There’s a story about the Thirty Man Ancestral Temple’s origin. According to an inscription inside the temple, in 1622, Holland sent warships to invade Magong. Thirty-six Hutou Island residents boarded a boat and attempted to repulse the invaders but were outnumbered and all died in battle. Villagers found the defenders’ corpses at two places on the seashore and buried them there. 

When the tide is out, residents dig for clams in the intertidal zone in front of the temple. Nearby, there’s a bike path where visitors can enjoy the seaside scenery and admire “Hi Rat,” a large artwork by sculptor Hong Yi. The Taiwanese term for dolphin is "sea rat" or "sea pig,” and the word for “sea” sounds like the informal English greeting “hi.” Hence, the blue-and-white porcelain-style sculpture combines the images of a dolphin and a rat. The Chinese character for “hi” appears on one ear, and “rat” is on the other. Penghu attractions, plants, animals, and historic sites are depicted on the body. Next to the sculpture, there’s a circular ground mosaic by artist Huang Bowei, featuring images of celestial chrysanthemums, cacti, stone fish traps, and other distinctive Penghu iconography.

Another attraction worth visiting in Houliao is the ornamental stone tablet in the Weiling Temple courtyard. According to legend, during the Daoguang period of the Qing dynasty, monsters and ghosts were making mischief in Fengkengkou, an area in the mountains between Houliao and the neighboring village of Tongliang. In 1842, Baosheng the Great, the deity enshrined in the Weiling Temple, instructed the people to add the Chinese character for “rain” to a four-character idiom meaning "demons and monsters" and inscribe it on a stone tablet to quell the evil spirits. It is a rare example of a dated stone tablet in Penghu.