Early history

The village of Longkiau was the southernmost town that was occupied by the Dutch on Taiwan Island.^[2] The area was mostly occupied by the Paiwan and other Taiwanese aborigines.

Qing dynasty

After the Rover Incident, wherein shipwrecked American sailors were massacred by the locals, Charles Le Gendre, the US consul at Amoy (Xiamen), visited the area. He found Longkiau at the far point of the curve forming Longkiau Bay.^[6] Its population of about 1,500 was "mostly engaged in the culture of peanuts, rice, sweet potatoes, a little sugar cane, and also in fishing".^[7]

In response to the 1871 Mudan Incident, wherein shipwrecked Ryukyuan sailors were massacred by the locals, Japan—following America's example—undertook a punitive expedition in 1874. The Japanese landed in Longkiau Bay and pushed north from there.^[8]

Now aware of the danger of foreign interference and colonization posed by the Qing Empire's refusal to take responsibility for the actions of Taiwan's aborigines, the viceroy of Liangjiang Shen Baozhen toured Taiwan in 1875 in preparation for reform of the island's administration. He ordered attacks against the still restive tribes and began a building program in the southern half of the island which included the fortified lighthouse at Eluanbi. He memorialized on behalf of building a new city in Longkiau (which he gave the more propitious Chinese name "Hengchun") to accommodate and protect foreign sailors. This request was granted: the portion of Fengshan County south of Fangliao's river became the new Hengchun County^[9] and its officials fortified a village south of the old Longkiau as their new county seat. The old location continued to be known as Longkiau.^[3]

Taiwan Prefecture originally covered the entire island as part of Fujian Province. When the island became its own province in 1887, Hengchun County formed part of Tainan Prefecture.

Japanese rule

Under Japanese rule, the town was known as Kōshun. It received a local office (町, chō) in November 1901^[10] and became the seat of its own district in Takao Prefecture in 1920. Commercial whaling began in the area from 1913 to 1915, and was revived from 1920 to 1943.^[11]

Post-war

The Republic of China (ROC) took over Taiwan after World War II. Hengchun's whaling industry was restored in 1955 and formally banned in 1981.^[11]

On December 26, 2006, a 7.0–7.2 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter off the southwest coast of Taiwan occurred (approximately 22.8 km southwest of Hengchun). It caused damage to many houses in Hengchun, including fifteen historical buildings in the historic center of the township.^[12] Two casualties were reported, with many more injured. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Hengchun in one hundred years.^[13]

Climate

Hengchun is well known for its tropical monsoon climate with warm temperatures year round, as befits its name. It usually has neither a cool winter nor an extremely hot summer, with average monthly mean temperatures ranging between 21 and 28 degrees Celsius. The climate is generally divided into two seasons, the cooler and drier season and the warmer and wetter season. During the cool and dry season from early December to late March of the following year, precipitation are relatively low with temperatures ranging from 18 to 26 degrees Celsius, occasional cold fronts can drop both the day and the night time temperatures by around 2–4 °C, while temperatures during a clear sunny day can reach as high as 28–30 °C. During the warm and wet season temperature range from 24 to 32 degrees Celsius with a relatively abundant rainfall especially from May–October, when Taiwan is affected by the Pacific typhoon season.

Hengchun's spring-like climate is very much dictated by its location surrounded by the ocean, resulting in a noticeably smaller difference between the day and night temperatures than most other townships of Pingtung. Hengchun is usually cooler than other townships in the county during daytime and warmer than others during the night, especially during the winter months, when daily lows usually hovers around 18–20 degrees Celsius at Hengchun and around 15–18 at Pingtung city, while daily highs usually hovers around 24–26 degrees Celsius at the township and 25–28 at Pingtung City. Temperatures dips below 15 degrees Celsius on average once every 3 years, mostly on early mornings of January when Taiwan is affected by a cold front.

The climate is also supportive of tropical rainforests (tropical monsoon rainforest) which occupied the entire Hengchun peninsula, while palm trees and other tropical vegetation grows on the coastlines, much like the rest of Pingtung.

The Hengchun Peninsula experiences strong katabatic winds.^[14]

Festivals

• Pingtung Picturesque Rice Field Life Festival^[20]
• Folk Music Festival^[21]

Citations

Bibliography