Feeding the Clouds
(Xiaoliuqiu, 16/16)

The view towards Kaohsiung (高雄市), some 30-ish km north of Xiaoliuqiu. Kaohsiung is the second largest city of Taiwan, its biggest harbor, and manufacturing center, especially when it comes to heavy industries like steel, oil refining, and shipbuilding. When seen from the small island, its art and culture centers are invisible, the smokestacks all you can see. A giant machine, seemingly birthing the clouds above.

This concludes our visit to Xiaoliuqiu. We might come back to the other side of this straight and visit Kaohsiung at another time.

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Turtles
(Xiaoliuqiu, 15/16)

The most important "sight" of Xiaoliuqiu is that of its famous Green Sea Turtles. I've heard people referring to the island as "Turtle Island," which lead to a lot of confusion when talking to Taiwanese, as there is an actual Turtle Island right at the opposite side of Taiwan, close to Waiao Beach.

We were a bit anxious that we would miss the turtles during the days we were here. But our fears were totally unmerited. There were always some 3-6 turtles in the vicinity of the beach, sometimes just a few meters off shore, where the water was so shallow that I was able to walk there with my camera.

Diving along these pacific creatures was deeply meditative, an experience so timeless that it not only grounded me in the moment but seemed to veil time itself.

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Incantations
(Xiaoliuqiu, 12/16)

Liuqiu’s East coast is even more rugged than its West, with rusty old harbor infrastructure leaving only small and hidden paths towards the sea.

It’s a rugged place, calm, silent. If the west belongs to the forest and mountain spirits, this is the place where the water spirits come ashore.

Here and there, visitors have left small incantations, pieces of wood, leaning against the rocks like giant tuning forks; or heaps of stone in the form of a turtle.

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Gnomes
(Xiaoliuqiu, 11/16)

There is something mythical about the paths surrounding Xiao Liuqiu island, an otherworldly union of water, air, stone, and roots.

According to Wikipedia, in 1622 the Dutch ship Goude Leeuw ("Golden Lion") hit the island's coral reefs, after which its entire crew was massacred by the island's natives. Nine years later, the Dutch yacht Beverwijck wrecked on the same reefs. "Its fifty-odd survivors battled for two days before also being slaughtered to a man." Taiwan was a Dutch colony at that time, under the rule of the Dutch East India company. Its governor-general Hendrik Brouwer ordered the natives to be "punished and exterminated." An expedition in 1933 found a large cave where the local Lameyans sought refuge but failed to succeed in their gruesome mission.

Three years later then an even larger expedition of several hundred Dutch soldiers came to the island and chased the Lameyans into the cave. They sealed its entrances, only leaving small holes where they burned pine wood and sulphur. The screams and pleads of the natives echoed eight days over the island. Then there was silence again. 300 men, women and children have suffocated during this _Lamey Island Massacre_, 323 more were captured as they tried to flee the cave and sold into slavery.

In the decades following the massacre, the telling of course of events was distorted on its path through history. It was moved thirty years back to a time when the Dutch already fled Taiwan after being defeated by Southern Ming general Koxinga. Thus, instead of the Dutch, legend has that it was the British who burned the cave. Most importantly though, it was not Lameyan aboriginals who died there, but "negros" escaping from their Dutch units. The cave is named after these illusionary victims, the "Black Spirit Cave."

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Wild Boar Trail
(Xiaoliuqiu, 10/16)

A band of trails curls along the limestone rocks and cliffs that surround Xiao Liuqiu (小琉球嶼). As "Wild Boar Trench Trail" and "Black Spirit Cave" (GoogleMaps even refers to it as "Black Devil Cave"), they offer an adventurous path for tourists, leading through caves and along the shore. At each passage, small signs warn the wanderer to mind his or her head.

There is something mythical about the paths, an otherworldly union of water, air, stone, and roots. Narrow steps carved into rocks. Small gnomes hidden at the wayside. Roots reaching out for the wanderer. Stone turtles rising from the rocks, as if to strive towards the sea.

Indeed, if there is a place inhabited by spirits or haunted by ghosts on the island, it is this area. We will find out why tomorrow.

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Reminiscence of fish
(Xiaoliuqiu, 09/16)

[Xiao Liuqiu](https://bensahlmueller.com/xiaoliuqiu/)‘s fishing industry has mostly been replaced by its tourism industry. And yet it still shapes the island, its boats, buoys, nets, and icons still everywhere to be found.

Most of its remnants seem to be focused around Dafu Fishing Port (大福漁港), the biggest fishing harbor of the island, positioned on its east side.

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Luminiscence
(Xiaoliuqiu, 08/16)

Walking along the trails in the first night, we tried the beaches for the next day. Down at Xiao Liuqiu's biggest, Venice Beach, we saw some faint luminance out in the sea. Becoming excited, we expected bio-luminescent algae out in the water, and quickly tried to get a better view.

Stepping out onto a platform after a fast hike a bit later, we had to admit we were fooled. The light was the focused ray of night divers close to Shanfu Fishing Harbor (杉福漁港). And yet we were lucky for it, stumbling on a cozy BBQ close to the water. Built into some old ruins, it had a rather Mediterranean flair - even despite its Japanese style.

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