HEPING ISLAND GEOPARK

If you look in the direction of the big green crane, you will see "Kimura Ironworks". It was established by Kyutaro Kimura in 1916. Later on, it was jointly funded and aquired by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Bank of Taiwan, it was renamed in 1937 as "Taiwan Ship Canal Co., Ltd.", which became the first large scale ship-building company in Taiwan, aka "CSBC Corporation Taiwan"

In 1936, during the archaeological excavation period, José Eugenio Borao Mateo, a professor from the Department of Foreign Languages in National Taiwan University, utilized previously used records and maps to infer that the location of the fort that was built by the Spanish in 1926 was at the same area as today's "Taiwan Ship Canal Co., Ltd."

In other words, the first fort that was built by the Spanish during the period of Spanish occupation in Taiwan, was around the location of "CSBC Corporation Taiwan"

As you can see from the archaic map, Heping Island was originally composed of three islands: Bush Island, Sheliao Island and Zhongshan Zi Island. Later on, the three islands were connected by artificial stuctures and land reclamation. And where we are now, ""Heping Island Geopark"", was initially the location of Zhongshan Zi Island, which is connected to the main island of Taiwan by a merely 75 meter-long cross-sea bridge - ""Heping Bridge"" during the Japanese colonial period.

The severe marine erosion and weathering has not only given the island a distinctive geomorphy. but has also caused garbage accumulation. Generally we assume that the accumulation of garbage at sea would come from the litter from tourists, the fact is, this garage has come from all over the world. With that being said, beach cleanup is definitely not the best way to solve the problem of marine waste, let's try to avoid creating unnecessary trash in the future instead!

In the beginning, the people of the aboriginal Basay tribe were the only residents living in Heping Island. In 1626, the Spanish built "Fort San Salvador" soon after they arrived. The Dutch have already been here for 23 years by 1668, In 1884, during the Sino-French War, this land was dominated by the French military, after that, it also experienced Japanese colonial rule.

"Sheliao Island Temple"（社寮外嶋集善堂）enshrines Wan Shan Gong（萬善公）.The temple is similar to a miniature version of the United Nations, as it carries the remains of ancestors from the past 400 years, as well as stories from ancient times. Even until now, every Feburary, over 20 Okinawan descendants of those who used to live in Heping Island will return to worship their ancestors with souvenirs from their hometown.

The biggest Ryukyu fishing village is loacted in Heping Island, in which the population once reached 500.

Here we can see the ""Mr. Chouzou Uchima Prototype Statue"" standing right in front of us. He was the most famous Ryukyu resident in the village. Long before, the Ryukyu people taught the locals to fish and collect gelidium by diving, as well as the skill of using harpoons and operating canoes, as well as the methods for observing the tide and the stars. By passing on the knowledge of marine life to the locals, Mr. Chouzou Uchima was portrayed as ""The God of The Ocean"" by Keelung fishermen. The Mr. Chouzou Uchima Prototype Statue was therefore built to commemorate and to appreciate the amicable friendship between the Ryukyu people and Taiwan.

In Heping Island, we hope to convey the thought of ecological sustainability and marine conservation. We wish to give you a deeper understanding of this land through the audio guide. After this guide, we hope that you could even assist in safeguarding our earth!

However, we certainly cannot control the nature, due to falling rocks and tidal variation, this area is only opened from May to September every year, we must follow the instructions below before entering:
1. Be equipped with a safety helmet and anti-skid shoes that cover your feet.
2. Follow the trail, do not push or step on rocks.
3. Follow the guide, be aware of the whistle sound and the area closing time.

Legend says that when the world was separated by 2 entities - earth and ocean, they were in a constant struggle for the eternal magical gemstone. After many years of combat, the island chief Pharaoh, in order to achieve peace on the island, decided to give away the magic of the Gemstone. The eternal magical gemstone turned into the ""10 guardian rocks,"" safe-guarding the place day after day. Let's go find the 10 guardian rocks. Look up to the right, one of the 10 guardian rocks ""King Kong"" is right before your eyes. He is guarding the entrance to Alabao Bay to ensure the safety of the rock preservation area. Keep walking and you'll see the ""Seal Rock"" to your left, who has a pair of big ears and friendly eyes. He is accompanying us on our exploratory journey.
The wave-cut platform next to the trail is rich in ecological diversity, which is not only the best location for female divers to collect seaweed, but also an excellent environment for learning and observing tidal variations.

Next, on the marine eroded vertical sea cliff, we can see the most benevolent guardian rock, "Pharaoh".

The geological time of Heping Island dates back to the Daliao formation 23 million years ago. Now, let's calm our minds down. Imagine you're riding a time machine and you arrived here 23 million years back. Raise your head and open your eyes. Imagine you're 10 to 20 meters under the sea. Marine creatures such as tube worms and crabs are moving around you, digging holes and foraging. Back then, this sea area was stable and rich in biodiversity. Many creatures inhabited this place.

