Sandiaojiao

It is said that in 1626, Spanish ships sailed from the Philippines to the waters off the northeastern tip of Taiwan. As the local place name was unknown, to facilitate logging in their nautical journals, they named this area San Diego in Latin. This practice of starting names with 'San' (Saint) was a Spanish custom, and it represents the earliest foreign record of Taiwan's northeastern tip. Early local ancestors then translated this into the Hokkien pronunciation 'Sandiao'. The 'Sandiao' landform is Taiwan's northeasternmost cape, thus it naturally became known as 'Sandiaojiao'. From this magnificent vista, the sea appears to 'climb' the ridge, with the ocean and sky merging into a single line as far as the eye can see. To the right, the waves of the Pacific Ocean are calm, while to the far left lies the East China Sea region. However, looking directly eastward from Sandiaojiao, the ocean surface is continuously covered with whitecaps, stretching across thousands of hectares. This is because Sandiaojiao's rock layers extend deep into the sea, connecting to a large fault that trends southeast towards Okinawa. Furthermore, this is arguably the best location to view Guishan Island (Turtle Island). From afar, Guishan Island resembles a turtle quietly floating on the sea surface.