Pursuant to the "2018 Bay Tourism Year" along with the addition of the "2018 The Most Beautiful Bays in the World (MBBW)", an annual meeting held as an international promotion highlight, the festival has integrated various tourism promotion activities and sports events and connected tourism elements to plan a series of events revolving around the theme of the 3^rd Penghu Autumn Festival. The series of events hopefully can reshape the image and features of Penghu’s autumn and winter tourism, the high-quality brand of the tours to attract tourists to visit Penghu!

"The 3^rd Penghu Autumn Festival" event series includes: The Swim across Penghu
Bay – One of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World from September 22^nd to September 23^rd, the Penghu International Light Festival from September 27^th to November 3^rd, the Gaillardia Island National Beach Woodball Tournament from October 4^th to October 7^th, the Gaillardia Island Kite Exhibition from October 6^th to October 7^th, the Gaillardia Island Tourism Cup for badminton and basketball from October 12^th to October 15^th, the Gaillardia Island Tourism Cup for slow-pitch softball and volleyball from October 18^th to October 21^st, the Gaillardia Island Penghu Cross-Sea Marathon on November 4^th, and the 2018RS: ONE World Championship from November 3^rd to November 8^th. The event series also combines and integrates exciting tourism promotional events such as the MBBW annual meeting and Island Carnival.

On September 4^th, the event’s promotional press conference was held on the 1^st floor of the Tourism Bureau Service Center of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC). Zhang Xi-Cong, deputy director of the MOTC, presided over press conference and previewed the "Penghu International Light Festival - Starlight Mazu Festival" dance performance. He also announced the first batch of 4,000 tourism passports that have gifts through stamps and an additional lottery prize of a free trip exceeding NT$ 250,000 in value. Three island business owners were also invited to the press conference that were voted in from the "Explore Taiwan 10+ Island show your island" voting event: Qimei, Jibei, and Yuwengdao islands to promote offshore island tourism. They invited domestic and foreign visitors to experience the autumn and winter beauty of Penghu.


The Penghu International Light Festival creates the first interactive ocean lighting park in Taiwan
The "Penghu International Light Festival" planned for this year's Autumn Festival event series will have 18 light shows held at the Guanyin Pavilion from September 27^th to November 3^rd. The event will be held from 7 PM to 9 PM using interactive technology to create the first interactive ocean lighting park in Taiwan and a Starlight Mazu Light Theater. There will also be 12 large-scale evening concerts that feature fireworks and lanterns to illuminate the evening sky of Penghu’s autumn and winter, making every Thursday, Friday and Saturday that much more eventful and exciting. The event’s theme of the “Mazu Festival” uses lighting, music, and elements of Mazu as an opening to create an innovative way of interaction by combining technology with lighting. The presentation is an invitation for people to embark on a magical adventure on Gaillardia Island, and experience a variety of interesting interactions with the lights.

This festival will break through the restrictions of Xiying Rainbow Bridge’s structure by setting up controllable lighting on vertical piers and columns of the bridge to increase the area available of lighting and giving audiences an entirely new visual experience. In addition, Penghu’s Twin-Hearts Stone Weir has been combined with lighting to create a one-of-a-kind light theater, showcasing entirely new visual effects and creating an impactful and immersive visual feast of light using a 360-degree all-round stage. This festival has also custom-built interactive lighting devices, which allows visitors to change the colors of the lights on the Rainbow Bridge when touching the magical sphere. The beautiful colors and exciting presentation is bound to increase the visibility of Penghu’s autumn and winter tourism: creating new event highlights and a new wave of autumn and winter tourism!

Times for the shows
*9/27(四)、9/28(五)、9/29(六)、10/4(四)、10/5(五)、10/6(六)、*10/10(三)、10/12(五)、10/13(六)、10/18(四)、10/19(五)、10/20(六)、10/25(四)、10/26(五)、*10/27(六)、11/1(四)、11/2(五)、*11/3(六)
*The remaining shows will coordinate with the county government’s 5-minute firework shows as a combination with the county carnival.
*There will be 4 large-scale evening concerts combined with the county government, and the other 8 concerts will be held at the Penghu National Scenic Area Administration


Ocean and Land Competitions One after Another, Fun in Penghu during Autumn and Winter
The commencement of the 3^rd Penghu Autumn Festival includes a series of sporting events: The Swim across Penghu Bay – One of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World from September 22^nd to September 23^rd, the Gaillardia Island National Beach Woodball Tournament from October 4^th to October 7^th, the Gaillardia Island Kite Exhibition from October 6^th to October 7^th,the Gaillardia Island Tourism Cup for badminton and basketball from October 12^th to October 15^th, the Gaillardia Island Tourism Cup for slow-pitch softball and volleyball from October 18^th to October 21^st, the Gaillardia Island Penghu Cross-Sea Marathon on November 4^th, and the 2018RS: ONE World Championship from November 3^rd to November 8^th. These sporting events will promote island scenery, marine ecology, and leisure activities and we sincerely invite domestic and foreign visitors to take part in the festivities!
All of the sporting events integrate the “Tastes of Penghu,” inviting participants to experience the beautiful scenery of Penghu. For example, during "The Swim across the Most Beautiful Bay in the World,” participants can experience the soft waves of the sea during the 5km swim from Daguoye to Guanyin Pavilion, and they can also look at the beautiful underwater coral reefs and schools of small fish. " The Gaillardia Island Penghu Cross-Sea Marathon " is a race that does not bounce between A and B points, isn’t encircled, and does not have repeated scenery during the race. The island-hopping and cross-ocean race starts from Siyu Township and runs through Baisha Township and Huxi Township back to the main island. There are also some exciting warm-up events prior to the main marathon: “Public Welfare – I Love Penghu. Protect the Ocean and Clean the Beach,” “Party – Night of the Mysterious Superstar,” and, “Gourmet – Penghu Michelin Food Carnival,” that integrates community package experiences and travel agencies provide travel package choices for the public and athletes to deeply explore and experience the beauty of Penghu.
This year’s "National Beach Woodball Tournament" will be held at the Jibei’s Shawei Beach, one of the Top 10 most charming islands of Taiwan. The event also combines local tourism and experiencing community specialties, and is an invitation to explore Penghu's unique charm and local features during the athletes' downtime, so that they can create a fun and unforgettable Penghu experience!