Back to the present, thanks to crustal deformation, marine erosion and weathering, this area has become a steep marine eroded cliff. As you can see on your right side, the cement trail was damaged by falling rocks. Becasue of this, island workers have built a gabion wall in order to have a safe but ecological friendly pathway. In order to maintain the health of the shore's ecosystem, the path along the trail contains cracks and crevices that are parts of the area's ecosystem. Please be careful when walking on the path.

Due to tidal variation, it is quite often to see garbage floating in the sea or accumulated on steep rugged land. Island workers are hard at work to increase cleaning frequency, however, we also request that travelers to the Island also do their part in reducing waste. Let's all take the first step to keep the Earth clean!

In Heping Island Geopark, you have probably noticed that there's different colors of layers in rocks, if you look closely, you might find them in yellow, greenish grey and dark grey. These rocks with colorful layers resembling a mille crepe cake are known as "sedimentary rocks".

Geologists ascertained that the land in Keelung from Heping Island to the coastline of Ba Douzi and Ruifang are part of the Daliao formation. This layer of rock was pressed with sandrock and shale, which originally belonged to the sea bed 10 meters below sea level. As time goes by, the movement of tectonic plates push the rocks up to the sea surface, becoming a unique geological characteristic on the coast.

One of the 10 guardian rocks ""Crocodile Tears"" is before you, lying and tearing. Have you noticed?
I see that you're all quite observant.

Apart from the ""Crocodile Tears"", you might have noticed the strange, long, straw-shaped objects on both sides of the rock, can anyone guess what they are? Indeed! these are the ""trace fossils of tube worms"".This type of fossil does not come from an organism's parts. Rather, they are marks left by prehistoric life – in this case, tube worms' – these markings include crawling marks, trailing marks and holes that they dug.

Long ago, Pharaoh once saved an injured young black kite, which was loyal to him from then on. When the Pharaoh gave up the magic from the eternal magical gemstone, the black kite turned into one of the rocks among the ""10 guardian rocks"". Have you found ""The Black Kite""? Look at its exceptional hooked beak and the ready-to-soar stance, can't resist taking pictures of it, right?

To maintain the ecosystem, it is not allowed to capture any kind of creatures except seaweeds and algae in Heping Island. Comparing the observation result from 2022 and the year previous, the different types of algae has increased from 6 to 10, its coverage has also lifted from 14.95% to 30.04%. The variety of organisms inhabited in the nearby intertidal zone has risen from 18 species and 16 families to 28 species and 20 families. At the end of 2021, the largest sized lunella was discovered in this area, its body size even breaking the record in Taiwan.

Right in front of us, you may see many mushroom-shaped rocks, known as the pedestal rocks. There are 4 phases in the evolution of pedestal rocks - the thick-necked phase, when they look like king oyster mushrooms; the slim-necked phase, when they resemble white beech mushrooms; the neckless phase, when they look like mushroom stems, and finally the headless phase, when they look like truffles that only expose its head. At last, when the rocks begin weathering, they become strong soil that nurtures the land and plants surrounding it, just like the circle of life. Do you consider rocks as a living thing too? I'll leave that for you to decide.

The pedestal rocks in this area are also called the ""Emperor's Palace"", since it reminds us of the view of when an emperor is receiving a tribute from courtiers in ancient times.

Here we are at the falling rock area, please watch your step and pass quickly, do not stay to take pictures. Please also be aware of the slippery ground, this area is often submerged by the ocean which causes algae blooms.

Below the sea cliff where it meets the ocean, strong waves keeps eroding the wall, which causes multiple sea notches on the wall. By looking at the sea notches, therefore, it is usually possible to tell the changes of sea level in different periods of time. As the effect of marine erosion continues, sea notches might eventually merge and became a huge sea cave under the cliff.

In the 1950s, members of the the Amis people; an indigenous tribe in Hualien County and Taitung County, began to migrate to Heping Island to live off the land, having been here for more than 60 years already. The name of Alabao Bay comes from a Amis word - ""Alapawan"", which means ""drifting land"", to remind the Amis to keep their hometown and identity in mind at all times without losing themselves.

Along with the passage of time, the culture of Heping Island was built and mixed together through it's different ethnicities. If you're interested in knowing more stories about this land, we are welcoming you to join us through our Aboriginal Cultural Activities, to experience a special connection with this beautiful and historical land.

Over there is the ""The Leopard"", the most mysterious rock among the ""10 guardian rocks"". It only reveals itself when the tide is falling and the weather is clear, It is walking toward to the shore; can you see it?

