Keelung's Peace Island (和平島) is a small island in the city's Chung Cheng district that is connected to the city by a small bridge.
The island has had an interesting history as it has been a colonial outpost for the Spanish, Japanese and most recently becoming a restricted military area for the Taiwanese armed forces. There is a residential section on the island, but the majority of the land was used for military purposes and restricted to the public for decades.
The government opened it to the public in 1989 and the Peace Island Coastal Park was opened shortly after allowing visitors to come to the island and tour. The island isn't your typical tourist destination as it doesn't have any famous dishes or many tourist attractions. It is nice to walk around though to experience an area that hasn't really changed in decades.
The Peace Island Coastal Park (和平島海角樂園) is a small park on the northern tip of the island which has excellent scenery, a great view of Keelung Island (基隆嶼) and offers the same type of geological beauty that you can find on the North East Coast of the country and at the Yehliu Geological Park (野柳地質公園）
The park is not especially big and if you are just going for some leisurely sight-seeing you don't need to plan much time to see the entire thing. For people who'd like to make it a day activity, there are areas for swimming in public swimming pools next to the ocean and there are areas to have picnics and a large field for kids to play in.
I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to Science. Despite only slightly enjoying classes in high school, I've develeped a strange interest in listening to podcasts that talk about new developments in science all night while working on photos.
The reason I mention this is because this park would make a great place for a field trip for Science students as it is a geological goldmine!
The movement of the earth, shifting of tectonic plates, crashing waves and rock weathering over a period of thousands of years have all been important factors in forming a rare and stunning geological landscape and should be the main reason for people visit the Peace Island Coastal Park - although I'm sure most people just look at the cool rocks and see shapes that look like animals! (A weird thing that Taiwanese people have a habit of doing)
The coastal landscape found here and on the North East Coast of the country is quite rare and a wonderland for visiting geologists.
Even if you are not a geologist you can still appreciate the almost moon-like rock formations and the hoodoo stones which are extremely rare in a coastal setting!
You also don't have to be a geologist to appreciate that these stones formed as the seabed rapidly rose out of the ocean during the Miocene geological event which took place between 5 to 23 million years ago!
Currently the people who work at the park would prefer guests not to stray away from the designated paths and it seems like they've recently set up fences to stop people from attempting to walk on the rocks to get closer to the water.
That didn't really stop me and I got close to the water and did some hopping around on the rocks. After spending about forty minutes exploring the coast however some staff at the park motioned for me to come back.
The maps on the park's website have quite a few spots listed that I was unable to check out and I think they would be great for long-exposure photography but they were completely blocked off. I hope that those areas are just under construction and are not going to be closed off forever as that would be a shame.
If you are planning a day on Keelung, or heading out to there to the Miaokou Night Market, you might want to spend an hour or so at this nice little park. You can take a bus from the train station (Bus 104) and get there in 20 minutes. There isn't really THAT much to do in Keelung, so I recommend this park!
Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)
