Qixingtan Beach - Hualien, Taiwan

Qixingtan means “Seven Star Lake,” but there’s no lake here. The name belonged to a lake on the land where Hualien Airport now sits. When the Japanese moved the fishing families who lived there down to this bay, they brought the name with them.

The line of floats out at sea marks a set net, a type of fixed fishing net the Japanese brought here in the 1920s. The warm Kuroshio Current carries migrating fish past this coast, and the fishermen check the nets three times a day: at dawn, at midday and in the evening.

Don’t let the calm water fool you. The beach is all pebbles, the seafloor drops away fast, and swimming is banned because of the strong currents. It faces east over the Pacific, so locals come for the sunrise instead. The camera belongs to Taiwan’s Water Resources Agency, which uses it to keep watch on the coast for disaster warnings.

Did You Know? The Sakizaya people, who lived here long before anyone else, call this beach Malongayangay.

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