Alabao bay was once selected as one of the "The 21 Most Beautiful Destinations to Watch The Sunrise in the World." Here in spring, the view is like a painting, with the bean curd rocks bearing green algae. It's like being surrounded by mocha flavored rocks, which brings us an amazing breathtaking view. Due to marine erosion, the rocks are cut into squares and cubes, which brings us to the name of bean cured rock, or tofu rock, because of its special tofu-shaped look.

Over there, you can see an over 20 meter wide natural marine cave, called ""the Dutch Cave"". Legend has it that during the 17th century, when Zheng Chengong repelled the Dutch, one employee from Dutch East India Company left a mark that was written in Old Dutch on the wall inside of a Dutch cave. The mark was dicovered by a Japnese anthropologist, Ino Kanori, while doing field research of the Pingpu people in Northeast Taiwan, which became an invaluable historical record for Taiwan.

However, since the cave is closed to the sea, after many years of marine erosion, weathering and man-made sabotage, the mark has become indecipherable.

Have you noticed the lines on the rocks? They are called ""joints"" in geological terms. Joints happen when rocks break in response to stress and result in multiple fractures with the same orientation.

Nature is continuing its work in eroding these fractures, some of them eventually become sea groves; some of them instead, avoid getting deeper cuts from marine erosion, they are given an extraordinary appearance that resembles a Japanese flooring Tatami and thereby, we call them "One Thousand Tatamis".

The Scenic Pavilion here has a beautiful name - ""Den-Yu Pavilion"", the word ""Yu"" refers to the Keelung Islet (Keelung Yu) ahead of you. ""Den-Yu Pavilion"" (Den-Yu-Ting) also contains the meaning of ""waiting for the rain to stop"", since during the winter, it's always raining in Keelung, are you staying inside the pavilion waiting for the rain to stop too?

For generations, the ""Den-Yu Pavilion"" has played a vital role for Keelung Harbor. People believed that not only can it dispel evil spirits and avoid disasters, but it can also bring blessings from God as well. You might find it surprising that while most of the rocks on Heping Island are sedimentary rocks, the terrains of the Keelung Islet are formed by igneous rocks.

Under the ocean between Heping Island and the Keelung Islet, there is a threshold, or a submarine sill. A submarine sill is a sea floor barrier of relatively shallow depth restricting water movement between basins, which is caused by quickly rising the ground by tectonic plate movements. This kind of geological phenomenon brings out a special view. You can see that one side of the water is fully-filled with jumping waves while the other side is extremely peaceful. It's even more obvious during high tides and low tides.

During spring in Heping Island Geopark, sea hares often appear in groups. They have a pair of cute rhinophores on their head which look like the ears of rabbits. Have you noticed the giant "Sea Hare" in front of you? It's heading to its favorite food, algae.

Hey! Does that look familiar to you? ""The Sphinx"" is the steadiest rock among the ""10 guardian rocks"". It turns out that there's no need to visit Egypt to see a sphinx, as here in Taiwan we have one too!

Can you tell me what color you see on this rock at first sight? That's right, there's yellow, grey and black. Each color indicates a different formation and texture. For instance, take a look at the mushroom like shape in the pedestal rocks before you, the black color on its head indicates that it is made of sandrock that contains calcium and can withstand weathering; its yellow neck shows that it is also made of sandrock, but is without calcium, which means it is easily eroded. Different formations of the rock consequently played a pivotal role during the weathering process, which in this case, result in this unique mushroom-shaped rock. Over there, there are more than 200 pedestal rocks on the abrasion platform, just like thousands of heads gathering in front of us, therefore, it has been nicknamed "the pile of ten-thousand-people"

Heping Island Geopark is managed by a group of young people that are specialized in different fields, such as environmental education, sightseeing tourism, marine culture development, etc. They came from different backgrounds, but were all gathered by one single goal, which is turning Heping Island into an island of international tourism. While the island is becoming more and more developed, they are dedicated to protect the nature as well. By maintaining the unique geological view as much as possible, they build a more eco-sustainable environment for Heping Island Geopark.

This area used to be a camping site. We encourage you to join our package tour - Chill Together, to have a thorough journey from the mountain to the ocean, explore the nature from nighttime to daytime. We hope you can have a marvelous experience, and find your peace in Heping Island Geopark.

Here is the "Angel To the Sea Marina", the best spot for photo shoots in the park. To the left, you can see a lying mummy-shaped Yehliu Headland. To the right, you can see the "Bitou Cape". The ocean facing you is the East China Sea. Imagine walking on the trail towards the ocean, as you feel the sea breeze blowing on your body. Make sure to capture the moment and share it with your friends!

