Qigu Lagoon Viewing Tower

The Qigu lagoon is a wide, shallow stretch of water behind a sandbar on the Tainan coast, crossed by rows of oyster racks and worked by flat-bottomed boats. The viewing tower on its eastern shore lifts you above all of it, looking west across the water to the sandbar and the sea beyond, which is where the sun goes down.

This is Taijiang National Park country: salt pans, wetlands, and in winter the black-faced spoonbills that the reserve to the south is known for. Boats cross the lagoon to the sandbar from the nearby wharves in the afternoon if you want to be out on the water for the light.