Nanfang'ao

Nanfang'ao is a working fishing port in a natural harbour, the centre of Taiwan's mackerel fishery, with the fish market running in the small hours and the quays lined with boats. Above the harbour sits Nantian Temple, whose Mazu images are extraordinary even by Taiwanese standards: one carved from a single block of jade and another covered in some two hundred kilograms of gold, both funded by the fishing community. A viewpoint on the hill looks down over the whole harbour.

What you actually see

• The fish market - the mackerel auction running in the early hours.
• The gold and jade Mazu - two remarkable images at Nantian Temple above the port.
• The working quays - boats, nets and ice loading through the day.
• The harbour viewpoint - the hill above with the whole port laid out below.

When to go

Year round; the fish market runs before dawn and is the reason to be up early. Mackerel season peaks in the summer months. Typhoons close the port periodically.

Honest expectations

The market is a working auction at three in the morning, not a display. The harbour is industrial and smells of it. The bridge that collapsed here in 2019 has been rebuilt and the area around it has changed.

Nearby

Su'ao cold springs are alongside, and the Suhua coast runs south.