The Santiaojiao Lighthouse is an important landmark in the Pacific region and is known as the ‘eyes of Taiwan’. It was built in 1935. Inside the lighthouse, there is an exhibition room displaying equipment and information related to the lighthouse. It is a lighthouse open to the public for visiting.
According to historical records, in 1626 during the Tianqi reign of the Ming Dynasty, Spanish ships arrived at the sea area in the northeast corner of Taiwan from the Philippines. To facilitate recording in the navigation log due to the unknown place name, they named this place Santiago in Latin. This is the habit of Spaniards to start with ‘Saint’. It is an earlier record of the northeast corner of Taiwan by foreigners. In the early days, local ancestors translated this into the Minnan dialect as ‘Santiaojiao’. The nearby terrain is a cape in the northeast of Taiwan, so it naturally got the name ‘Santiaojiao’.
The Santiaojiao Lighthouse uses crystal glass specifically imported by the Japanese at that time as the material for the lamp bulb. It was also damaged by bombing during World War II. The scars can still be seen today and serve as a witness to history. It was not repaired until 1946. The tower is 16.5 meters high. It flashes white and red lights twice in succession every 28 seconds with a range of about 25 nautical miles.
