Tag Archives: China

Reprint – Taiwan – Twelve Lighthouses to Brighten Up Visitors’ Travels From June 30

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I still do not know all, but on August 19, 2011 I wrote How many Countries in the World Have Manned Lighthouses? 

Today, June 07, 2012, I found an article that states that Taiwan has 34 lighthouses, and according to my friend Lighthouse Ghost, at least one of these is manned, Pengchia. Below is the article from the China Post, Taiwan edition:

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Penchia Islet lighthouse

TAIPEI–Twelve out of the 34 lighthouses in Taiwan and its outlying islands, including three known as the “Northern Taiwan Triangle,” will be opened for public visits on June 30, as the end of an era in lighthouse management draws to a close.

The Directorate General of Customs (DGOC), which is under the Ministry of Finance, supervises Taiwan’s border facilities and opens several lighthouses for public visits every year to mark Tax Day and introduce people to Taiwan’s lighthouse culture, said Hung Kuo-ching, head of the DGOC’s Department of Maritime Affairs.

This year will be a little different, however, because it will be the last time people can see the lighthouses carrying the DGOC sign, Hung said. Continue reading Reprint – Taiwan – Twelve Lighthouses to Brighten Up Visitors’ Travels From June 30 →

Reprint – NO, NOT Scarborough Fair but Scarborough Shoals.

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 On April 19, 2012 I wrote an article about using The Lighthouse as a Sovereignty Symbol to mark a nations claims to disputed lands. One of the disputed lands was the Scarborough Shoals of my new homeland of the Philippines, just off the central west coast  of the largest island Luzon where I am living.

The story below is from the military analysis blog by albert e. and gives a better perspective on the matter, plus a bit of historical information to clarify the whos and whys. A nice reference to a Tom Clancy novel as well.

Updates to this conflict are posted when available in the 

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sunday, july 15, 2012

Scarborough Fair?
This is coolbert:

NO, NOT Scarborough Fair but Scarborough Shoals.

Spratly Islands, South China Sea, and now Scarborough.

That latest incident involving “land” and territorial claims in the South China Sea, on this particular occasion just recently, Filipino and Chinese warships [patrol craft] facing off – – the punador [point of honor] being the Scarborough Shoals.

NOT even islands or a land mass but reefs and chunks and bits of rock only visible at low tide off the coast of Luzon, within the limits of what the Filipino claims as an Economic Exclusion Zone [EEZ] but is also claimed by China.

“on April 11, 2012, the Philippine navy stopped and boarded eight Chinese fishing vessels in the shoals. In order to demonstrate that the Chinese fishermen had not been innocently deep-sea fishing in the area, the navy took pictures of one of the crews standing on a pile of giant clams presumably taken from the shoal.”

Chinese fishing vessels confronted by the Philippine Navy, further confrontation occurring with the intervention of Chinese naval forces!!

“Scarborough Shoal or Scarborough Reef [more correctly described as a group of rocks or very small islands plus reefs in an atoll shape], rather than as a shoal, is located between the Macclesfield Bank and Luzon Island of the Philippines in the South China Sea” Continue reading Reprint – NO, NOT Scarborough Fair but Scarborough Shoals. →

The Lighthouse as a Sovereignty Symbol

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Philippine flag over Pantag Shoal

In the early days of exploration a flag of ownership was placed upon new-found-lands to claim ownership, even though on the other side of the island, or bay there may have been another flag from a different country.

One problem with a flag – it doesn’t last very long.

But build a lighthouse and claim ownership and that light is visible to all peoples for years into the future. Build it high enough and it is visible for 360 degrees. Put some men on it and it becomes your property. Hmmm!

A country's exclusive economic zone - Wiki

Right now in the news there are two island disputes in the South China Sea area that involve China and the Philippines – a stand-off over the Panatag Shoal (Huangyan Island; aka Scarborough Shoal) where China is contesting the Philippines’ internationally recognised exclusive economic zone, and China and Japan – an age-old dispute  surrounding the group of islands called Senkaku by the Japanese and Diaoyu by the Chinese.

Continue reading The Lighthouse as a Sovereignty Symbol →