Penghu Submarine Cable Landing Station

The landing point for the Anping-Penghu Telegraph Line (安平至澎湖電線), a submarine telegraph cable laid in 1887 under Governor Liu Mingchuan (劉銘傳), running from Anping (安平) in Tainan to the outskirts of Magong. The cable came ashore on the beach at Wanzaidi (灣仔底) in Jing’an Village (井垵里) and continued overland to government offices in the walled city. The line was re-laid in 1898, when the Japanese authorities built a landing room at the shore, staffed around the clock and known locally as Wanzaidi House (灣仔底厝). A backup cable followed in 1899 and a second link was established to the Taiwanese mainland at Budai (布袋) in 1917. Both cables were abandoned after the war in favour of a new line at Aimen (隘門), and the landing room passed to the military as a fishing-port inspection post. Nowadays it remains neglected on the coastal barrens south of the city.