The "Blue Ocean Pool" is one of the most popular sites in Heping Island Geopark. It is famed for its clear blue water, and the attraction of being encountered by the typical marine creatures such as clownfish and swimming crabs under the sea. To ensure your safety, there's a lifeguard station and professional standby personnel beside the pool.

Here, we also have a pet-friendly swimming zone. Rental life vests for your pets can be found in the service center.

Please keep in mind that mineral-based sunscreens are better for the marine environment, it is absolutely a win-win to enjoy the nature and protect the marine creatures at the same time.

For childern to also get close to the ocean, our Kiddie Pool is designed to be only 50 to 70 cm deep. In here, children can swim with fish safely without getting disturbed by sea waves. There is also a lifeguard stand beside the pool, so parents can rest assured to swim with their children.

Welcome to "Summer Stay Beach"! In the past, there was no beach on Heping Island. In order to create a safe environment for children to play in the water and the sand, Summer Stay Beach was built for the children's safety, it is also an ideal place for adults to rest and enjoy sunbathing.

In Summer Stay Beach, you can see a beautiful land art by the artist, A-Shui, and his partners. This bamboo-made land art was been carefully handcrafted and been chosen to be made of natural materials instead of artificial ones, which conveys the idea of ecological sustainability. In here, we hope to provide a chill and cozy area for our visitors, as well as protect our natural land at the same time.
Here, we hope to replace unrecyclable artificial materials with natural ones, providing comfort to every guest while helping to protect our beautiful land.

The very first Spanish fort in Taiwan, Fort San Salvador was built on Heping Island by the Spanish during the Spanish occupation period in 1626. 400 years later, the original fort is nowhere to be seen. But its history inspired future generations, Heping Island Geopark therefore built a visitor center that looks just like Fort San Salvador to show the respect for the past.

Long ago, Heping Island Geopark was a place that people can enter to play in the water or to have a barbecue at anytime. In 2018, Island workers decided to protect its local culture, prioritize the land and its water, and dedicate themselves to promote the island as an ""International Eco-friendly Island"". In October 2020, Heping Island Geopark was awarded by the BSI a certifiacation of ""ISO 20121 Event sustainability management systems"", becoming the first national tourist attraction that was certified by the BSI in Asia.

Buckle up! We are arriving at the part of Heping Island Geopark that has never been opened before. This place used to be a military operations area. Now, we are currently standing where soldiers used to stop people for inspection. You can even see the word "檢查", meaning inspection, still written on the ground next to the military sentry box.

After following the rainbow stairs for 101 steps, we are now at the hidden spot that only locals know about. This Radar Café used to be a Radar Station. After going through a huge and bold renovation, you probably cannot imagine how the building looked like in the past. However, the designer kept the military symbols - camouflage patterns, that are actually, cleverly integrated everywhere.

Since we got all the way here to the highest point in Heping Island Geopark, don't miss out the chance to enjoy afternoon tea from Radar Café. Outside of the building, there is an outdoor space and an observatory, with a perfect view of 270-degrees, you can either take in the boundless ocean view, or gaze far into the Keelung Islet which is 3.3 km from here. If you look down , one of the ""10 guardian rocks"" - ""The Mudskipper"" is hidden next to the trail, you can see it with popping eyes, swimming offshore.

At the first floor of Fort San Salvador, you can find the tourist information center, breast-feeding room, restroom, shower room and Muslim prayer room. Apart from that, to promote environmental protection, there's an area of second hand book collections for visitors to read and rest.

In Heping Island Geopark, we value eco-sustainability. You can find many kinds of eco-friendly merchandise in our souvenir shop, such as bath salt and shampoo bars as a substitute for traditional plastic-toiletries. After getting the gifts for yourself and your loved ones, you can also ask for a free used-shopping bag to carry any gifts.

If you look out from the outdoor terrace, you can see "The Boar Head" with it's long ears and round eyes looking back at us. Let's go take a picture with it! At the outdoor terrance, you can watch the incredible view of the Keelung Islet and enjoy the amazing Taiwanese food and beverages from the restaurant nearby. Or if you prefer to stay indoors, there's also indoor tables for tourists to sit and relax.

On the third floor, we have a fantastic coffeehouse in that uses coffee beans that are baked by the winner of the World Barista Championship; Berg Wu. Each cup of coffee comes in different intriguing flavors, you can also try out our snack that combines Taiwanese traditional ingredients. We did not forget about your pet! Pet meals are available in our coffeehouse as well, we hope you enjoy your time and meals in this afternoon!

In 2018, “Friendly SEED”, the founder of the marine education brand, “Adagio Island”, established the main environmental education base called "Adagio-Island-360" in Heping Island Geopark. Through this fun-filled and hands-on experience for adults and children. Not only can we get closer to the ocean, but we can also learn about protecting our planet!