Description:
Sitting at the southern tip of Taiwan on the Hengchun Peninsula, the small town of Ken-ting is in a beautiful area of tropical beaches, sheer sea cliffs, rugged mountains and exotic flora and fauna. It is surrounded by a National Park and is a wonderful area to visit.
Entrance Notes and Cautions:
This harbor has a potentially dangerous entrance between reefs. See recommendations from SV Katie Lee in comments (speech bubble icon) and their useful approach chart (pictured above). The route in blue is approximate. Local advice is to enter on course 350 magnetic, after passing the nuclear plant outflow. The smooth yellow track is the local ferry captured from AIS. SV Katie Lee's track is the furthest north yellow/orange and a little too close to the reef. The light blue/white is the Google Earth estimated ferry track which is across the reef.
Entry at night is not advisable as the channel is very narrow.
Position:
21° 56'59"N, 120° 46'38"E
Last updated: November 2022
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Some more feedback from Larry and Trinda Littlefield who have been in Ken-ting for almost a year:
The food is wonderful. The people are too.
There are many scooters for rent in Taiwan, especially tourist areas. But not so many cars. An international drivers license is required if above 50cc or not electric. Don’t bring your own scooter from a foreign country, importation is unbelievable. An older 110cc scooter could rent for 4000NT/mo or a new big 150cc for 9000NT/mo.
A 2-week driving tour circum-navigating Taiwan on a big scooter was wonderful. Google maps/translate made it possible. The people here are really friendly and helpful.
Houbihu Marina fees are 55NT/day water testing fee, plus 630NT/meter/month (45 feet=10268NT/mo). can be pro-rated by day, 2018.
An update on Taiwan, Kenting, Houbihu Marina and approach in 2017/2018.
Please note that Houbihu Marina near Kenting can be extremely tricky if you don’t know the port. There is a reef on the Southside that is very easy to go aground on and wreck your yacht. To enter the marina safely, one needs to sail pretty close to shore (but not too close as that side also has hazards).
Line up the Chinese temple, next to the National Park Office building, directly between the harbor entrance lights from approximately 1 mile out. Approximate way-points:
21 55.9197 N-120 45.0094 E, to 21 56.6121 N 120 44.7519 E.
We will try to create a waypoint to line up with the temple next time we are there.
In the meantime, try to follow a large boat that’s going in and have someone watching for rocks at your bow. I’d highly advise against trying to go in at night. Many boats have gotten caught on the reef there over the years. Be careful!
The ferry track on the Google Earth picture is too far NE. If you follow it you would hit the reef with less than 1-meter water.
The Coast Guard only answers CH-16 calls in Taiwanese. The requirement to notify them of your ETA and arrival ahead of time did not seem to be a problem. Do not stop at the security wharf on your starboard on entry, but make your way slowly to a slip ahead. They will come to you. They called Immigration for us, who came down from Kaohsuuing within 2 hours to check us in. They asked us to remain on the boat until Immigration came.
S/V Katie Lee – 6’6″ draft Passport 45 Ketch