South Bay, also known by other names, is a bay and adjacent

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...

near

Hengchun Hengchun Township is a township located on the southern tip of the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County, Taiwan. It is the southernmost township in Taiwan. Hengchun is also the only urban township in the southern part of Pingtung County. Hengch ...

in Pingtung County,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. It is part of Kenting National Park.

Names

"South Bay" is a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language w ...

of the bay's

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

name, written in

traditional character Traditional Chinese characters are one type of standard Chinese character sets of the contemporary written Chinese. The traditional characters had taken shapes since the clerical change and mostly remained in the same structure they took at ...

s or in

simplified character Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, as prescribed by the ''Table of General Standard Chinese Characters''. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one o ...

s. It is also known as the Nanwan, from the Chinese name's pronunciation in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

; as and as Gualiang or

History

The bay used to be a whaling area during the Japanese rule. It is still home to small fishing villages.

Geography

The bay is bound on the west by

Cape Maobitou Cape Maobitou is a cape in the township of Hengchun in Pingtung County, Taiwan. It lies within Kenting National Park and forms the western boundary of South Bay. It is one of the southernmost points on Taiwan Island, sits opposite to the Cape El ...

and on the east by

Cape Eluanbi Cape Eluanbi or Oluanpi, also known by other names, is the southernmost point on the island of Taiwan. It is located in within the Hengchun Township in Pingtung County. Names ''Éluánbí'' is the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pr ...

. The beach has white sand and a length of around .

Facilities

The area around the beach provides facilities such as changing rooms, toilets, rental and sale of swimming equipment, restaurants and parking. Common activities at the beach and its surrounding areas are swimming, surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving etc.

Transportation

The beach is accessible by bus from Xinzuoying and

Kaohsiung Station Kaohsiung Main Station () is a railway and metro station in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan served by the Taiwan Railways and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit. It is one of four ''special class'' stations, the highest class with the most services. It ...

s, run by the

Taiwan Railways Administration Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is a railway operator in Taiwan. It is an agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, responsible for managing, maintaining, and running conventional passenger and freight railway services ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . Beaches of Taiwan Landforms of Pingtung County Tourist attractions in Pingtung County Bays of Taiwan {{Taiwan-geo-stub