Tourism Passports Deals, Collect Stamps to win a Free Trip of Penghu and other Great Prizes
Tourists that visit Penghu in the autumn and winter will receive endless benefits with the imminent introduction of "the 3^rd Penghu Autumn Festival Discount Passport!" In addition to introducing information such as the Autumn Festival’s events, seasonal tours, travel services, and transportation, the passport has also been combined with high-quality businesses to provide discount programs on food, accommodation, travel, shopping, and other beneficial discount deals. The tourism passports will be given out at tourism centers with complementary measures: just present the discount page and you can enjoy special offers at designated shops! For example, spend NT$3,000 at the Profond Pier 3 duty-free shop a single purchase to enjoy a NT$150 discount for 1 time; get 50% off on the second item of the same purchase from the high-quality “The Best Seafood Sauce from Penghu Islands” souvenir shop, and get up to 60% off on Penghu’s legal hostel accommodations. The various amount of discount offers show the passion Penghu has for welcoming domestic and foreign tourists.
During the event, you can use your tourism passport to shop at designated shops. Purchases over NT$ 200 can get a stamp on the stamp page of the passport; passports that have 3 stamps can go to one of the three listed visitor centers (Penghu Visitor Center, Magong Airport Tourist Service Center, South Sea Visitor Center) to exchange those stamps for a limited souvenir (1 souvenir per passport). In addition to getting a limited souvenir, people can also take a photo of their passport’s stamp page and a photo of themselves touring Penghu (the passport holder must be in the photo). The people must upload the photos to a designated website and fill in information to have a chance at a free trip exceeding NT$ 250,000 in value and other major prizes! The prizes include a 3-day 2-night Tour of the Penghu Port at night for 4 people; a 3-day 2-night tour of Gaillardia Island's 22 Alley for a family of 6, a 4-day 3-night ocean rainbow island-hopping trip for 2 and many more! People are welcome to grab their own passport, invite friends and family to join in on having fun around Penghu!


In-depth experience of Autumn and Winter Communities in Penghu, Roam the Fishing villages and Landscapes
People are most impressed with the lively scenery of Penghu’s summer, but Penghu's autumn and winter also have unique and fascinating landscape. Under the guidance of the Penghu National Scenic Area Administration, the Nanliao, Beiliao, and Caiyuan communities have unique natural and cultural features. A number of special tour experiences will be launched in conjunction with the 3^rd Autumn Festival for people to sign up, which includes a half-day tour of “Beiliao Fresh Fishing Tour,” where people can experience being a 1-day fisherman, walk through the community, tour the geological scenery, roam the fishing villages, learning the skills of longline fishing and hooking, and tasting white mouth croaker cuisine. The half-day tour of “Roaming the Vegetable Gardens – Craft Fish Scale Flowers,” where tourists visit the Caiyuan community that relies on cage culturing and oysters, experience the inland sea culturing, the recycling of fish scales and clam shells to create handmade fish scale flowers, and even taste the delicious combination of fresh oysters with Penghu vermicelli!
People can also choose to go on a 1 to 2.5-hour light tour of “A Sweet Tour of Nanliao,” where people get to “come bake some sweet potatoes,” and recreate Penghu childhood memories by using white popinac and cow feces to build a smoldering earth oven on the sand. “What the Peanuts Is Going On,” allows people to experience how local masked women plow the fields to grow peanuts and have people roast the peanuts themselves using sea sand. The "Interesting Grinding Experience" allows people to use a traditional stone mortar to grind soybeans, filter the self-grinded soybeans, and then make it into soybean milk into soybean pudding. After finishing the experience, people can have a taste of local Penghu seafood and traditional gnocchi made out from pumpkins.
People may want to slow down to deeply explore and experience the local beauty of Penghu during autumn and winter. Extend the vitality of Penghu’s summer tourism into the autumn and winter, and transition from the rushed sightseeing itinerary to a relaxing experience of Penghu’s deep beauty. From now on, Penghu can be toured all year round and every season in Penghu is fun!


Gaillardia Island Miniature Art Festival Season "Big Winds Blow," Landscape Art Festival and Banquet of Local Ingredients
With the 2018 MBBW Annual Meeting held in Penghu at the end of September, the Gaillardia Island Miniature Art Festival took off and has a planned theme of “The Big Winds Blow” to direct 3 domestic and foreign artists to Penghu. Three landscape installations that can interact with the sea breeze will be built within the Guanyin Ting Park to create a dialogue space between humanity and nature.
Hand-made workshops will be held during the exhibition, and people can have close interactions with international artists. In addition, we will invite young and popular chefs of Penghu to host a “Big Winds Blow” banquet. New dishes will be cooked using local and seasonal ingredients to create a unique dinner experience next to the landscape art. In addition, the special mini-tours limited to this timeframe will bring visitors into mysterious locations to taste special fishing-village cuisine during the winter, participate in creating installations with international artists, and exchange the stories of the sea with the seafarers! The big winds blow, but what are they blowing? The big winds will blow you towards an eager journey to Penghu.