Pingtung

Pingtung (屏東) is the southernmost county in Taiwan. The alluvial plains east of the Gaoping River are home to the capital, Pingtung City, and most of the population of approximately 840,000, many of them descendants of Hakka and Teochew settlers. Head east into the foothills of the Central Mountain Range and you will find many Taiwanese indigenous groups, primarily Paiwan and Rukai, famous for their slate stone villages, with several sites predating the arrival of the European colonial powers in the 17th century. Pingtung also extends south to Hengchun, a historic frontier town with well-preserved city wall; the many white sand beaches of Kenting National Park; and Cape Eluanbi, the southernmost tip of Taiwan. Remote southern Pingtung was also the site of the Mudan Incident of 1871, which precipitated Japan’s first military expedition to Taiwan.