Magong City 馬公市

History

The town grew up around a sheltered harbour and took its old name, Magong (媽宮, "Mazu's temple"), from the Penghu Tianhou Temple. In 1920 the Japanese authorities changed the written name to the similar-sounding Magong (馬公), still used today. After the Qing took Penghu in 1684, troops were stationed at the harbour and a market quarter of seven streets and one market formed around the temple.

After the Sino-French War, the Qing decided Penghu needed a fortified town. The walled town of Magong (媽宮城) was begun in December 1887 under Penghu garrison commander Wu Hongluo (吳宏洛) and completed in October 1889, the last walled town built under Qing rule in Taiwan. Magong became a county-administered city in 1981; Chinese Wikipedia notes it is the only city in Taiwan located on an outlying island.

What to see

Penghu Tianhou Temple (澎湖天后宮), a national monument, keeps a stele dated 1604 recording how the Ming commander Shen Yourong (沈有容) ordered the "red-haired" foreigners under Wei Malang (韋麻郎) to withdraw; the Penghu County Government treats the stele's date as evidence that this is the oldest Mazu temple in Taiwan and Penghu. The present buildings date from a rebuilding in 1922–23 led by the Cantonese master Lan Mu (藍木) with craftsmen from Fujian.

Central Old Street (中央老街), once called Jienei (街內, "inside the streets"), was the first Han Chinese market in Penghu; its mostly southern Fujian buildings are mixed with Japanese-Western styles, and the street was made a special historic preservation area in 1984. The Four-Eye Well (四眼井) at its northern end is dated to 1592. Shuncheng Gate (順承門), the small west gate of the old wall, has walls of local basalt topped with battlements of coral stone and is the only gate tower of the city wall still standing; the wall was listed as a national monument on 19 August 1985.

Highlights

• Penghu Tianhou Temple 澎湖天后宮: National monument holding a 1604 Ming stele; the source of Magong's name.
• Central Old Street 中央老街: Penghu's earliest Han Chinese market street, a special historic preservation area since 1984.
• Four-Eye Well 四眼井: Well at the north end of Central Old Street, dated to 1592.
• Shuncheng Gate 順承門: Basalt and coral-stone gate, the only surviving gate tower of the 1889 city wall.