Penghu

Song dynasty (1170–1279)
Yuan dynasty (1281–1368)
Ming dynasty (1368–1622, 1624–1644)
Dutch Empire (1622–1624)
Kingdom of Tungning (1661–1683)
Qing dynasty (1683–1895)
Empire of Japan (1895–1945)
Republic of China (1945–present)

The Penghu (/ˈpʌŋˈhuː/ PUNG-HOO, Hokkien POJ: Phîⁿ-ô͘  or Phêⁿ-ô͘ ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait, about 50 kilometres (25 nautical miles) west of the main island of Taiwan across the Penghu Channel, covering an area of 141 km² (54 sq mi). The archipelago collectively forms Penghu County. The largest city is Magong, on the largest island, which is also named Magong.

The Penghu islands first appear in the historical record in the Tang dynasty and were inhabited by Chinese people under the Southern Song dynasty, during which they were attached to Jinjiang County of Fujian. The archipelago was formally incorporated as an administrative unit of China in 1281 under Tong'an County of Jiangzhe Province in the Yuan dynasty. It continued to be controlled by Imperial China with brief European occupations by the Dutch Empire (1622–1624) and Second French colonial empire (1885), until it was ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895. Japan’s surrender in 1945 ended its colonial rule over the Islands, which has since then been governed by the Republic of China (ROC). Under the terms of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the subsequent Taiwan Relations Act between the ROC and the United States, Penghu is defined and geographically acknowledged as part of Taiwan.

Penghu Islands rely solely on sea and air transportation, with air transport having a significant role in outside access. The islands are served by three local domestic airports: Penghu Airport, Qimei Airport, and Wang-an Airport. The Penghu National Scenic Area comprises most of the islands and islets of the archipelago. It is also renowned for its unique natural feature of columnar basalt landscape. Tourism is one of the main sources of income to the county.

The "Penghu" islands were mentioned in a series of poems from the Tang dynasty (618–907). In the Song dynasty (960–1279), it was mentioned that in the Tang period, "Pinghu" barbarians from beyond Quanzhou had laid siege to Fuzhou, now the capital of Fujian Province. In 1171, poet Lou Yue [zh] described a place across the sea from Quanzhou, identified as Penghu, that had thousands of sandbars called "Pinghu" (flat lake) because of the "encircling shape of its inner coastline". Song sources describe migrants from Fujian cultivating land on Pinghu. In 1225, the Song historian Zhao Rukuo called the islands attached to Jinjiang County "Penghu". In 1227, Wang Xiangzhi described Penghu as a group of 36 islands in an "outlying region" which took three days to reach by sailing from Jinjiang. In the Southern Min language, both Pinghu and Penghu are pronounced similarly, and scholars in Taiwan believe them to be the same place. In Southern Min it is pronounced Phêⁿ-ô·.

According to the official Penghu County Chronicle, Penghu's original name had been "Pinghu" (平湖), but as "Ping" (平) sounded similar to "Peng" (彭) in Hokkien, "Pinghu" (平湖) was also written as "Penghu" (彭湖), and ultimately the consensus, is to write "Penghu" (澎湖). The islands have also been called Pehoe from the Minnan name Phêⁿ-ô·.

The name "Pescadores" comes from the Portuguese name Ilhas dos Pescadores ("Fishermen Islands"). The European Portuguese pronunciation is [pɨʃkɐˈðoɾɨʃ] but, in English, it is typically closer to /ˌpɛskəˈdɔːrɪz, -iːz/.

Penghu 1, a fossil jaw (mandible) dating to the Middle or Late Pleistocene that belonged to a member of an extinct hominin species, possibly a Denisovan, was discovered in the Penghu Channel c. 2008.