Page 91 - An Overview of Penghu

The most deprived and inconvenient place to live are the Isles of Wangan Village. The
Village includes eight habitable isles and countless desert isles. The Wangan Main Island,
located on the sea 18 nautical miles from Magong Port, is the island featuring a prefectural
government branch office and a village office. A nautical mile in the east sits Jiangjunao Isle, and
11 nautical miles in the south is Dayu Isle; between the two are Dongyuping Isle and Xiyuping
Isle. Twelve nautical miles southeast of the main island are Dongji Isle, Xiji Isle, and twelve
nautical miles in the west sits Huayu Isle. Dayu Isle, Donji Isle, and Xiji Isle are 30 nautical
miles from Magong Port, while Huayu Isle is only 20 nautical miles away, but they are all
surrounded by violent tides. In addition to those habited islands above, there are also desert
islands. Public schools can only be found on Wangan Island and Dayu Isle, and police stations
are only set up on Wangan, Jiangjunao, Donji, and Dayu. The other four isles do not have any
institutions or offices.

I started paying visits to the Isles of Wangan Village on June 23rd. On the first day of
inspection, I arrived at Wangan from Magong Port and visited the prefectural government
branch office, the district office, public schools, and police stations. The next day, I visited
Jiangjunao Isle and Dongji Isle. I had to drop Xiji Isle from my list because high waves made it
impossible to dock at the Isle. On the 25th, I went to Dayu, Dongyuping, and Xiyuping despite
the rain. On the 26th, I visited Mao Isle and Hua Isle and returned to Magong. While there were
dormitories at the prefectural government branch office and rooms at the village office, there
were no accommodations on the other isles at all, so I had to travel back and forth between
Wangan and other isles by boat every day. I encapsulated what I felt during the inspection in the
following 25 short poems. Putting aside the artistic sense of the lyrics I composed, I hope people
can focus on what I wanted to let them know instead. There might be plans and expectations
about how to deal with the aforementioned problems, but for now, I will leave it to the future. All
in all, I hope people will come to realize that there are such miserable places in Taiwan and
sympathize, or even provide assistance to Penghu.

Needless to say, the Penghu Archipelago plays a significant role in national defense.
Infrastructures on the islands should be carefully planned so they can respond to emergencies. I
hope the government can provide shuttle boats that sail between islands, make postal service
available, and install radios for police communications. This is the only way to give islanders
happiness. Also, the prefectural government should have boats that can sail even under seasonal
winds. It should install radios in isolated islands as well, so their residents might feel less lonely
and more mentally stable because they can learn about major events happening every day or
listen to important news.

Sympathizing with the islanders and reflecting on my inability to help them, I could not
sleep, and my thoughts still linger between those islands.

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