Penghu Hospital & Customs Bureau Magong Branch Introduction
Penghu was a transshipment station for exporting ceramics to Southeast Asia during the Ming Dynasty. However, the Dutch, operating the East India Company in Jakarta, bypassed Penghu and established an Asian trade base in Taiwan, leading to a significant decline in Penghu's status. During the Japanese colonial period, in order to control port transactions in Taiwan, only four major ports were opened: Keelung, Tamsui, Anping, and Kaohsiung. This severely affected the supply of necessities for the residents of Taiwan, and eventually, eight "special import and export ports" were opened, with Penghu's "Magong Port" being one of them. In 1906, the Magong branch office of the Anping Customs was completed in Tsukiji Town, outside the Welcome Gate of Magong. Its building was a two-story brick "watchtower," and it was the first Western-style official building in the Penghu area at that time. In 1934, it was restructured under the Kaohsiung Customs, thus being referred to as the "Kaohsiung Customs Magong Branch," commonly known as "Customs" (in Taiwanese) by the people of Magong.
