Penghu Living Museum

When coming to Penghu, you are recommended to visit Penghu Living Museum first before starting your trip. 

At that time, I thought that there must be nothing worth watching in the Life Museum, after all, for the first reason, it charges for the second reason, common indoor museum must be incomparable to the temptation of the blue sky, white cloud and sea waves? But when I entered the Museum, I immediately felt regret that I hadn’t visited the museum at first. After all, to travel Penghu, it is very important to understand the local culture!

Penghu Living Museum was officially opened in April 3, 2010 and was affiliated with Penghu County Cultural Affairs Bureau. It contains four floors the outdoor area on the first floor is the public art area, where you can see a very striking large teapot. The teapot was designed by Mr. Gao Shen-Yu with the title of "Peng pot (Hu) – Feng Ru tea". On the large teapot embedded empty and transparent painted bowls, with lights at the bottom. In night, the lights will shoot out through the empty and transparent painted bowls it is very beautiful! Meanwhile, the painted bowl is also known as "Wind Bowl". When the wind is heavy, the wind will blow into the inside of the large teapot through the empty and transparent “Wind Bowl”, making a "whirring" sound, very special! The dark appearance of the large teapot symbolizes Penghu basalt. So, its style is meaningful you’d better not just have a look, for maybe you can hear the wind!

The first floor is the service hall. You are recommended to go to the second floor, because there is much information you need spend half a day to read.

On the second floor, the first sight is the introduction of Penghu’s history, which is very meaningful. According to the discovery of prehistoric cultural sites in the early Neolithic age, as early as 5,000 years ago, there were human activities in Penghu but it is a strange and unsolved phenomenon that 1,000 years ago prehistoric peoples all suddenly left Penghu. Only till the Tang and Song Dynasty, were there Han Chinese living in Penghu.

Then, from 1604 when the Dutch occupied Penghu till now, the Life Museum enormously referred to literature data, pictures, and models to make a detailed description of Penghu's history. Among them, you can especially note that in 1986, Penghu resident Mr. Huang Chia-Chin accidentally discovered a sunken ship on the General Island, which was named as "General I" in the reign of Qing Qianlong Emperor. The Taiwan government started a very famous archaeological salvage project, and this particularly valuable history is reflected through the porcelain relics exhibited in the Life Museum. In addition, there are films about detailed records of the "General I" salvage at that time, very worth a look.

Go forward and you will arrive at the area where Penghu people make religious worship. There exhibited the tools and food of ritual ceremonies, as well as the worship customs. Go upstairs, there introduces the famous Tsai House, the marriage customs, the principle of stone fish weir, and the model of traditional Wangan Settlement elaborately made by a ratio of 1:30. There are even detailed introduction of the unique praise song of Penghu and Octave, and music played for the tourists.

To visit Penghu Living Museum is the first step to understand the Penghu. Frankly speaking, you must be psychologically prepared that it must take half a day to carefully watch the heritage, data, and history introduced in the Life Museum. Do not gain a superficial understanding through cursory observation, because through the detailed introduction in Penghu Living Museum, when you enjoy the white clouds, blue sky and beautiful sea waves of Penghu, you will deeply understand how long geological movement it takes to form the shell sand under your feet! How long geological movement it takes to form the basalt, the craftsmanship of the Mother Nature! And when you pass by the old house made by Lao-Gu stones, you will appreciate the unique architectural features of Penghu people!

These are not recorded in books, so I much recommend visiting Penghu Living Museum, and you will find that you will get more than you imagined!