Guosheng Lighthouse & Dingtoue Sandbar

The westernmost point of Taiwan proper is a black-and-white steel-lattice lighthouse standing alone on the Dingtou’e sandbar, the outer bar of Qigu Lagoon. The original was built in 1957 and wrecked by a typhoon in 1969; this one went up in 1970 and is 32.7 meters tall. Around it are rippled dunes with wind-cut S-shaped ridges that look like a desert, and nothing else built in any direction. The sun goes into the strait due west with the lighthouse as the only silhouette, and after dark it is one of the few places on the west coast with no light pollution.

It is a walk: about two kilometers each way along the north dike from the Black-faced Spoonbill exhibition hall, on sand and concrete, so a bike is the easier way in. Enter the sandbar from its south edge and stay off the wet patches on the lagoon side, where the sand gives way. The wind sandblasts you in the monsoon months, there is no shade or water, and you will walk back in the dark, so bring a headlamp. The Qigu Lagoon viewing tower (see writeup here) is the comfortable alternative on the same lagoon.