Eluanbi Lighthouse 鵝鑾鼻燈塔

About Eluanbi Lighthouse

The white tower is the visual landmark, but the surrounding grounds add open lawns, coastal scenery and rock formations. The park was established to organise visits to this cape landscape and its lighthouse.

Allow time to move beyond the first tower photograph and explore the permitted park paths. Lighthouse grounds and tower-interior access are different things; an open park does not guarantee a climb inside the tower. The wider Kenting region also contains separate beaches and forest areas that need their own transfers.

The lighthouse was completed in 1883 as part of a Qing-dynasty project, conceived by the customs inspector-general Robert Hart (赫德), to build a network of modern lighthouses along the China coast; it long doubled as a weather station and a base for natural-history surveys. It was destroyed in 1895, rebuilt in 1898 under Japanese rule, and had its lighting equipment renovated again in 1962. It was registered as a national historic site (国定古迹) on 15 March 2024, having once been considered Taiwan's southernmost landmark and longest-range lighthouse.

Built as one of the world's few fortress-type lighthouses, it originally had defensive works including a moat, a gun-embrasured wall and a shelter beneath the tower, with armaments of two machine guns and two cannon and a generator, backed by contingency plans and drills. Its structural materials were shipped from Xiamen, the lamp housing from Chance Brothers & Co. (强斯兄弟公司) of Birmingham, and the armaments from Armstrong & Co. (阿姆斯壮公司) of Newcastle; bricks were sourced locally. Customs officers came from Fujian and Guangdong, most workers from Shantou, and some Paiwan people built the surrounding defences; food supplies came mainly from Hong Kong.

What to look for

• The white lighthouse gives the cape its principal landmark.
• Park paths reveal the surrounding coastal and rock landscape.
• The grounds provide different views of the tower and southern peninsula.

Location & getting there

Getting to Eluanbi Lighthouse

Choose Eluanbi Park as the destination on the southern peninsula road beyond Kenting. Check the current local bus connection or arrange road transport to the park entrance; the national park headquarters is at a different address.