards the sun. The beautiful scenery of "Guishan Chaori" is listed as one of the "eight scenes of Lanyang".

Guishan Island belongs to volcanic island geologically. The first eruption date back to 5000 BC. There are still volcanic activities, such as hot springs and sulfur pores. However, it belongs to dormant volcano. Its rocks are mainly composed of andesitic lava flow and pyroclastic rocks. The highest point on the island is 398 meters above sea level. With a 3-meter two-story observation platform, the total height is 401 meters, which is called "401 highland". It is the second highest mountain in Taiwan's outlying islands, second only to Lanyu. In addition, the turtle head peak, which is close to the cliff, is 239 meters high, while the turtle tail peak is 141 meters high. There are hot springs, cold springs, sea caves, sulfur pores and other landscapes on the island, and there are two lakes, namely the smaller Guishou Lake (pool) and the larger Guiwei Lake (pool), which are rich in special animal and plant ecology and marine resources.

Development history

According to the literature, it was 1853 that the first residents of Guishan Island settled down permanently. Guishan Island belongs to private industry, which can be traced back to the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. It was owned by the Lin family in Fujian in that year, and transferred to the Chen family in Zhuangwei in the second year of Guangxu. Although Guishan Island is a private industry, it is an uninhabited island. Fishermen often go to the island to rest, and gradually develop into villages. They take fishing as their main business, and also plant peanuts. The land is rich It's rented from the Chen family. However, the fishermen moved back to Taiwan one after another because of living difficulties and inconvenient maritime transportation. In 1977, the government forced the relocation of villages for military needs, and all the residents of Guishan Island moved to Taiwan Island. The joint service unit of the National Army classified Guishan Island into the firing area of the artillery firing test range, so a number of state houses were built in Daxi, Toucheng, to accommodate the residents on the island.

After the lifting of martial law in 1988, with the efforts of Yilan County Government and Toucheng Town Office, the Executive Yuan reopened Guishan Island on December 22, 1999, and officially opened it to the public on August 1, 2000. It was included in the Northeast Coast National Scenic Area and positioned as an ecological park on the sea. There were routes between Toucheng town and Wushi port, but the island was destroyed because of avoiding free sightseeing Before landing on the island, you need to apply to limit the daily number of people.

Main attractions

scenic spot

Guishan Island, also known as Guishan Island, is about 10 kilometers east of the coast of Toucheng Town, Yilan County. It is a volcanic island suspended in the sea. It is named for its shape like floating turtle. It is rich in mountains, sea caves, lakes, special cliff plants and rich marine ecological resources. It is an excellent place to watch the rising or setting sun. A large number of whales and dolphins often appear in the nearby waters, making it a popular tourist attraction.

Guishan Island has always been famous for its eight wonders. As early as the Qing Dynasty, "Guishan Chaori" ranked first among the eight wonders of Lanyang. The scenery of the island is characterized by the eight wonders of "turtle mountain facing the sun", "sulfur smoke", "Turtle Rock Wall", "turtle egg watching", "turtle tail swinging", "turtle wearing a hat", "spectacle hole stalactite wonder" and "submarine hot spring flowing up". When observed in different locations, climates and tides, there are different landscape changes, which is also the charm of the island.

The sea area of 2-3 nautical miles near Guishan Island is shallow and flat. Many fish groups gather here, which not only makes Guishan Island one of the three major fishing grounds in Taiwan, but also the main place for whale and dolphin appreciation in Ilan. To enjoy the whale and dolphin on Guishan Island, you need to board from gengfang fishing port. However, the level of whale watching boats is uneven, so you must pay attention to the selection of whale watching boats. The waters of Guishan Island are dominated by swirling dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, little killer whales and pseudokiller whales. Usually, ships stay at sea for about 1 to 1.5 hours. April to the end of August is the best season to enjoy whales and dolphins. Interested tourists should not miss it.

Legend of tortoise

It is said that Zheng Chenggong led his army to pass here and was suddenly attacked by a big female turtle. In a rage, Zheng Chenggong pulled out an arrow and shot it. The female turtle fled to the sea and turned it into Guishan Island. There is another small island in the southwest of the island. When the tide range is large on the first and the tenth day of junior high school, it comes out of the sea. It is called Guiying island. It is said that it is the egg laid by the giant turtle. Some people say that Guishan Island was originally a turtle general in Hailong palace. Because of his private love with Princess dragon, he angered the Dragon King and turned the turtle general into Guishan Island, while the princess turned into Lanyang Plain, facing each other day and night, and never meeting each other. However, in the eyes of Feng Shui people, this sad story is a geomantic treasure of "turtle and snake guarding Haikou" in Feng Shui. Eight sceneries of Guishan

Eight sceneries of Guishan

As the sea area around Guishan Island is rich in migratory fish, it is a very good fishing ground with abundant fishery products. Therefore, fishermen came to fish in the early years. Later, it was a military control zone, and the proverb "Taiwan has gone through, but only Guishan has not yet arrived" was widely spread. Only after the lifting of martial law, the tourism industry of Guishan Island has been gradually promoted, and tourists have a chance to have a close relationship. Guishan Island covers an area of only 2.7 square kilometers. It is 3.3 kilometers long from east to west and 1.7 kilometers wide from north to south. It is mainly composed of two volcanic bodies, the turtle head and shell, and the turtle tail is a long and thin sandbank. Most of the rocks on the island belong to andesite, which was erupted by volcanoes dozens of years ago

Chinese PinYin : Gui Shan Dao