Penghu County – A photo gallery

The best beach vibes of Taiwan are off its main island

One of the first places I had the opportunity to visit during my spare time in Taiwan was Penghu County (澎湖縣). This micro archipelago of islands between mainland China and Taiwan left me wanting more of these beach vibes after that visit. If Taiwan is already a place most visitors and residents end up loving for its convenient traveling, interesting cuisine and affordable prices, Penghu County is all that minus the overwhelming crowds and with large doses of golden sand beaches, breathtaking landscapes, picturesque historical buildings and well-maintained road infrastructure that connects all of this.

After many years of that first visit, the opportunity showed up again this year and took a fifty-minute flight from Taipei to Penghu, for a stay of four days in total. This time, I was determined to document as best as I could all the things that make this unique island cluster a summer paradise from a standard point of view as well as from the air. Thus, I packed my camera and drone, rented a car with some friends, and hoped for the best weather possible.

Penghu County could in fact be my favorite place in Taiwan. Even so, I am surprised that with all that it has to offer is not nearly as famous as other mainstream Taiwanese summer destinations such as Kenting, Liuqiu (also known as xiaoliuqiu 小琉球) or other beaches in the northern area. In this second visit, the level of urban development of Magong City (the only “city” in the county) really took me by surprise. From movie theaters, to high-end hotels and western food franchises, everything is here.

Here below I leave a map with all the places I had the chance to photograph in those four days of travel across Penghu:

Penghu from the air is no less impressive

Bringing an extra camera that demands an extra 25 minutes of dedicated attention while it is in the air requires more intentional planning for any trip. However, except for the air space surrounding the airport, Penghu County is a very open region to fly far and wide for the ultimate summer photos and footage of its vivid greens and deep blues.

Being the only thing entirely out of control, the weather was mercifully good for most of the trip. No rainfall during the trip was already good enough, with overcast skies in the late afternoon. In total, I was able to fly in eight different locations, some with great daylight, and some with more challenging lightning conditions. Flying in this location was a true bliss.

Curating the photo galleries for Penghu County

In four days, I managed to visit four different townships and areas of Penghu, using camera, phone and drone to generate a substantial amount of material for videos and photos. For the latter, I selected some 80 pictures in total from the camera and drone for the (long) edition process. The fun part was to find the editing settings that I would be pleased with for different times of the day and weather conditions of similar beach scenes. Then, in order to make a reasonable curation of those final images I want to publish, it made sense to me that I followed a division by county. The result is this “set of galleries” which, by far, is the biggest I have ever uploaded to this site ever since I started.