Wai'an Fishing Arts Introduction
Located in the western highlands of Wai'an at "Xipuding," this structure was built during the Japanese colonial period and has been preserved to this day. According to the "Fortification Construction Guidelines for Penghu Island" from the 9th year of Taisho (1920), it was originally planned to establish a coastal artillery battery at Wai'an to defend against potential naval invasions from the west and south of Magong Harbor, with a plan to install two 35 cm coastal guns in turret form and allocate 200 rounds of ammunition, representing a large coastal defense artillery of that time. However, after construction began in 1921, the signing of the "Washington Naval Treaty" in 1922 by the five major naval powers (the United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy), which restricted the increase of new fortifications and coastal works, led to the halting of the Wai'an artillery battery. Nonetheless, in 1923, the Japanese Army directed the Army Fortress Construction Department to build a fake turret at the original site and designated the surrounding area as a fortress zone, attempting to mislead the outside world into believing that this was a defense work completed before the treaty restrictions, with plans to later replace the fake turret with a real one when the opportunity arose. However, with the rapid development of aerial power among various countries, the fixed turret, vulnerable to air raids, became an outdated design, and the subsequent coastal artillery on Penghu Island transitioned to multiple mobile artillery pieces. As a result, the fake turret here never became "real," and during World War II, it was not prioritized as a bombing target by the U.S. Army and Navy, fortuitously preserving it to this day as a symbol witnessing the military history of Penghu. Sources: Penghu Travel, Modern Fortress Construction History, Volume 2, Volume 10, "Penghu Island Fortress Construction Guidelines (August 19, 1920, General Staff Office)," Penghu County Government Cultural Affairs Bureau Quarterly "Lao Gu Shi" Issue 93, "Fake Bait - The Long-Misunderstood Wai'an Fake Artillery and Wude Fake Artillery in Penghu." [Recommended stay time] 0.5 hours
Overlook platform overlooking Wai'an bait cannon
